Removing a casing from ham - suggestions?

[k]

Does anyone have a technique for removing the various casings that most hams
seem to come esconced in these days? Is the casing considered part of the
packaging?

I spent half an hour yesterday, carefully slicing away some rather thick
mesh material from a 9 lb ham.

Barring an easy removal method, does anyone know of a national (or
Northeast) brand of ham that doesn't use that stuff?

thanks,
Keith

[Doug]

This sounds to me like you were trying to remove the outer surface of
the ham itself, which bore the imprint of whatever mesh it had been
cured in, but didn't really include any mesh. If I'm right, you tried to
remove one layer too many, you just cook that guy and slice him right
through that well-done outer layer. This is especially true in the case
of boneless hams. If I'm wrong, it's not the first time ;)

Doug

[Edwin Pawlowski]

"Doug" <dlbarb...@dontspam.verizon.net> wrote in message

>>
> This sounds to me like you were trying to remove the outer surface of the
> ham itself, which bore the imprint of whatever mesh it had been cured in,
> but didn't really include any mesh. If I'm right, you tried to remove one
> layer too many, you just cook that guy and slice him right through that
> well-done outer layer. This is especially true in the case of boneless
> hams. If I'm wrong, it's not the first time ;)
>
> Doug

Yep, good hams have that. My local favorite is the Morell E Z Cut when the
stores have them. The whole ham, not the cheaper half hams you often see.

[k]

"Doug" <dlbarb...@dontspam.verizon.net> wrote in message

news:Vkk7j.2319$1p.1452@trndny01...

This was definitely an artificial casing - it was absolutely uniform around
both the fatty side and the lean side, and was bone-dry to the touch.

I don't buy the boneless hams because they don't have much flavor, and I
don't like the spiral slice things because the slices are very thin. That
leaves me with shank, butt and shoulder cuts to choose from. I get the
shank, both for the tenderness of the ham, and because the bone is
reasonably easy to deal with.

The casing on this one (Cook's brand) was heavy and rubbery, and absolutely
stuck to the meat. I've had other brands where the casing was akin to
heavy-duty shrink wrap, but was equally impossible to get off in large
pieces.

I'll see if any of the local smokehouses are still here next year. Our last
kielbasa place is closing after Christmas, but there's still a German shop a
few towns over that may do hams.

The Cook's ham is very nice, btw, once you get the darn condom off the
thing.

Keith