This post is for all the ham loving cats, like myself.
According to the wikipedia, ham is the thigh or buttock of a slaughtered animal but is the term is typically used for pork.
A ham can either be dry cured or wet cured. City hams are typically wet cured for rapid aging, so they become the ham that we love so much quicker. Wet cured ham examples are the English Wilshire Ham and a dry cured ham is proscuitto.
The United States has the country ham or the Virginia ham. England has the York ham. Belgium has Ardennes ham. China has the jinhua ham (which is not cured). Germany has Westphalen ham. France has the Bayonne ham.
In the United States, injecting smoked flavor is not legal grounds for calling a ham smoked.
Fresh ham is the hind leg of a hog.
About.com has some nice links to brining a ham, and choosing and preparing a good cured country ham. They also have directions for smoking a ham.
Personally, I think the most important things to note are:
- ham fulfills our need for protein
- ham tastes good.
- ham is fit for human consumption as well
- ham is freely available in the country I reside.
- I ought to have more ham.
Anyone got anything else?
Ham is good for a human’s sanity. Imagine my sister Grr and my brother Cocoa are running around like maniacs pouncing and whapping each other, like they were doing a few minutes ago. The Lady is trying to concentrate on something and they’re driving her insane. BUT…if she breaks out the ham, problem solved. Everybody is happy. Yes, ham brings peace and harmony where chaos once was.
Midnight
we luvs hams. We luvs the Wilshire ham mum buys in the peeple’s food place, but the bestest ham is what our mum cooks herself, an then we get it in big chunks instead of slices. Yummy.
I love ham!!! As soon as I hear the cellophane crinkling I know it’s ham and that I will be getting some. Willow is not as interested as I am so I sometimes eat hers if she isn’t fast enough. Luckily she doesn’t really care.
China Cat
I’ve never had ham. I think that is because Meowmy does not like it. It sounds really tasty though!!!
Ham is good for my sanity. When HAM visits, I am calm and nice and snuggly and sometimes playful. When HAM doesn’t visit in a while, I get sad and moody and I yowl in front of the cold box. Then I get the crazies and bite Sammy. So, ham is good for Sammy too.
Thank you Grr, Midnight and Cocoa for that update on the healing and calming effects of ham.
Miles thank you also for suggesting that ham has an even stronger calming effect than we might have thought.
Hammy Holidays to all.
I feel very much like I have been deprived and neglected.
I have never had ham.
Ham. I am in favor of it. Thank you for all the ham info I can use to get more of it!