As I said in another thread, I'm looking into beans for LTS. While looking into some bean recipes, mainly navy bean soup, I got to thinking about what I'd want to use with the beans. Nothing goes with beans better than ham. Is there a way to store ham for the long haul? I've seen that you can brown ground beef and make it into "rocks" to store for quite a while, is there something similar for ham? I know there is ham flavored TVP. I've never had it, but I doubt it is much like ham. Anyone know a way to make up some bean soup with the taste of ham without actually having ham in it?
I use salt pork in bean soup and in baked beans. I make lima bean soup with no meat or fat product - just lima beans, onions, salt & pepper.
The smaller 'canned hams' come to mind. Don't know how long they'll store though. Or how about SPAM? I've read some folks speaking of 'canned bacon'. I'd love to find that stuff!
I've thought about the canned ham thing, but the shelf lives I've seen are only 9 months. We do have SPAM in our stores. I really like SPAM, my wife can do without.
How about freeze dried ham for long term storage. I got some from Safecastle. Also Pork Chops. but one thing you can use & it works well is small cans of ham ...just about the right size for a pot of beans. same size as chicken comes in. And keeps well. CG
I finally tried the Bacon SPAM - couldn't tell much difference between it and the regular. SPAM is SPAM . . . Can ham be jerked?
There would be a few options. The first one that comes to mind would be the sugar cured hams. They are a bit expensive but are the ones you see hanging outside the meat cooler in white bags. They are cured and dont have to be refridgerated and will keep a long time. If you can you could can some ham yourself and rotate through it. Any meat can also be jerked/dried, so you could cut up strips of ham and dehydrate it to be reconstituted and used later. You also might be able to see if you could order uncured slabs of bacon from the store (or butcher your own) then fully cure it like they used to and it can then be hung in a moderately cool room for a year or so with no problems.
I store the meat on the hoof (having smaller pigs makes it easier to keep breeders)but saltpork has traditionally been stored for years by simply cutting it into slabs and packing it in salt. Note though the meat will not stay pink without nitrates but is perfectly edible. You'd also want to only use plain salt, not iodized
