Rebecca Riegel age 12, of Monroe, La. for her question:
HOW ARE HAMS CURED?
Hams sold in stores marked "ready to eat" are usually smoked and cured. Cured hams are made by adding salt and other materials known as curing agents to the meat. The materials are made into a liquid mixture called pickle. The pickle is injected into the hams arteries and veins in a process called vascular pumping.
After the injection, the ham is soaked in the pickle. When the ham is removed from the pickle, the salt is washed off and the cured ham is ready to be smoked or baked. Cured hams may be smoked over hardwood fires, or steam heat may be used.
Most of the cured and smoked hams have been smoked for about a day. Hams are smoked mainly to keep them from spoiling too quickly.
Ham is the section of a hog's hind leg that extends from the knee to the hip. Ham contains food elements that are needed by the human body, although these elements can be obtained from other foods.
A four ounce piece of cooked boneless ham has about three fourths of an ounce of protein and 461 calories. Ham also contains such vitamins as thiamine, riboflavin and niacin.
Ham is usually cured and smoked to give it flavor and color and to make it safe to keep a while before eating. But the stores sometimes sell ham that has not been cured and smoked.
Hams that are cured but not smoked include the imported Polish, Dutch and Danish hams.
The major types of ham sold in markets are skinned and regular. A skinned ham has had moat of its akin and fat trimmed off. A regular ham still has its skin.
A ham may be either long cut or short cut. A long cut ham includes all the hog's hip and a long section of the shank, which is that part of the hog's leg above the knee. The short cut ham is the one more commonly sold in stores. It has only the hip and a small section of the shank. It is the more popular type, because almost all of the it can be eaten.
Stores sell hams by the half, or by parts called the butt, the center and the shank.
The butt consists of the end of the ham that contains part of the hip. It has much meat and is good for baking. The center part is all meat except for a small leg bone. It may be baked or sliced for frying or broiling. The shank has more bone and is often used to flavor soups, beans or cabbage.
Boneless ham has become an important cured pork product. A boneless smoked ham is made by removing the bones and fat from a cured ham. The meat is rolled and tied together before it is smoked.
This type of ham is popular because it is easy to carve and has little waste. Boneless hams are often sold in cans.
Picnic ham is a type of meat called ham, but it actually comes from the shoulder of a hog.