For most spiral ham fans, the glaze is essential.
April 10, 2019 10:33 AM   Subscribe

"In the 1930s, Harry J. Hoenselaar was just another ham salesman in Detroit trying to find an edge. He spent his days handing out samples of honey-glazed ham and teaching drugstore clerks how to slice it for sandwiches. Although he was a master at knifing ham from the bone, he knew there had to be a better way." The Sweet Success of the Spiral-Cut Ham
posted by everybody had matching towels (31 comments total) 12 users marked this as a favorite
 
This post, like most hams, is excellent.

I might have said all hams, except that I just learned about:

By the 1940s, sugar and ham were so intimately connected that an edition of “The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book” included a recipe for frosted ham in which cold boiled ham was coated in royal icing.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 10:51 AM on April 10, 2019 [10 favorites]


Considering Easter is coming up, we're about to get into the Great Ham Debate with the cousins again. They love a good country ham, with all the extra gobs of fat on it and tasting more salty and meaty. My immediate family prefers spiral-cut hams, which are basically pig candy that goes well with Delmonico potatoes. My cousin is hosting this year, so we'll probably just get our own small spiral-cut hams for the leftover sides she sends home with us.
posted by xingcat at 10:55 AM on April 10, 2019 [2 favorites]


I like this post a helluva lot more than any ham I've ever tasted. Seems like often the trick to edible ham is masking the ham flavour with smoke, sauce, sugar, salt, or just anything that isn't ham taste.

Although the marriage of ham and sugar goes back more than 100 years in America, trying to pinpoint its origins is a challenge that people who collect cookbooks were happy to take on for this article.

I'm curious what the recipes were like before someone figured out dumping various sugars on it made it palatable. Was it all plain nasty ham and cheese sandwiches for them or were they cubing it up to ruin salads, omelettes and waffles?
posted by GoblinHoney at 10:58 AM on April 10, 2019 [5 favorites]


I'm just the opposite - sugary ham doesn't tempt me, and non-glazed ham is absolutely delicious. Tomayto tomahto.

ham is also good with tomato
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:07 AM on April 10, 2019 [10 favorites]


I didn't know how little I knew about ham before I read this and I'm still a little confused about the various types but I don't really care for ham so that's probably part of it. The jazz/pop comparison confused me more. This article was fantastic though especially stuff like this which ensures I'm reading further:

With a tire jack, a pie tin, a washing machine motor and a knife, he fashioned the world’s first spiral ham slicer

The idea [...] came to Harry Hoenselaar in a dream.

posted by Clinging to the Wreckage at 11:17 AM on April 10, 2019 [3 favorites]


By the 1940s, sugar and ham were so intimately connected that an edition of “The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book” included a recipe for frosted ham in which cold boiled ham was coated in royal icing.

If you are into this sort of thing (reading about it, I mean, but also maybe eating it), culinary historian Laura Shapiro has written a bunch of fascinating books on turn-of- to mid-century American cooking (she is, logically, quoted in the article in the paragraph immediately following the one Bugaroktonos mentioned).
posted by everybody had matching towels at 11:20 AM on April 10, 2019 [3 favorites]


The scandal that I won't drop is the vanishing of the unsliced Cure 81 from grocery srore shelves.
Do milennials not have knives?
posted by thelonius at 11:35 AM on April 10, 2019 [2 favorites]


I got to help a friend and his dad smoke some steelhead one time, with alder, if I remember right. No sugar was involved, but the fish ended up tasting like the most delicious ham.
posted by Bee'sWing at 11:40 AM on April 10, 2019


Great post!

Coming by it honestly, having descended from a long line of pig eaters, I like ham a fair bit. I used to write poems about ham in high school until my teacher told me to cut it out. But sadly I've come to compare all ham to the baked ham of my childhood and all contemporary ham has been found wanting. That ideal ham was my great grandmother's baked ham baked with maple sap (not maple syrup) from her trees... I dream about that ham more then it is acceptable to admit in mixed company.
posted by Ashwagandha at 11:50 AM on April 10, 2019 [8 favorites]


YES...THE SPIRAL...NATURE'S PERFECT SHAPE

sorry, I finally started reading Uzumaki this week
posted by prize bull octorok at 11:53 AM on April 10, 2019 [7 favorites]


Do milennials not have knives?

Yes, but they've got avocado all over them.
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:07 PM on April 10, 2019 [10 favorites]


just another ham salesman in Detroit trying to find an edge

Get Journey on the phone ASAP.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 12:18 PM on April 10, 2019 [23 favorites]


Steamed Hams but they're spiral-cut

SKINNER: Oh ye gods! My prosciutto is rotten!

But what if... I were to purchase cold cuts and disguise it as my own curing? Ho ho ho! Delightfully devilish, Seymour!
posted by J.K. Seazer at 12:47 PM on April 10, 2019 [2 favorites]


To me, ham is often too salty. I always wondered what it'd be like to just roast a fresh ham instead of curing it. You can look up a recipe for roasted fresh ham, and in the pictures, it looks delicious, but the only ham I've ever seen was cured. I wouldn't know where to get a fresh ham, though I don't imagine it would be too difficult.
posted by smcameron at 12:51 PM on April 10, 2019


I'd guess that roasted uncured ham would taste more or less like any other roast pork, though maybe a bit tenderer.
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:35 PM on April 10, 2019 [1 favorite]


After Googling a bit, I found out that fresh ham is leaner than the typical pork roast cut, so you don't cook it as long. #TIL
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:42 PM on April 10, 2019 [1 favorite]


Did I say... hammm?

Repeat my mantra: hammmmm....
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 1:43 PM on April 10, 2019 [4 favorites]


Yeah, without curing the ham, it becomes roast pork at that point. Still mighty tasty but no longer a ham. Just like pork belly without cure is just pork belly, but cured becomes bacon. The cure not only adds the ham/bacon flavor but also interacts with the meat to give that reddish-pink color.
posted by ensign_ricky at 2:35 PM on April 10, 2019 [1 favorite]


I enjoyed that article- I now want to blowtorch a ham. Ashwaganda, perhaps you would enjoy some poems by Roy Blount Jr.....
posted by acrasis at 3:38 PM on April 10, 2019 [1 favorite]


The NYTs also has a good article on horseradish today.
posted by acrasis at 3:40 PM on April 10, 2019 [2 favorites]


Hey, acrasis, do you happen to have one of those recipe accounts for that site? I'd love to pass the steps along to a family member (I know the article says equal amounts vinegar and water, but how much?), and I don't feel like making an account just for that.
posted by sardonyx at 3:45 PM on April 10, 2019


Spiral-sliced ham is to me one of those apex American things, way above motherhood and apple pie.
posted by GuyZero at 3:59 PM on April 10, 2019 [2 favorites]




Hi! I photographed these hams for this story. You may have a few questions, which I have tried to anticipate and answer below.

Q: Was the ham delicious?
A: Yes, yes it was.

Q: Did you want to take the blowtorch and pretend it was Drogon and you were the Mother of Dragons?
A: So badly.
posted by TheGoldenOne at 4:18 PM on April 10, 2019 [29 favorites]


Spiral sliced ham is good, don’t get me wrong - but there’s nothing like slicing the ham yourself.
posted by Big Al 8000 at 6:35 PM on April 10, 2019


I'm with team savory; the sweet hams are almost always much too sweet for my taste.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:57 PM on April 10, 2019 [1 favorite]


I worked at a Honey Baked in college, so I can tell you that the drips of caramelized sugar, spice, and ham fat that form on the stand the hams are glazed on are DELICIOUS.
posted by cali at 8:01 PM on April 10, 2019 [4 favorites]


I once roasted a bone-in ham as part of a giant New Year's dinner party. What I remember about it best was that afterwards when I was putting away the remains, I discovered that the marrow in the bone was pure essence of flavor. I just stood there picking it out and making small sounds of ecstasy.
posted by tavella at 8:16 AM on April 11, 2019 [2 favorites]


I'd really like to try country ham. In fact, I did once. I had some extra money, spent nearly $100 on a ham, because apparently you can't buy country ham in anything less than super giant and very expensive varieties, and followed Alton Brown's method for soaking and rehydrating it.

And it molded and turned ucky and rotten. $100 right out the airlock.

I've never been in a situation since where I had the money and the willingness to try.

City hams though, those are delicious.
posted by sotonohito at 12:04 PM on April 11, 2019 [1 favorite]


apparently you can't buy country ham in anything less than super giant and very expensive varieties

You can buy it sliced and vacuum packed, a few ounces at a time. It’s shelf-stable (no need to refrigerate). You’ll still want to soak it briefly before cooking to reduce the salt a bit, but not so long it gets bland. Try this if you’re not in a country ham eating region.
posted by musicinmybrain at 6:44 AM on April 12, 2019 [1 favorite]


I'm on a vegetarian sabbatical right now, but even when I was more strictly adherent, ham was one of my weaknesses. Salty, sweet, thin deli slices, thick ham steaks, whatever. I love ham. Also, ham is such a fun and jovial word.
posted by Fig at 6:45 AM on April 13, 2019 [1 favorite]


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