ham
Also known as: Cured ham, Smoked ham hocks
Cured, and often smoked, pork from the leg, sold whole, sliced, spiral-cut, or diced -- either fully cooked and ready to eat cold, or requiring further cooking, depending on the product. Because curing adds a significant amount of salt (and often sugar and smoke), it functions as much as a seasoning ingredient as it does a protein.
Buying guidance
Read the label closely: "ham" covers everything from a ready-to-eat deli slice to a raw, cure-only product that still needs full cooking, and the package should say clearly which it is. Taste a small piece before salting the rest of a dish -- cured ham's saltiness varies a lot by brand and style, and it's easy to oversalt a dish built around it.
Substitutions
- Smoked turkey -- close in smoky, salty character for a non-pork option; use a similar amount.
- Bacon or pancetta, in a smaller amount -- more concentrated smoke and fat; render it first and use less than the ham quantity called for.
- Canadian bacon -- milder and leaner than a typical ham, closer to a lean center-cut slice.
Tips & common mistakes
If glazing a whole ham, apply the glaze only toward the end of baking -- it's already fully cooked and just needs warming through, and a sugar-based glaze put on too early will burn well before that happens.
Storage
A whole or half ham still in its original vacuum packaging keeps considerably longer refrigerated than ham that's been sliced or removed from its packaging -- once it's cut into, treat it like deli meat and use it within about a week.