wooo pig Sooeee!
Mom and Dad Holland are coming up for Easter this weekend. In celebration of our newly sprouting Virginia roots, we'll be taking a turn at preparing a country ham for dinner which is a first for me.


Smithfield - a Virginia tradition


14+ lbs, cured, peppered and smoked. Some small bit of mold on the areas not covered with skin. The smell is strongly of smoke and pepper. I scrubbed the entire outside under running water to remove the mold and any surface residue. This picture is right out of the bag, prior to the scrubbing.


After fretting about not having a food safe 5-lb bucket to soak the ham in, finding Alton Brown's suggestion of using a cooler was a welcome piece of advice. It's Wednesday night now and this will come out to cook on Saturday night, so it'll soak for roughly 36 hours. I plan to completely change the water twice a day.