For people who seek out good bread, flavourful tomatoes, creamy milk and other food beyond the commercial pap, finding a good ham at Christmas is a priority. Like almost all good food, a good ham is one made by a person rather than a machine and, above all, produced by a person who cares about the result. Those who care the most produce the best result.
The people who care the most about the hams they produce are butchers in their own shops. If you're not fussed about that save yourself more than a few dollars and pick a ham from a supermarket's cold display.
In my column today I write about the old way of producing hams, and the principal difference between the old and the new is the way the cure is pumped into the leg. The new system injects the cure using a single needle with holes along its length or a press with many needles, and mass-produced hams use the multi-needle machine. A common problem with such hams is that the cure does not reach the meat closest to the bone and so the ham is likely to go off quickly.
It must be said that butchers who inject their hams the new way can produce good ham, and it may be that caring about the result is more important than the process.
The old method pumps the cure under pressure through the ingoing artery at the top end of the leg and the cure is distributed by the network of veins to all parts of the leg, including the meat near the bone.
I know two butcher shops that vein pump their hams, Sellers Quality Meats at Stockton (4928 1506) and Dunns Butchers at New Lambton and Blackbutt (4957 1617, 4957 2445). Needs Butchers at Boolaroo (4958 2053) has been producing hams for decades and is proud of the result it achieves with the multi-needle injection method its used for a decade.
There must be other butchers who produce great hams. Who are they?
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