Country Cooking Month on June, 2025: Cottage ham?

June, 2025 is Country Cooking Month 2025. Country Cooking Month-No Excuses Needed June is Country Cooking Month! If it's fried, buttered, blackened or some

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Country Cooking Month

If you love traditional home food preparation, Country Cooking Month is the ideal month to try something new. This special month was created to promote simple, healthy and balanced home cooked dishes. You could even attempt growing some herbs or vegetables in your own yard then using them in a dish. It's a quite satisfying experience, and the meals is a lot more delicious when it's something you have actually increased yourself.

For Country Cooking Month, why not attempt cooking something from the ground up everyday? It could be a full meal or something basic like cookies with the youngsters. Attempt to utilize new procedures, like making bread by hand as opposed to in a machine, to actually experience typical designs of cooking for on your own, and try out some new dishes. A great idea for kids is to ask older family members for treasure dishes and have a go at making them themselves.

Cottage ham?

Country Ham

1 country (dry cured) ham

1 liter Dr. Pepper

1 cup sweet pickle juice, optional

Unwrap ham and scrub off any surface mold (if you hung in a sack for 6 months you'd have mold too). Carefully remove hock with hand saw. (If this idea makes you eye your first aid kit, ask your butcher to do it. But make sure you keep the hock, it's the best friend collard greens ever had.)

Place ham in cooler and cover with clean water. (As long as it's not too dirty you can use what southerners call the "hose pipe"). Stash the cooler in the bushes. If it's summer, throw in some ice. If it's freezing out, keep the cooler inside. Change the water twice a day for two days turning the ham each time.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Place ham in a large disposable turkey-roasting pan and add enough Dr. Pepper to come about halfway up the side of the ham. Add pickle juice if you've got it and tent completely with heavy-duty foil. Cook for 1/2 hour then reduce heat to 325 degrees F, and cook another 1 1/2 hours.

Turn the ham over, insert an oven safe thermometer (probe-style is best) and cook another 1 1/2 hours, or until the deepest part of the ham hits 140 degrees F (approximately 15 to 20 minutes per pound total).

Let rest 1/2 hour then slice paper-thin. Serve with biscuits or soft yeast rolls.

Cooks note: Even after soaking, country ham is quite salty, so thin slicing is mandatory. If you're a bacon fan, however, cut a thicker (1/4-inch) slice and fry it up for breakfast.

City Ham

1 city style (brined) ham, hock end*

1/4 cup brown mustard

2 cups dark brown sugar

1-ounce bourbon (poured into a spritz bottle)

2 cups crushed ginger snap cookies

Heat oven to 250 degrees F.

Remove ham from bag, rinse and drain thoroughly. Place ham, cut side down, in a roasting pan. Using a small paring knife or clean utility knife set to the smallest blade setting, score the ham from bottom to top, spiraling clockwise as you cut. (If you're using a paring knife, be careful to only cut through the skin and first few layers of fat). Rotate the ham after each cut so that the scores are no more than 2-inches across. Once you've made it all the way around, move the knife to the other hand and repeat, spiraling counter clockwise. The aim is to create a diamond pattern all over the ham. (Don't worry too much about precision here.)

Tent the ham with heavy duty foil, insert a thermometer, and cook for 3 to 4 hours or until the internal temperature at the deepest part of the meat registers 130 degrees F.

Remove and use tongs to pull away the diamonds of skin and any sheets of fat that come off with them.

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.

Dab dry with paper towels, then brush on a liberal coat of mustard, using either a basting brush or a clean paint brush (clean as in never-touched paint). Sprinkle on brown sugar, packing loosely as you go until the ham is coated. Spritz this layer lightly with bourbon, then loosely pack on as much of the crushed cookies as you can.

Insert the thermometer (don't use the old hole) and return to the oven (uncovered). Cook until interior temperature reaches 140 degrees F, approximately 1 hour.

Let the roast rest for 1/2 hour before carving.

*Cook's note: A city ham is basically any brined ham that's packed in a plastic bag, held in a refrigerated case and marked "ready to cook", "partially cooked" or "ready to serve". Better city hams are also labeled "ham in natural juices".

hope these help. good luck and enjoy.

Can’t find a country ham! Are they called something else?

Can't find a country ham! Are they called something else?

Country ham is a type of cured ham and it's usually very salty. It is salt-cured for a couple of months using hickory or red oak (or another wood), then aged for several months or years, depending how much fat it contains.

Country ham is preserved by the curing but not fully cooked. Not all of them are smoked either. Smoked hams are redder than unsmoked ones. Country ham is baked whole, simmered for several hours, or sliced and pan-fried. You can eat the crust or discard it.

If you can't find country ham, look out for a cured ham. It's known as Virginia ham in VA (or Smithfield ham) in some places.

What should I feed my 4 month german shepherd?

What should I feed my 4 month german shepherd?

I make my dogs a home cooked *Stew* is what I call it. I start w/ boneless chicken breast or ground turkey, chicken, lamb, beef, etc...I use different meats that are on sale to switch it up so they don't get bored. Then I add all kinds of vegetables, my dogs are not picky they love them all, never use onions though. I also add one of the following, barley, brown or white rice, oatmeal, millet, whole wheat pasta, and let it all cook together in a big stew pot. When it is almost done, I will bring the stew to a boil, then crack a dozen eggs on top, cover pot, turn heat off and let it sit. Dogs love this! I use fresh parsley (high in vit. C)small amounts of Soy sauce, sea salt & garlic powder for seasoning.

In winter, I will make a ground turkey meatloaf, using ground turkey, grated carrots & zucchini, eggs, oatmeal, garlic powder, fresh parsley, mix together as you would for your family meatloaf and bake the same..big hit w/ the dogs. My dogs also love cooked oatmeal w/ fresh apples (no cores or seeds), cinnamon, and a dollop of plain yogurt for breakfast. They eat lots of fruits and veggies cooked and raw. My dogs are healthy & happy and our vet is well aware that they eat home cooked foods, she even cooks for her dogs now, also.

We have Saint Bernard's so they do get a premium kibble along w/ the home cooked. Nutrisource Chicken/Rice large breed, it is a very good brand, that I trust, small family run business, no grains from other countries or roadkill....... I hope this helps you, I'm in a hurry, need to rush out of the house, but if I can help you further, please e~mail me, I would love to share other ideas w/ you! My dogs have NEVER been healthier!! Take Care........ veraahlborn@ymail.com

Also on this date Sunday, June 1, 2025...