Let The Recipes Begin!

[eustacetilley]

mrlynn wrote:
Interesting approach to supermarket ham, Eustace; we just baked a budget spiral-cut ham from Stop and Shop, and if you bake it long enough and slowly enough, it's not too bad.

But next maybe we'll try the apple juice. I will avoid anything that looks or smells like a clove, of course. I do like mustard on ham (and apples with it); any old mustard will do; we've got Grey Poupon in the 'fridge.

I think my aversion to cloves stems from young adventures in the dentist's chair. In those days clove oil was used as a pain killer. I expect it worked by numbing the nerves with its nasty emanations.

Now if you want real ham, head down to southern Virginia or North Carolina and have a slice of genuine country ham, the kind that comes in a tight cloth sack, along with biscuits and gravy for breakfast. Most northerners find it way too salty; like bitter beer, it's an acquired taste.

/Mr Lynn

I like what you said, and it bears some thinking.
Now about cloves... I too have a certain aversion to cloves. It comes up every time that I'm around some dimwit poseur who lights up a clove cigarette. I've had to put up with four decades of this.
Every spice has its time, and its place.
My aversion to cinnamon is due to its ubiquity; it's as if a conspiracy was formed a while back that concluded that this particular recipe needs some spice, and let's just use cinnamon. Everybody else uses cinnamon. And cinnamon is cheap.

Now let's get back to Ham. I ignored the presence of some really superb Southern hams, because I was on a delightful rant, and I felt that this particular subject should be dealt with elsewhere.
This is elsewhere.
Two years back, I was invited to a Thanksgiving dinner catered by Safeway. It was a sad occasion; the food could have only made it worse. But it didn't. There was a noname-brand Southern smoke-cured ham in the center, surrounded by the usual forgettable Safeway sides.
It was a really good ham, and so it was obviously a mistake.

Eustace