Hams which are Cooked

Bradenham ham, a delicate English ham, lengthily cured in molasses with juniper berries and spices to give a sweet flavour and a perfectly black outside. This ham was cured, predominantly in N. Wiltshire, according to an 18th-century recipe, named perhaps after the first Lord Bradenham.

Braunschweiger Schinken (Brunswick ham), a mild German ham.

Jambon, the French word for ham, which gives jambon de campagne (‘of the country’), a general French name for minor local hams of various types.

Jambon de Paris (also jambon glacé or jambon blanc), a lightly salted, unsmoked French ham, which is presented in various forms (of which the officially approved one is parallelepipedic, neither rolled nor on the bone). It has a very mild flavour, and is usually bought sliced and eaten cold. (Note: a jambonneau is a pig’s forehock, cured by a method similar to ham.)

Jambon de Vendée, called ‘bacon’ in medieval times, a boneless ham dry salted with sea salt, slightly dried, flavoured with eau de vie (of pear or plum) and aromatics such as rosemary, sold raw and ready to be cooked. Among the best of its class.

Jinhua ham, made in the Zhejiang province of China from the Jinhua breed of pig. It has a rosy colour.

Country-style or country-cured hams are those American hams from Kentucky, Virginia, Georgia, and Tennessee which are generally dry cured, smoked, and aged. They may well be smoked over hickory or apple wood, or even, sometimes, corn husks. The best American critics find it difficult to identify regional variations (Behr, 1992), but the most celebrated are from Virginia, more specifically, Smithfield, a small town on the James River estuary. Formerly, Smithfield hogs were fattened on peanuts. The long-hock hams are dry salted for up to 50 days, cold smoked, rubbed with pepper to protect any exposed flesh, and aged for up to a year. They may be eaten raw, but the majority are cooked before eating.

Pragerschinken, meaning Prague ham, which comes from the Czech Republic. It is given a long brine cure, smoked with beech wood, and well aged. It is usually cooked and served hot.

York ham, the name of a curing method which gives a superior product suitable for cooking and eating cold. It is dry salted and smoked (lightly or heavily), and then matured for several months. The flavour is mild and the colour light. ‘York hams’ are made in countries other than England, not always as well as the original.

Yunnan ham, the finest of Chinese hams, is made by a supposedly secret process, but is similar to a Virginia ham in its relative leanness.