All ya’lls should just ponder this picture for a moment. Cause brother (or sister), it isn’t going go get much better than this (it’s a ham, eh).
A few weeks ago, The Fatted Calf’s email newsletter rolled in. Somewhere buried in the prose was a mention of two hams available for purchase after the following weekend. My knee-jerk response was to email to see if one was still available, it was. I was set. I remember standing there over my computer thinking what the HELL am I going to do with a 9 lb. ham in the middle of May for crissakes !?!? No birthdays, no holidays … nada. Oh well, make the best of the situation, I say.
The week came and went, it was Saturday morning and time to leave for the farmer’s market in Berkeley. My little 4 year old boy was along for this trip, which guaranteed me no time to hang out. It was going to be a quick trip, grab the meat, look in on Jan at The Blue Bottle Coffee stall and off we went. Really quite uneventful.

We decided to have the Ham on Saturday, so I figured give myself a few hours for prep time and we’d be set. I mean, we’ve all had ham right? Honey, spiral, smoked, cured ready to eat stuff right? Sure we have. And I figured this time I wouldn’t really do much to the meat. So far Taylor’s products have stood fine by themselves, so I left the canned pineapple & cherries in the cabinet. Shudder …
Listen, I know raw meat when I see it. The ham was RAW folks. Interesting, Biggles like. I grabbed a few cook books to see what I was up against, easy peasy. Today’s ham looked as though it would take maybe 2.5 hours maybe 3 at 350. Again, I wanted to keep it simple so I soaked some fresh/dried herbs in extra virgin olive oil (so they don’t burn so darned quick) and perched the little guys up on top.

Oh my oh my. As it started you could smell the herbies cooking along, then it smelled like really good warm bacon. As that wafted out and for maybe an hour and a half all you could smell was warm happy ham. These smells could not have been obtained by a “ready to eat” spiral ham ilk. If you’re going for the full feature holiday, you’ll need a ham that needs cookin’. Ya know? Like a turkey, something that gives its wafty meaty love all day.

As you can see, this meal is all about the ham (meat). The potatoes are there just for dipping the meat in to when you feel the need. The ham texture was delicate, juicy, not even remotely too salty and warm if kissed by the brown sugar goddess. Although I added no sweeteners, Taylor’s crafty ways permeated the confines of the leg meat to render us something to behold.
Xo Xo