Kentucky Ham

Mabel Martin Wyrick and her husband Kentucky Ham by Mabel Martin Wyrick For more than forty years of my life I have averaged cooking from eight to ten whole hams each winter and spring. I never cared for the aged ham so always tried to use up all we had before hot weather and invading insects set in. ThereisanarttocookingKentuckyham. First you must get your ham! And'this is a most important step. The second most important thing is to have a sharp butcher knife andknowhow to use it. I tellpeople that, unlike royalty and some rich people who're said to be bom with silver spoons in their mouths, I was bom under what is now Laurel Lake with a butcher knife in my hand! My husband, Lohren Martin, Sr., used to order Red Duroc hogs by mail. We thought themthe best breed ofall, andyou can't find them in just any old place. He would purchase a couple of sows and a couple of males from a reliable breeder 35 and the choice pigs from these thoroughbreds were saved for our own use and the others might be sold or traded. The males were used to service sows up and down Muddy Gut Creek until they either got too old or too large to service the smaller sows. Red Durocs have more fat than some breeds and this makes the tastiest meat in the world. They can hardly be found anymore, because people are limiting fatintheir diets and looking for leaner meat all the time. But for me, I've kept a place in my heart (and pocketbook) for home-butchered pork from a farm in Clay County, Kentucky, although the pigs are no longer Red Durocs but mixed breeds— with enough of the Red Duroc strain in them to enhance the flavor of the meat. Select your piglets when they are about six weeks old and feed them with slop made from table scraps until they are at least one year of age. This is the way we always didit; now the Health Department won t allow pigs to be fed table scraps. I remember how my grandfather, Speed Nicholson Williams,Dutcheredpork, beef, lamb, poultry, and a bear he captured once in a while, and all of this meat, tame and wild, was peddled out to Corbin, Lily, and London, Kentucky,residentsforyears. In London, he peddled the meat near where the courthouse stood in its majesty, and judges were fed ham from Papaw's meat cellar. There was no inspection needed, exceptby feel and smell, andthe taste after the meat was cooked. It took me years to learn to iudge the mold on a ham. A good ham like a good cheese will have a thin mold, will be dry and speckled grey on the outside—in fact, if the color were different, the speckles would look like freckles on a youngster's cheeks! I remember reading of the Civil War and how the soldiers had to eat moldy meat and I didn't feel too sorry for them—especially if they were eating moldy ham! The perfect ham to me is one from a hog not overly fat, but one which has grown quickly with no stunting , and has been bred with taste in mind. The fat is mostly trimmed away in any case. The butchering process is very important to the ultimate taste ofthe meat. Let's say you've raised the sow and killed her. A couple of strong men will be needed to lift her up, slit the tendons in the hind legs near the hooves so the stretcher can be inserted to hold her weight when she is hung up. Her throat is quickly slit, and blood spurtsoutuponthewide sandyroad. ( A road is a good place forthe scraping— which comes later in the process). It must be a cold day, of course, so the meat will chill quickly. After the bleeding stops, hot water, which has been boiled in a big barrel or washtub is dipped up and carefullypouredoverthedying sow. Shefeels nopam now, forthe shotwas so quick and she hardly shivered until she lay motionless . (By the way, you should plant a walnut tree...