Whats the difference between a fresh ham, a cured ham, and a pre-cooked ham?
A ham is a piece of pork that comes from the rear leg of a pig. A fresh ham is one that hasn’t been cured or smoked. This means it is raw pork that must be completely cooked, which depending on the size of the ham, can take about 5 hours. What most of us know as ham — whether it’s the sliced boiled ham in a deli sandwich or the large piece of meat studded with cloves and covered with rings of pineapple — is cured or smoked pork. The curing or smoking process is what gives ham its salty, smoky and distinctive taste. A pre-cooked ham is just as the name suggests. It has been completely cooked either by baking, curing or smoking and in the hands of the home cook, simply has to be re-heated to an appetizing serving temperature so that its flavor is at its best. A ham may be the whole leg or half but what most of us think of as a baked ham is almost always a half leg, a piece of meat that weighs about 9 pounds.
