NEVER Bake Ham Again! Grandma Taught Me These These 45 Appalachian Tricks

🔗 Grandma never wrote hers down, so my wife finally did. All 118 plus much more. Get em before they're gone: https://cecilrowe.com In this one, Cecil covers: • The bake — flip it cut-side down, score and stud with cloves, cider in the pan, a brown-sugar crust pressed on at the end, basting, and tenting the foil loose • Glaze and garnish the old way — sorghum instead of the packet, a ring of pineapple and a cherry at every diamond, and red-eye gravy right in the skillet • Kill day and the neighbors — waiting on the first hard frost, calling in ten or twelve men, reading the almanac signs, and stoning the knife razor-sharp • The salt cure — the wooden salt box that comes alive, a pinch of saltpeter, black pepper and a cotton sack, staging the curing house through the seasons, and testing the cure by smell down by the bone • Smoke and aging — hickory never pine, the white bloom on an aged ham, hanging it in the rafters with no icebox, and a dry-cured ham that keeps safe at room temperature • Cooking a country ham right — soaking out the hard salt, scrubbing off the mold, simmering first then crusting in the oven, slicing it paper-thin, and the wrapped-paper-sack marvel • Using every last scrap — the lard in a crock, deviled ham, the bone in soup beans, a hock with cabbage, fifteen-bean soup, hoecakes in the grease, and the drippings saved for morning eggs • And the ones he holds back — the ham that sold for ten million dollars, the law Virginia needed and the mountains never did, and the one thing he never told a soul CHAPTERS 0:00 The Juicy-Ham Secret Nobody Wrote Down 1:40 Score the Fat Cap and Stud It with Cloves 2:33 Flip It Cut-Side Down, Fat Cap Up 3:24 Ditch the Glaze Packet — Brush On Sorghum 4:18 A Ring of Pineapple and a Cherry at Every Diamond 5:07 Apple Cider in the Pan, Not Plain Water 5:55 Press On the Brown-Sugar Crust at the Very End 6:41 Baste Every Twenty Minutes with the Drippings 7:30 Tent the Foil Loose, Never Sealed Drum-Tight 8:17 Red-Eye Gravy in the Same Skillet 9:10 Save the Drippings to Fry Tomorrow's Eggs 10:02 Wait for the First Hard Frost to Kill a Hog 10:53 Call In the Neighbors, Split the Work and the Meat 11:42 Bury the Ham in a Wooden Salt Box for Weeks 12:31 A Pinch of Saltpeter to Hold the Color 13:15 Feed the Smokehouse Fire Hickory, Never Pine 14:10 Rub It Down Thick with Black Pepper 14:55 Wrap It in a Cotton Sack for the Long Hang 15:41 Trust the White Bloom on an Aged Ham 16:28 Time the Killing to the Signs in the Almanac 17:16 Roast It Wrapped in a Soaked Paper Sack 18:11 Soak a Salt-Cured Ham a Day or Two First 19:00 Scrub Off the Mold and Dust Before the Soak 19:45 Simmer It on the Stove First, Then Crust It 20:34 Test the Cure Down by the Bone by Smell 21:20 Stage the Curing House Cold to Cool to Warm 22:18 Slice It Paper-Thin, Not Deli-Thick 23:03 Ham Biscuits on Decoration Day 23:51 Wrap One for Dinner on the Ground 24:44 Render the Trim Fat and Save the Cracklins 25:32 Keep the Lard in a Crock All Year 26:18 Turn Every Scrap into Deviled Ham 27:04 Drop the Ham Bone in a Pot of Soup Beans 27:49 Simmer a Ham Hock with a Mess of Cabbage 28:38 Build a Fifteen-Bean Soup Around One Bone 29:26 Candied Sweet Potatoes in the Same Pan 30:12 Fry a Hoecake in a Spoon of Ham Grease 30:59 Butcher Together, the Way the Coal Camps Did 31:54 Hang the Ham in the Rafters, No Icebox at All 32:45 Stone the Knife Razor-Sharp Days Ahead 33:34 A Dry-Cured Ham Keeps Safe at Room Temperature 34:24 The Ham That Sold for Ten Million Dollars 35:13 Virginia Needed a Law; the Mountains Never Did 36:01 The Smokehouse That Held a Whole Winter 36:53 Stone-Cold Oven, Kept Covered, Pulled by the Thermometer 37:50 Waste Not One Piece of the Hog 39:05 Do an Old Man a Kindness