Boiled bone-in ham - so good and cheap

[tmm99]

OK, this is not related to anything particularly to early retirement, but I just wanted to share this with you all!

Someone told me boneless ham doesn't taste the same as bone-in ham, so I recently purchased a half ham (bone-in butt portion) and simmered in a huge pot of water with onions and celery for 1.5 hours.

After 1.5 hours, I took out the ham and sliced all of it. I must tell you... I couldn't believe how good it was. I usually don't like much ham since it is usually too salty for me. I buy deli sliced forest ham at a local deli and that is not that great either. I have eaten ham dinners where ham is roasted in the oven with pineapple and what not, but that is too salty too.

This boiling method made the best ham ever... 10 times better than the ham they slice for you at a deli, in my opinion.

And I realized it is actually so much cheaper than say buying deli slices. I bought Cook's brand at a local Lucky's and paid $10 for it .. I didn't check how much it weighed, but it was lots of ham. (put the left over slices in freezer bags to freeze.) The next day, I cooked the ham bone with some chicken bones and made some broth for soups.

If you have given up on ham, try this method. It changed my mind about ham in a big way! I would never go back to packaged sliced ham or deli slices.

tmm

P.S. Don't get the spiral sliced kind... I think all the flavor would be taken out in the water.

 

[clifp]

I've never cooked partly ham because all of the ham I've had recently has been the boneless variety and the taste just didn't do much for me.

I remember loving ham as kid that Mom and Grandma made I bet it was cooked the old fashion way. I'll try it someday.

 

[73ss454]

We use honey baked hams for holidays mostly. This year for the first time they offered a boneless ham which was more money. We went in to buy the bone in but the boneless was on sale so we tried it. Just as good as the bone in and we will get it again.

 

[ziggy29]

OK, this is not related to anything particularly to early retirement, but I just wanted to share this with you all!

Well, if it means saving more money to put toward your FIRE goal, it kind of is related...

 

[Moemg]

I also buy the Honey Baked Hams for entertaining and they are always great .Not a LBYM item but hassle free and worth every cent .

 

[mickeyd]

The place that I used to w**k at had an annual holiday feed for employees around Christmas time. They always had 3-4 Honey Baked hams as part of the buffet. I always rounded up the ham bones after the shindig was over and DW used them to cook up some wonderful concoctions, usually related to beans and rice. She would freeze all but one of the ham bones and would pull them out of the freezer throughout the year to use them in a recipe.

That's one of the few things that I miss about w**king at that place.

 

[jazz4cash]

I never knew the difference between ham and shoulder, but just found out when I was a kid we always had shoulder, not ham due to shoulder being much cheaper to buy. It was cooked as you describe and next time I go shopping I will try your "recipe".

I was at an upscale steakhouse awhile back and they featured "bone-in" filet. It was delicious and someone commented that the meat cooked with the bone is always more flavorful which I never really thought about before.

 

[haha]

I was at an upscale steakhouse awhile back and they featured "bone-in" filet. It was delicious and someone commented that the meat cooked with the bone is always more flavorful which I never really thought about before.

I'd like to know what that was. A porterhouse is kind of a bone-in steak composed of two filets (top loin and tenderloin) left intact on the vertebral column and sliced at right angles to the spine, at which time you have steaks, not filets. A filet is by definition boneless.

Google: fillet: a boneless steak cut from the tenderloin of beef

In America the only common beef filet is filet mignon. It is the tenderloin, stripped from the underside of the animal's backbone, then if you want steaks you slice it across. There are other steaks mostly marketed regionally which are in fact filets, though not usually advertised as such. One is the "flatiron steak", which is a filet stripped from the animals scapula.

Same with fish- although a filet may have some stray bones, it has no backbone. Steaks are cut across the fish and hence contain the backbone.

I agree with you that fish or meat, bone in is in general much richer tasting.

Ha

 

[SteveL]

If you are on a sodium-restricted diet, it doesn't matter if you boil it, bake it, fry it, or burn it, ham will still have too much sodium.

 

[Bestwifeever]

I'd like to know what that was. A porterhouse is kind of a bone-in steak composed of two filets (top loin and tenderloin) left intact on the vertebral column and sliced at right angles to the spine, at which time you have steaks, not filets. A filet is by definition boneless.

Google: fillet: a boneless steak cut from the tenderloin of beef

In America the only common beef filet is filet mignon. It is the tenderloin, stripped from the underside of the animal's backbone, then if you want steaks you slice it across. There are other steaks mostly marketed regionally which are in fact filets, though not usually advertised as such. One is the "flatiron steak", which is a filet stripped from the animals scapula.

Same with fish- although a filet may have some stray bones, it has no backbone. Steaks are cut across the fish and hence contain the backbone.

I agree with you that fish or meat, bone in is in general much richer tasting.

Ha

I used to buy pork chops that were labeled "semi-boneless." I never understood what that meant.

 

[ziggy29]

I used to buy pork chops that were labeled "semi-boneless." I never understood what that meant.

Me neither. Sounds like being "semi-pregnant."

 

[mickeyd]

"semi-boneless."

Probably simular to "semi-boned", but that's just my guess.

 

[ERD50]

I used to buy pork chops that were labeled "semi-boneless." I never understood what that meant.

It sounds better than "semi-meatless"?

partly cloudy - partly sunny?

Half full - half empty?

-ERD50

 

[VaCollector]

Probably simular to "semi-boned", but that's just my guess.

I'm just guessing....but that "could" be what caused the aforementioned "semi-pregnant" state......