Tennessee Cured Ham

In many ways living green simply means revisiting simpler times and smoke-cured country hams have been a tasty tradition in Tennessee since pioneer days.

Long known as Mt. Juliets "ham man," Ed Rice of Rice's Country Hams is now passing this old fashioned method for curing meats down to son-in-law, Scott. Every January this family business begins hanging hams in preparation for the next holiday season, preserving tradition and full country flavor all along the way.

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[LiveGreenTN]

You can contact Rice Country Hams and ask them how to do this.

12217 Lebanon Road

Mount Juliet, TN 37122-2518

(615) 758-2362

[LiveGreenTN]

That's a bold comment - how do you know burying a shank of ham on the beach wouldn't salt cure it? It is a possibility. Stranger things have happened

[mobiussquadron]

@LiveGreenTN Mmm if that was the case whale carcasses floating in the ocean would be salt cured, instead of rotting away. The salt concentrations in natural salt water are not high enough to cure meat, with the dead sea possibly being an exception. Not to mention the fact that under the sand where the tide is, there are tons of micro organisms that are adapted to the relatively high salt content. In other words the salt does nothing to repel them, so they are free to contaminate the meat.

[kern0099]

When he thick cuts it on the band saw like that, how exactly do you prepare it? Ham steaks w/ red eye gravy and the like are usually wet/brine cured, no? Is it a bake? I bet it tastes like heaven.

[slayershayne]

@LiveGreenTN dude it has to be cold

[JimmyV2009]

@BOOSHBOYDOM you are not wrong there! The ham here in the UK is crappy re-formed garbage packaged in pretty packaging. Gonna start curing my own hams

[rambosserman]

How do you store this ham if we have no power, how do you keep the skipper flys off, can some one out there tell me this, and how do you salt cure a venision hindquarter?

[Spanishfutbol2010]

@BOOSHBOYDOM shouldn't it be easier for you guys to get jamon iberico de bellota since you're a part of the EU? I've never been to England but everytime I order a ham online, I notice it's FAR MORE easier for a EU country to get a jamon compared to let's say...the US?

[Spanishfutbol2010]

@bottomlands agreed, Europeans have been salt curing meat for generations prior to the discovery of the New World. Us Spaniards have been salt curing our hams in mountains since the time of the Romans.

[bottomlands]

The story about the pilgrims is total BS, burying meat on the beach WOULD NOT salt cure it. Besides, people have used salt to preserve meat for thousands of years.