CBC Radio food columnist Cinda Chavich went sleuthing around the city in search of the best in cured pork for the Easter holiday dinner table - and learned alot about the world of cured pork.

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SO I GUESS WE SHOULD START WITH A DEFINITION OF HAM – WHAT IS HAM?

Technically, a ham is the cured leg of the pig. Ham is the most popular type of processed pork cut in the world. Every country has some kind of cured pork or ham product.

Basically, the pork is rubbed with salt and spices, brined in a salty/sweet liquid, then air dried or smoked and aged or cooked.

But all hams are not created equally.

Now there are all kinds of meats labeled “ham” in the supermarket, and you really can’t pick a ham without a program.

HOW IS A HAM CURED?

Well, there are two kinds of cured hams on the market today – wet cured and dry-cured.

Dry-cured hams are salted, hung and dried in a cool place for several months – until the meat is cured and preserved. A dry cured ham loses a lot of moisture, up to 25%, so it’s an expensive prodouct to make. They are not actually cooked but they don’t require cooking.

This is the kind of ham that is dense and quite salty, the kind that you would cut thinly and serve as an appetizer, not cook for Sunday dinner. This includes the classic Proscuitto hams of Italy or the Jamon, or Serrano hams or pata negra, from the Iberian black pigs of Spain, or the famous dry-cured Virginia or Smithfield hams from the States.

Often a dry-cured ham is called a “country ham.”

The kind of ham we associate with Easter dinner here in Canada is usually a wet cured and smoked ham, fully cooked by a hot smoking process. This wet cured style – sometimes called a “city ham” – is also the way an English Wiltshire ham or some French hams are made.

The brine is actually pumped into the meat to cure it – a mixture of salted and seasoned water that contains nitrite, to give the ham it’s pink colour, and phosphates that help the meat absorb moisture. Some are smokier than others, some are made by small butchers and smoked in their own smoke houses – but today most are created in fairly large packing plants. They’re much higher in moisture than dry-cured hams, actually higher in water than natural meat.

The phosphate is a binder that absorbs moisture – so the amount of water in a ham is directly related to the levels of sodium phosphate in the brine. Some of these commercially processed hams also have liquid smoke in the brine – because they’re cooked, not actually smoked.

Traditionally, hams were simply salt, seasoned and smoked over wood fires – with no phosphate– and you can still find these kinds of hams, but you’ll have to go to a smaller butcher. The old fashioned hams made by Valbella meats in Canmore, and also sold under the Sunterra label in Sunterra markets, have no phosphates, so are a denser, more natural ham with a lower water content.

SO WHAT DO YOU LOOK FOR IN A QUALITY HAM?

Most butchers will agree that a bone-in ham is the best tasting ham when you’re cooking it for a special dinner.

It’s a little more difficult to slice than a boneless ham, but the results are worthwhile.

The butt end is the meatier end of the leg. The shank end, is tapered, and looks most like a traditional ham, plus it gives you a good bone for soup..

I talked to several butchers in Calgary and Red Deer, meat processors who make hams and chefs and I didn’t find any of the country-style hams – the dry aged type – being made here.

But there are a lot of different types of ham products – in both quality and price.

SO WHAT KIND OF HAM DID YOU FIND?

Well, I bought four different hams, all available at the major supermarkets.

In fact, nearly all of the hams I found basically had the same ingredients on the label – whether they were bone-in whole hams (like the Harvest brand premium ham from a meat packer in Yorkton, Sask.) or the basic Burns dinner ham, a “restructured” or formed ham product.

The first ingredient should be ham, which means it has to be meat from the pork leg.

Second ingredient in most hams is water, then salt, sugar and things like sodium phosphate (a binder that absorbs moisture), sodium nitrite, sodium erythorbate, spice and smoke.

The nitrite is a chemical preservative that prevents botulism and also gives the ham its typical pink colour. It’s a controversial ingredient – some studies link consumption of nitrites and processed meats with colon and pancreatic cancers, but it is approved for use in cured meats and considered safe at regulated levels, which is no more than 200 parts per million. The levels of nitrites allowed in Europe are far lower than those allowed in North America - so if you’re concerned you should read labels carefully and only eat cured meats, like hams, sausages and hot dogs in moderation.

If you go to some of the smaller butchers, who smoke their own hams, you can find hams that are made without phosphates and other chemicals, but nitrites are pretty standard ingredients in most meat products.

Hams are usually injected with brine solutions, or tumbled in brine, in machines that tenderize them while incorporating the cure.

IS THERE A LARGE DIFFERENCE IN PRICE

There is a range in price so you need to do your math at the meat counter.

The old-fashioned hams make by small butchers are at the top of the price range, generally about $14-15 a kg or about $6.59 a pound, while most supermarket hams were between $3.50 and $5 a pound.

Ironically, the most expensive product I found at the supermarket was actually the lowest quality – a Burns ham nugget, the reformed, football-shaped ham, which was selling for $12 a kg or about $5.50 a pound.

The least expensive was a Ham Butt, shank end, from Harvest Meats in Yorkton, Sask., which I would personally consider the best quality product of the offerings.

This was a bone-in, ready to eat ham – the whole ham or what they call a  “whole muscle ham”.  A whole ham is large – 10-20 pounds – so they’re usually sold cut up – either a shank half or butt half, usually bone-in but sometimes boneless. It was the largest ham, so the most expensive in total price - the ham I bought was $22 and almost 6 pounds – but it was also the least expensive, at about $3.75 a pound.

I also bought two different boneless hams - a Schnieder’s old fashioned ham – for $9.90 a kg or $4.50 a pound, and the Burns Ham Nugget. The Schnieder’s ham was actually cheaper than the Burns ham but, according to the label, a superior product as it had a much higher percentage of “meat protein”, which is another indication of quality. I thought it also tasted better, and had a denser, more meat-like texture. But both or these boneless products were considerably saltier and sweeter than the whole ham.

I also bought a smoked pork shoulder, which is sometimes called a cottage roll or picnic. This not exactly a ham, but another cut, on the bone, and cured and smoked exactly the same way, for $1.69 a pound.  Which was by far the cheapest cured pork – but also contained a lot of fat and bone, so couldn’t be easily carved like the leg.

The thing I learned about buying ham was to look on the label for the  “percentage of meat protein” in these ham products – which is an indication of how much water has been added.

SO A HAM IS NOT ALL MEAT?

That’s right. These boneless, foot-ball type hams are usually what’s known as a boneless whole muscle ham or ham nugget – that is, they’re made of whole muscles, pressed together and netted before cooking. So they are mostly meat, water and spice.

Lesser hams – dinner hams, cooked ham or canned ham – are “restructured” or emulsion products, with more small bit of pork that are pressed or ground up and added to the mixture. Some have different fillers and binders, more like a sausage, and a lot more water.

You can tell in the flavour and texture of these “restructured” hams – they are saltier and have a softer, texture that’s distinctly different when compared with a full muscle leg roast.

You might think a ham is all meat – or 100% meat protein. But actually, hams are injected with a lot of water or brine, so even the best ham is only about 20% meat protein. It goes down from there.

The Valbella or Sunterra ham is the highest with  20-21% meat protein.

The whole Harvest ham I bought was 18.5% meat protein – which they call “ham and natural juices”, and which can weigh up to 8% more than uncured weight.

The Schneider’s Old Fashioned Boneless ham – the football kind to slice – was 17% meat protein – technically, this is what is called “ham with water added”.

The Smoked Pork Shoulder Picnic – a cured whole cut on the bone – was 16% meat protein.

And the Burns Ham Nugget, another of the boneless, “football” shaped hams, was 12% meat protein, which is called “ham and water products.”

WHAT’S THE BEST WAY TO COOK A HAM?

Technically, nearly all of the hams on the market are fully cooked so you could eat them right out of the package. But for Easter dinner, it’s nice to serve the ham hot.

If you happen to get your hands on a salted, aged and air-dried ham – like a classic Smithfield or Virginia ham – it will need to be soaked in water overnight before cooking to remove excess salt.

But most of the hams you will find in the supermarket here don’t need soaking, and can simply be roasted, on a rack, with a little bit of liquid in the pan for basting. Some chefs use water, others choose stock or beer, wine or apple juice or cider, and baste the ham occasionally as it cooks.

Some chefs cover their hams, others use an open roaster, it’s up to you.

You won’t find many recipes for baking a ham because there’s not much to it – just put it into the oven and bake for an hour or so, about 15-20 minutes per pound. When the internal temperature reaches 155F it’s ready to serve.

Ham is nice with a sweet and sour relish or sauce. Try a rhubarb and raisin chutney or a spicy pineapple or mango salsa.

WHAT ABOUT CARVING THE HAM – ISN’T THAT DIFFICULT?

Actually, it’s not difficult to carve a whole ham on the bone.

To carve a ham, with the bone facing away from you, make a vertical cut at the shank end, straight to the bone, then remove a wedge of meat, and cut slices at this angle. Release the slices by running the knife parallel to the bone. Or you can remove the entire meaty half of the roast in one piece, by cutting it along the bone, then slice it. Butt end is a little trickier to slice but it’s the same principal – slice down toward the bone, then cut along the bone to release the slices.

Some of the stores are now also offering a special spiral-cut ham – pre-sliced on the bone using a special machine in the plant – but I have read that this can dry out while cooking, so I’m going to stick with the carve-your-own version.

If you don’t want the hassle of cooking and carving your Easter ham, some butchers will do it for you. Fred Keller of Bon Ton Meats in Calgary charges an extra $25 to cook and carve a ham, and Sunterra Markets in Calgary and Edmonton are offering a special take-out Easter dinner over the holiday weekend, featuring their Sunterra Ham with a brown sugar and maple syrup glaze, scalloped potatoes and vegetables, even tomato bisque and spinach salad to start and fresh fruit flan for dessert. That’s $19.95 per person so you can have dinner for one or two, or order it family style for a group and just reheat it all at home.

WHAT ABOUT THOSE LEFTOVERS?

That’s another great thing about cooking a whole ham on the bone – you have lots of great cold ham for sandwiches and other dishes, and it freezes well.

Real ham makes a great ham and cheese sandwich, of course. It’s perfect for a quiche or frittata, and you can make dishes like fried rice, ham egg foo young or classic pasta dishes, with creamy sauces, chopped ham peas or asparagus.

And if you cook a ham on the bone there’s a bonus – ham bone stock to use in navy bean or split pea soup after Easter.

Just put the bone in a deep pot with a couple of carrots, a few stalks of celery and an onion, cover with water and simmer, uncovered for an hour or two to make a nice ham stock. Refrigerate overnight and skim any fat, then use as a base for bean and vegetable soups.

Or you can cook a couple of cups of split peas along with a ham bone for split pea soup – perfect for a chilly spring day.

I encourage you to get out there this Easter and bake a real ham on the bone. I’ve included the simple instructions for cooking ham, and a few neat glazes, made with things like mustard and apricot ham or brown sugar and Guinness, in the recipes on our website.

Try it – you’ll have leftovers for sandwiches and that yummy ham bone for soup next week!

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©Cinda Chavich 2007

www.tastereport.com