Ham Biscuits

Here's my question for all of you ham biscuit fans. How do you like 'em? Butter on the biscuit? Warm the ham first? Mustard: yellow, stone ground, brat-horseradishy-style? Any toppings or is simplicity the key?

OMG...mustard on a ham biscuit...no way!
Warm Stadlers country ham on a fresh biscuit made with White Lily Flour (the best...soft winter wheat)...it's called breakfast down here.

HAM----BISCUIT---nuff said!oh--and do heat the ham and use a biscuit recipe from Patti LaBelle's Labelle Cuisine Cookbook!mmmmmm-good!

quote:

Originally posted by twodales

Any toppings or is simplicity the key?

Simplicity is the key. No condiments. Drink coffee with it, though.

Take a good biscuit and make a "sandwich" with good smoked country ham. Some people like it "fatty"; I don't. I like good lean slices of country ham (not "city" ham that is cured primarily with sugar; it needs to be salty )

That being said, I will defer to the experts such as pogophiles or Poverty Pete...

Just good country ham and a nice hot browned biscuit. Nothing else.

Yeah, what she said!

Yeah, what he said she said.
(How's that for expertise, Bushie?)

YEAH WHAT THEY SAID, JUST HAM & BISCUIT BUT MAKE THE BISCUIT A BIT SMALLER THAN USUAL

...and if the ham is sliced too thinly, you might need to use two slices.
1. Take a good biscuit.
2. Add a slice of country ham, fried with no oil.
3. Eat.
4. Repeat as necessary.

quote:

Originally posted by ocdreamr

YEAH WHAT THEY SAID, JUST HAM & BISCUIT BUT MAKE THE BISCUIT A BIT SMALLER THAN USUAL

or the HAM a bit bigger!!!!

What he said, she said, I say as well. Not particular about sizes.

Heresy. No mustard!
Salty, country ham. Homemade cathead biscuit.
Just the simplicity of it all makes me want to cry.

Stopped at my local Italian deli yesterday, He always carried Smithfield ham for the holidays. Asked for about 1/2 lb, was told he decided not to carry it this year, that prosciutto would serve the purpose. I just looked at the man & said "OOOHH NOOO it won't!!" Prosciutto is great in it's place but a ham biscuit needs Country ham.

Here sits OCDReamr ham biscuitless in Balmer

Don't just "warm" the ham...fry it up good...

I'll take a sausage biscuit, myself.

quote:

Originally posted by Michael Hoffman

I'll take a sausage biscuit, myself.

Me too, but with a little mustard, please.

For those of you that have never had a real country buttermilk bisquit along with some real country ham with some fat attached, you have not experienced a real southern treat. Even better is when you have the red eye gravy along with this particularly if it has a jolt of coffee in it. Throw in a cup of Mellow Joy coffee and you have one grade A breakfast.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

This is interesting timing. I bought a 27 pound country ham for Christmas from a little local ham processor. On the package there are instructions for baking, which are quite elaborate. Soak for 2 1/2 days, changing the water every 12 hours, then boil for 4 hours in water with pickling spices added. Then bake for a couple of hours. I have done this before, and it takes away the strong salt flavor, just leaving a hint of saltiness.
Well, I must have not soaked it long enough or something, for it was still very salty after baking. So salty that my wife and daugthers don't like it. Not me, though - I grew up with salty country ham, and love it. So, I have enough in the freezer for many servings, and am eating ham and biscuits a couple of times a day. After the first, if I go back on the Atkins diet, I'll just eat the ham without the biscuit.

quote:

Originally posted by tiki

HAM----BISCUIT---nuff said!oh--and do heat the ham and use a biscuit recipe from Patti LaBelle's Labelle Cuisine Cookbook!mmmmmm-good!

Could you possibly post this biscuit recipe?

I always eat mustard on my sausage biscuits, but never on my country ham biscuits. Years ago, when I was pregnant with my daughter, one of the things I ate alot was scrambled egg biscuits with lots of mustard on them. (My daughter hates eggs!!

quote:

Originally posted by Slick

quote:

Originally posted by Michael Hoffman

I'll take a sausage biscuit, myself.

Me too, but with a little mustard, please.

Michael Stern: I loved the pic of your ham and bisquit. My grandfather who had a farm close to Cumberland Gap, TN had a tradition that every Thanksgiving, all that lived in the vacinity of his farm would gather and they would celebrate the occasion by the slaughter of his hogs. To me it was a ugly affair but to them it was a time to celebrate and store foods for the oncoming winter. As I recall, the event would entail the usage of about a dozen fatten hogs. It was a nasty even with the hogs hanging on a device that would allow the scaping of the hides to remove the hair, splitting the chest cavity to remove the stomach and finally deviding the parts to be used for sausage, ham, pork chops and finally the fat to be rendered for cooking and soap. It was not pretty but essential to the life of the farming neighborhood.

Grandma Smith would cook fresh pork chops with cornbread for the folks doing the work and there would always be some libation down at the springhouse to enjoy with the cracklings that were fresh out of the huge boiling pot that was rendering the fat. I recall tasting them and they were great. I did not get to participate in the libation which was great East Tennessee corn whiskey, so I am told.

I enjoyed watching them prepare the hams for curing in the smoke house. They would cover them in salt, pepper, brown sugar and hang them in the house that they would smoke them with hickory wood for several days and let them hang for several months after that.

The treat was when they would finally slice the ham and cook sliced ham meat with lots of fat and make red eye gravy with bisquits, real East Tennessee Grits and real fried potatoes.

What reminded me of that was the pic that you showed us. Grandfather Smith along with all of those that participated are long gone but the event will always stay in my mind.

Thank you.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

quote:

Originally posted by Maynerd

quote:

Originally posted by tiki

HAM----BISCUIT---nuff said!oh--and do heat the ham and use a biscuit recipe from Patti LaBelle's Labelle Cuisine Cookbook!mmmmmm-good!

Could you possibly post this biscuit recipe?

Why certoinly!


Patty LaBells' Grandmother Temples Flying Biscuits--so nabe after family members claimed they were so light that they have been seen to flout up off the platter all by themselves!!

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1/4 cup buttermilk

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degree F.

2. Sift the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt into a bowl.

3. Add the shortening.

4. Using a fork or pastry blender, cut the shortening into the flour mixture until it resembles fine crumbs.

5. Stir in the buttermilk to make a soft dough.

6. Place the dough on a lightly floured work surface and knead gently, just until the surface of the dough isn't sticky. Do not overknead.

Yield: 8 Biscuits

Notes: Tips for light biscuits from Patti's grandmother:

don't overhandle the dough

Stir the dough just until it is moistened and clumps together.
Gather up the dough and knead it just a couple of times until it smooths out
Use a gentle hand when you form the biscuits.


credit must be given to La Belle Cuisine Cookbook and the incomperanle Miss Patty LaBelle!!

Paul---great story--thanks for sharing!

Some country ham is way to salty for my taste but my Granddad Smiths was never that way. He always had it fried with fat attached. It was gentle, no salty taste and not hard fried. It was a wonderful taste.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

Good biscuits require soft wheat flour such as White Lily or Red Band...not all purpose hard wheat like most Yankees use.

When you soak and bake a country ham, it will still be salty but requires THIN slicing.

I disagree that all country ham is salty. I grew up on the stuff and I have had good and bad. If it is extremely salty or even mildly salty, it has not been prepared right or cured right. Good country ham is not salty.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

Thank you tiki.

quote:

Originally posted by Sundancer7

I disagree that all country ham is salty. I grew up on the stuff and I have had good and bad. If it is extremely salty or even mildly salty, it has not been prepared right or cured right. Good country ham is not salty.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

Almost all country ham I've had has been very salty.

Paul, can you recommend a c-ham that is ... (A) available by mail, or, (B) somewhere in your neck of the woods -- or, for that matter near a track someplace?

quote:

Originally posted by Ballpark Roadtripper

I had never heard of "Country" or "City" ham before Alton Brown dedicated a whole show to them. Now I'm dying to try both of them! What crazy recipes...ginger snaps, Dr. Pepper, pickle juice, etc. Sounds goofy but I bet they're awesome.

Never heard of country ham? It ain't like it is a recent thing. It had been around many years before I was born and the Sundancer is 62. My guess is that it a product that has been around better than 100 years.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

quote:

Originally posted by Sundancer7

quote:

Originally posted by Ballpark Roadtripper

I had never heard of "Country" or "City" ham before Alton Brown dedicated a whole show to them. Now I'm dying to try both of them! What crazy recipes...ginger snaps, Dr. Pepper, pickle juice, etc. Sounds goofy but I bet they're awesome.

Never heard of country ham? It ain't like it is a recent thing. It had been around many years before I was born and the Sundancer is 62. My guess is that it a product that has been around better than 100 years.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

Country ham goes back farther than that. It has been around several hundred years at least. It was the main way of preserving ham. One of the things Sir Walter Raliegh brought back to Elizabeth the First was Virginia ham. Remember Sugar was kept under lock & key well into the 19th century, so the sugar smoked hams we know today would have been an extreme extravagance. It was salt cure all the way.

quote:

Originally posted by Poverty Pete

...and if the ham is sliced too thinly, you might need to use two slices.
1. Take a good biscuit.
2. Add a slice of country ham, fried with no oil.
3. Eat.
4. Repeat as necessary.

What Pete said... And if your country ham was boiled/baked instead of fried, then forget the biscuit and make a sandwich out of it using some stout wheat bread slathered with good homemade pimiento cheese...

quote:

Originally posted by pogophiles

quote:

Originally posted by Poverty Pete

...and if the ham is sliced too thinly, you might need to use two slices.
1. Take a good biscuit.
2. Add a slice of country ham, fried with no oil.
3. Eat.
4. Repeat as necessary.

What Pete said... And if your country ham was boiled/baked instead of fried, then forget the biscuit and make a sandwich out of it using some stout wheat bread slathered with good homemade pimiento cheese...

Now that sounds GOOD!--may i reccomend trying some of Sierra Nevada Brewery's new mustards---Pale Ale is good---Stout is better!--but NOT with a ham biscuit!

Are there still any Irelans's restaurants out there? Their steak biscuits were wonderful.