Ham: What is it and why is it festive?

Free range ham from Freedom Farms. Photo / Supplied

Kiwis love ham, but what exactly is a ham, anyway?

Gregor Fyfe, co-founder of Freedom Farms, and all-round porcine expert, explains: "Hams are typically made from the rear legs of the pig. The front legs are actually not called legs at all, they're known as the shoulders, and because they have a lot of intramuscular fat they don't make good hams. Most pigs are around 5-6 months old when they go to the abattoir. The main way of curing the leg meat to produce ham is to brine it with a salt, sugar and water solution. It is critical to make sure the brine gets right into the deepest part of the leg next to the bone. After brining the hams are smoked and cooked before being packaged."

But ham on, why do we eat ham at Christmas?

It's likely that it stretches back to the Norse tradition of feasting on boar at celebrations, as a sacrifice to the God Freyr. In the merging of pagan and Christian traditions, the feast day of St Stephen on December 26 meant piggy was on the table for Yuletide, and somewhere along the way, the more tricky-to-source wild boar got ditched in favour of farmed pigs.

Nowadays, it's less a question of hunting down a wild boar, and more a question of bone in or bone out.

The former is known as 'cooked on the bone' and the latter as 'Champagne ham'. Fyfe has this to say about the choice: "The traditional ham cooked on the bone has a more meaty texture than a Champagne ham. With a Champagne ham the main leg bone is removed (leaving only the hock bone) and then the meat is massaged and reshaped with a netting back into the original shape. The champagne ham has the advantage of being very easy to carve."

Ethical issues over the way pigs are farmed is, for many customers, a primary concern.

If you want to ensure your ham had a happy life, Fyfe has the following tips. (Though we strongly advise against the actual playing of basketball with your ham):

• Check to see where it was farmed. Most hams are made from imported pork. Does the label say farmed in NZ?

• Be sure you know how it was farmed. If the label doesn't say, you can assume it was farmed intensively (in cages or concrete pens for example). Look out for the SPCA blue tick.

• Generally a cheaper ham is cheaper because it has had a lot of water added to it. Christmas deserves a high quality ham that doesn't bounce if you drop it.

Give leftovers some love

No matter how greedy you are on the big day, there's always ham left over. Store it in a 'ham bag' or the free version: a clean cotton pillowcase, in the refrigerator. You can keep ham like this for a week or so - every few days you can dampen the ham bag with a little water and vinegar to keep your ham fresh. You can, if you like, freeze leftover ham but it will deteriorate a little in quality.

Fighting the ham fatigue

After a day or so, ham sarnies get tres boring. Try out these hamazing recipe ideas to keep the happy ham times rolling:

• Brush thick slices of ham with a little butter, palm sugar and lime juice then grill on the barbecue and serve with a piquant salsa made with diced pineapple, red onion, chopped mint and a Thai-style dressing of fish sauce, lime juice, palm sugar and finely chopped red chilli.

• Make a shakshuka-like dish by sautéing chopped onion and garlic with Moroccan spices in olive oil in a heavy-bottomed frypan. Add diced tomatoes and ham then crack eggs into the tomato sauce and cook on a medium heat until the eggs are poached through. Serve with fresh parsley and a dollop of Greek yoghurt on top.

• Make breakfast burritos: heat a can of black beans with diced ham and a little chipotle sauce and use along with scrambled eggs, coriander and a little sour cream, to fill warmed wheat or corn soft tortillas.

• Make the ultimate ham toastie - the pimped-up Croque Monsieur: Cut croissants in half, and layer on a good grainy mustard, slices of ham and a nutty cheese like Gruyere or Emmentaler. Pop the top back on and bake in hot oven for several minutes to melt the cheese and toast the croissants. Because the post-Christmas can start mañana.

• The combination of sweet garden peas and smoky, salty ham is a winner in this dish. Sautee garlic and shallots then add a little unsalted chicken stock, a pinch of sugar and a splash of dry white wine. Add fresh garden peas (and other summer veg if you fancy - zucchini, scallopini, sliced flat beans for example) and small dices of ham and let braise until the peas are cooked through. Finish with a squeeze of lemon and a few mint leaves scattered over and serve with crusty sourdough to mop up the delicious juices.

- nzherald.co.nz