Kurobuta ham?

I just bought a Kurobuta ham (produced by Snake River Farms). I feel excited about it, because it says that it is from Berkshire hogs, but I don't really know what to do with it. It says that it is fully cooked but I'm thinking (with ham being one of the meats with which I have the most limited experience) that cooking it might bring out some flavors that I would want. But then, if you cook an already cooked ham, does it dry out?

This must have been a very young animal. I bought one of the biggest ones that I could find, but it is bone in (I haven't opened the package yet, but I can clearly see the ball/head of the bone, which is the size of a large marble) and comes in at 2.97 lbs. The whole ham is the size of my ex's fist I don't know how to tell whether it's shank or butt end (do I have that right? I really don't know much about ham).

Anyway, what should I do with it? Cook it? How?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Skye,

Welcome back and lucky you. I made a Kurobuta tenderloin earlier this year and it was fantastic. If your ham is fully cooked you probably do not want to cook it much further. You could gently reheat it in a number of ways including adding it at the end of something else you are cooking. I'll bet it would be great diced and added to some sauteed peas and onions with a bit of grated parm on top. It might also be really good added to some pasta alla carbonara.

I look forward to your tasting report.

[Jenise]

Cooking a cooked ham doesn't dry it out, it just changes the taste/texture slightly. Which you prefer is a matter of taste. But a secondary cooking doesn't require the same kind of time that cooking from raw would--you can go anywhere from merely heated through to studding it with cloves to infuse a spice flavor and deluging it with honey, then baking at around 400 F until the honey blackens just a bit, about an hour. You can tell what I love.

Thanks.

So, Jenise, you don't recommend serving it with some mayonnaise on the side?

I like doing this: stud it with cloves, pat it all over with mustard, sprinkle brown sugar over it, sit it in a pan with some apple cider, then roast at a low heat till warm through. You can toss dried apricots and prunes into the juice, too, for a little added (restored) goodness.

Mustard such as Dijon? Or dry mustard? Powder or whole seeds?

Dijon, smooth or "country".

We make a glaze for gammon that's similar, only we use dry mustard - Colman's type. M ix demerara sugar and dry mustard in more or less equal quantities. Mix in just enough honey to make a really gloopy paste. When the gammon has had all bar 20 minutes of the calculated simmering time (typically 30 mins/pound) we take it out of the court bouillon remove the skin, cut the fat in lozenges and rub on the glaze before roasting for about 20 mins in a hot oven.