Making a Boneless Ham--With Pride
A small processor gives tips on how to compete against the big boys by creating a niche product
The following is an edited, condensed version of a presentation made by Steven E. Eaker of Ellendale, Minn.-based Steve's Meat Market, during last year's American Association of Meat Processors' convention.
First of all, if you can buy completely processor-ready hams (closely trimmed of fat), that's great. You have to spend a little more for them, but you're going to trim less (fat) off.
On a normal ham, however, first trim (any external fat) from the ham. Next, turn the ham and cut out the aitche bone. You want to trim this out right the first time and throw it right into the bone can. It's a waste product. The average processor is probably paying 30 cents a minute to have someone bone hams. According to time trials, it takes about six minutes to bone a ham with a plain boning knife.
If we buy 100 pounds of ham, we're going to get 40 pounds of boneless products from that total.
Next, turn your ham on its side, come in and shank (the hock) right off. Turn your hock so when you pull it off it takes only one cut and is ready for cure. When you pull the bone out, lean the knife toward the knuckle side because there's a big artery you'll end up pulling out if you don't tilt your knife.
Lay your ham out, pull the knuckle out and remove all seam tissue from it. Next (on the face of the ham), you want to pull the false muscle from the top because often times if you net a ham (with the false muscle on) and don't press it, there will be some seam separation.
Next, there is the bottom round and the eye round. Remove the gland that is there, and remove the seam tissue or the silver that's on the bottom. This is pulled for two reasons. We're going to tumble this ham, and we can't get a protein extraction on that silver seam. Second, if it's left on and tumbled, you will get a grainy piece of meat when you cook it.
Trim the remaining fat off of the ham to less than one-quarter inch.
Exceptionally trim the eye because it will be the first slice you're going to take off (the ham). This ham will go through the netter, and the knuckle is going to sit right up in line. Your bottom will curl up on the ham and will hold it together, which fills any voids.
Don't trim too much fat
You want to have a little more fat on the bottom side of the ham for two reasons. If you look at a piece of ham on a deli tray and it has a shimmer of fat, this has more eye appeal than ham that's 100 percent dead lean.
The other reason is this ham contains natural juices. This fat also seals up the ham as it's cooking so we don't cook the moisture out of the ham.
Keep the trim you get from the ham separate because it's worth twice as much as pork trim. We make ham links out of this and retail the product for $3.99 a pound. The ham itself retails for $4.79 a pound.
In pumping, we're going to bring this ham back to 98 percent to 100 percent yield at the best. Because we pump so little, we get a more intense pork flavor (in lieu of adding imitation flavors).
We use a four-needle ham pump. We'll throw about 40 pounds of ham into a lugger and we'll pump 10 percent to 44 pounds.
We have a tumbler with a 500-pound capacity. We'll tumble 250 pounds for 2.5 hours; 350 pounds at 3.5 hours; and 450 pounds for 4.5 hours.
Temperature is critical in addressing foaming. If you're tumbling at room temperature, chances are you're getting foam. If you tumble in a cooler, it will cut your foaming down by 70 percent.
If I hang the hams vertically from a net instead of laying them on a rack in the smokehouse, I'm going to get 8 percent to 10 percent more shrink on the boneless hams.