It sounds basic but I’ll just get it out of the way first: cured meat isn’t cooked. Curing was one of the key discoveries our species hit upon to make meat last for a long time at ambient temperatures and not get us sick. Curing is what differentiates a sausage (uncured) from a salami (cured).
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Let’s start with the basics. A ham is the meat of the leg—nearly always the back leg—of a pig, from its ankle to its rump. If you were to go to the butcher shop and ask for one that was raw, you’d be getting what’s called a fresh ham. You could cut it up and […]
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Forget the pineapple. These hams start with heritage Duroc pork raised outdoors on pasture on a single farm in northern Indiana. They’re cured and smoked by the meat mavens at Smoking Goose. The result? They’re showstoppers without the extra garnishes.
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When Herb and Kathy Eckhouse decided to locate their acclaimed cured ham house, La Quercia, in Norwalk, Iowa, they didn’t mean it as a statement. They wanted to make a positive impact in the place they’d long ago decided to raise their family. “We wanted to do something for Iowa. Something we can be proud […]
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Herb Eckhouse’s prosciutto is inspired by the time he spent living in Parma, Italy. A few years back, though, Herb turned his attention to Spain. Acorn-fed pork is an old tradition in Spain, where Jamón Ibérico de Bellota is renowned as one of the country’s culinary crown jewels. The acorn-heavy diet has an incredible effect […]
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