by Wesley
Home >> Hamming it up for Christmas
Last year was my first year hosting Christmas and I could make whatever I wanted. I decided to follow a Catalan tradition and make cannelloni (Yes, I know, they eat them on the 26th!) because I thought that would be the most original and easiest because I could prepare them ahead of time and would not have to worry about roasting a beast. This year, I decided to go back to my roots and serve a ham (a turkey can be risky). Americans roast their ham for Christmas. My quest for a ham that I can roast here has been anything but agile. Silly me, wanting to roast a ham!
My first step was to check out supermarkets here and across the border in France. Apparently the French don’t roast many hams either… Then I did research to see how I could do it myself. When they started talking about soaking in saltpeter for a week, I decided that the ham was not going to be cured by me. I also looked into ordering a ham from Britain, as they are similar. This is possible but ridiculously expensive and the suppliers used the words “at your own risk.” This meant that if I got a rotten ham in the mail, too bad! So that was ruled out, too. Tradition was turning out to be a royal pain in the backside.
At Thanksgiving, I tried brining (soaking in a salt water solution) a turkey and that was somewhat successful (turkey is inevitably dry), so I decided I would try it with a fresh ham, a pig’s leg. Yesterday I went to the butcher’s to order that and he basically told me that they don’t even sell that part of the pig but if I perhaps went to a lower-class neighborhood, I might find one. So apparently wanting ham for Christmas makes me low class.
Low class or not, I am determined to have a ham for Christmas, now perhaps not even for the sake of tradition but out of pure bull-headedness. Maybe next year I’ll make hamburgers. That’s American…
Merry Christmas!
P.S. IKEA has hams but I haven’t tried it yet. I think the Swedish eat their ham cold so that won’t work for me, either. We’ll see. We’ll see.
photo by theogeo
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Posted on http://www.weeklyletter.com at 2007-12-20 11:00:00 +0100
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In the Philippines, in every “all-day open house,” a typical element of the Christmas buffet is a leg of what we call “Chinese ham.” I have no idea how it is prepared. All I remember is that it’s topped with shiny transparent glazing and pineapple rings.
Maligayang Pasko!
This year we are spending Xmas in Australia. I don’t know what the Xmas fare here is. Maybe it includes kangaroo and crocodile meat as well as barramundi, the native Ozzie fish. I already had an Australian mud cake last night (it’s a chocolate cake that looks like mud if you eat messy) so I would like to have a slice or two of Pavlova cake.
And a par tree Gina pear tree. (Wesley knows what that means.)
Hello. The glazed ham with pineapple sounds vaguely familiar. I remember my mother roasting a big ham at Christmas. Before putting it into the oven, she used to cut little criss-cross grooves into it and then glaze it with honey, I think, or some sweet syrup. Then she would stud it with cloves and into the oven it went. The skin would be sweet and crispy once it was roasted, with a hint of honey and cloves. I also remember Christmases with stuffed turkey and cranberries and home-made Christmas pudding with cream or brandy sauce for dessert. There was always left-over turkey for days after Christmas so we had turkey sandwiches, turkey salads, turkey curries! Inevitably, we all got sick of turkey and vowed that the next year we’d have something different. But of course, we didn’t because Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without turkey and ham. Traditions indeed! Merry Christmas to you all.
I hate traditions. And I am an avowed traditionalist. Imprisoned, as it were, withing a net of age-old considerations I cannot unfetter myself from. Someone help me! Aaaaagh. Maybe we could have shrimp al ajillo for Christmas? or chocolate brownies a la mode?
I hate traditions, too. This Christmas Eve, I ate a burrito. Anything wrong with that? :-)
...thank god I’ve read this after having lunch! It’s interesting to hear how much thought, not to mention preparation, went into your latest Christmas Wesley! I had my lunch cooked for me…and despite offering to help, all I ended up doing were some of the dishes.
Christmas lunch or dinner in the UK includes a number of “extra trimmings” to bring the turkey and roast vegetables to life a bit. “Stuffing” is one of my favourites…
Although a great “christmas tradition”, I can’t understand why it’s never eaten at any _other_time of the year too…seeing as it really is tasty…
Hi everyone.
Even though Cristmas has already gone there are some points that I would like to share with all you.
It is not the point to take the piggy out, it is just to enjoy a wonderful days with your closest relatives.It is true at the same time that everything is celebrated in a big way.But Christmas is not only for those who can spend a fortune getting the traditional nourishments,is just for the whole population all over the world.
Every single country has a different customs to celebrate Christmas and it is wonderful nowadays due to the globalisation that we can learn from others cultures the way is taken.
At least for some days mankind think alike, is great.
Greetings
It’s long past Christmas but I laughed hard when I read this. I was cheering for the low class pig’s leg!