Fresh Ham

A week or so ago, I saw a Youtube video by Jim Foreman  showing how to make posole. To borrow a term from Jerry Clower, it flung a craving on me. All this past week I had intended to go by the grocery store and pick up the items that I needed, but it did not work out until yesterday. For those of you who don't know, posole is a soup that is made with pork and hominey. Jim made his with some pork stew meat. When I checked at the local FoodDepot, I could not find any meat that I felt was suitable. I came back by Publix and had just about given up on finding what I wanted there as well until I spotted a fresh pork ham butt. It was about 3 1/2 pounds which was at least  2 1/2 pounds more than I needed, but I knew that a good portion of that was inedible bone and fat and it was only $5 including tax so I got it.

When I got home I sliced off about a pound of the fresh ham and set about to make the posole. But what to do with the remainder? I remembered back when I was little the Kelley side of my family often boiled a fresh ham for Christmas. They had a big cast iron wash pot that sat in the backyard. They would clean it out, build a fire around it and drop in a fresh ham. I don't have a wash pot, but I figured that a pressure cooker might serve the purpose. So, I washed what was left of the ham, sprinkled it with salt and pepper and put it on in the pressure cooker with 4 cups of water for 55 minutes. It got done long before the posole and turned out real well. There is nothing else quite like boiled fresh ham on white bread with Louisiana hot sauce. Although I do have to admit that the posole was also real good for supper.