Why does ham taste so different than pork chops if they come from the same animal?!
This is not true with all hams. Alot of hams are boiled( such as the ones we use to make a ham and cheese sandwich). Cured are in the same family as Prosciutto and Smithfield.Parma prosciutto is cured but not smoked.Smithfield is both cured and smoked. Theres many variations. Speck for instance is a smoked and cured prosciutto. Neuskes are boiled and smoked but not cured.
So basically, if you took a pork chop and smoked it( the Germans actually do this), it would taste like a smoked ham but not like a cured ham or a fresh ham roast.
Likewise if you took a raw pork chop and a fresh ham and baked them, they would have a similar taste.
Let me try to simplify it further.Bresola( air dried beef) tastes nothing like a steak nor does beef jerky although they come from the same animal and even the same cut of beef.
Curing meats was done centuries ago before refridgeration was around to keep meat from going bad.
Very good question!
Answers: Everyone seems to be stuck on the word "cured" with hams.
This is not true with all hams. Alot of hams are boiled( such as the ones we use to make a ham and cheese sandwich). Cured are in the same family as Prosciutto and Smithfield.Parma prosciutto is cured but not smoked.Smithfield is both cured and smoked. Theres many variations. Speck for instance is a smoked and cured prosciutto. Neuskes are boiled and smoked but not cured.
So basically, if you took a pork chop and smoked it( the Germans actually do this), it would taste like a smoked ham but not like a cured ham or a fresh ham roast.
Likewise if you took a raw pork chop and a fresh ham and baked them, they would have a similar taste.
Let me try to simplify it further.Bresola( air dried beef) tastes nothing like a steak nor does beef jerky although they come from the same animal and even the same cut of beef.
Curing meats was done centuries ago before refridgeration was around to keep meat from going bad.
Very good question!
Ham and bacon are cured in a smokehouse. That gives them the different flavor depending on who smokes it and what they use to do it.
Hams are cured. You can cure a ham several ways. You can salt cure a ham which is why what they call "Country Ham" is usually so salty. You can also smoke cure a ham. Curing is the process in which you remove up to 95% of the water out of an item so it is shelf stable and lasts longer than the product would've lasted orginially. In a country ham you should always simmer it a little while in warm water (NOT BOILING) to remove some of the salty flavor. While ham and bacon do come from the same animal as pork chops. If you were to go to a butcher and ask for a "fresh ham" as opposed to a ham that has been cured you would find that it would taste much like a pork chop.....maybe a little fattier. Again, ham and bacon are cured and this is what gives them their DELICIOUS flavor!
Hope this helped!
Ham is the leg or shoulder of a pig that has been "cured" or smoked. The same piece of meat may be called a fresh ham, depending on where you live. The smoking of the meat partially cooks it and gives it flavor. Look up, for example, Smithfield Ham. When I was a little kid, we had a smoke house where my dad would hang the pieces of port from the rafters and use a special kind of word to smoke the meat. That's why bacon tastes the way it does. Bacon (side pork) that isn't cured has an entirely different taste.
Ham and bacon are seasoned with an artificial smoke flavor and preservatives. Pork is unseasoned, raw meat from a hog. This accounts for some of the taste difference, much of the rest is from what the animal is fed prior to slaughter. Corn and apples make for a sweet taste, grain such as wheat and barley make for a different flavor.
ham is cured and pork chops are not. It comes from a different part of the animal, as well.