I was out hiking with some friends, and there was a discussion of holiday meals, and some amount of raving of ham from Bryan’s on California St in the city.
All I know about ham is the supplier is everything — all you’re doing is warming the danged thing.
If you had to get the absolutely first rate ham for an occasion, peninsula, where would you go?
Thanks for the shout-out for Bryan’s, my corner store! Certainly my go-to for meat and fish.
On the peninsula, have you tried Draeger’s in San Mateo? Usually top of the line products.
Give the lachsschinken from Dittmers a try. They are very thinly sliced and I like them much more than regular ham.
Good point…what use do you have for ham? A chunk/haunch to bake? Already cooked and or for slicing?
Serving at dinner as a roast.
Lachsschinken sounds amazing but wouldn’t likely have the same presentation?
Drager’s would be my first default, but Schaub’s is often in the running.
It occurs to me if a ham is aged 4 to 6 months, perhaps getting one shipped isn’t a big deal?
You should be able to get them unsliced if you ask them. They make theirs in the back. Get a quarter pound of sliced and see if you like them first though.
It comes in a tube, though? Bringing a tube of meat product to the table of a dinner party isn’t quite the same as a haunch of ham. I mean, we’re all about the taste, but maybe not ALL about the taste 
Thanks very much for the tip, for my personal use, it sounds great and I’ve put on my mental list swinging by there next time I have errands in the area…
Oh that ham 
. For whatever odd reason I was thinking about lunch meat ham…
There are GREAT hams that you can have shipped.
https://bentonscountryhams2.com/
https://www.finchvillefarms.com/ (these are Sugar Cured Personally not a favorite but that is just me)
https://www.edwardsvaham.com/
https://fatherscountryhams.com/
Dittmer’s should be able to supply you with a haunch. Could be worth visiting just to see.
Thanks for this recommendation. I had never heard of this place. Wish I was closer looks like a fun place to try out some new lunch meats!
They are old style, standalone, German butcher shop. that has been around since the 70s 80s. They got a large selection of sausages. They also make their own pate, which is quite good. Give it a try when you are in the area. They carry bread from Esther’s German Bakery (among others) from across the street. So they got a little German thingy going on in that corner.
Covid hit them I think pretty hard. So hopefully they hang on.
I rarely buy ham but aside from Draegers, I recommend Piazza’s, up the hill on West Hillsdale Blvd/Hwy 92, in the shopping center. Everything there is top quality, from their produce to the butcher counter and everything in between.
If you have to pick one or two from these vendors that is reasonably close to jamon iberico, what would you pick?
None of these hams are similar to Jamón ibérico. These are smoked country hams and that smoking along with differences in process, breed and feed yield a very different product.
La Quercia makes a ham that is similar to Prosciutto de Parma and uses the same process. That said it is not as complex in flavor and texture as the airdried hams of Europe (IMO). But still very good.
There are some folks in Georgia working on it though. Lots of people in Spain are pissed off about this as well. They do not seem to be selling hams yet, just uncured meat at Acornseekers.
Encina Farms raises Iberico pigs here in the Bay Area. They sell at a few farmer’s markets, including the Saturday ones in Pleasanton and the SF Ferry Building, and the quality is excellent.
This thread is full of people all talking about pretty different products because of what people call “ham” regionally in this country and around the world.
Based on bbulkow’s original request of “all you’re doing is warming the danged thing” he was wanting a “city ham” which is an already quick cured and cooked pork leg which you take home, maybe glaze, and bake and slice (if not pre-sliced) and serve.
What the American South calls “country hams” are cured a little to a lot longer (usually but not always with smoke) and more resemble European cured hams (jamon, prosciutto, etc) depending on the length of cure. And depending on that cure, you either slice them super thin like their European counterparts and eat as such, or can do a day(s) long soak to remove salt, and then a long cook, still slicing thinner than you would a city ham. The flavor is more intense of course and not exactly what people (outside the south maybe) would think of an “Easter Ham” or whatever.
Lachsschinken is not a ham at all but a cured pork loin, Germany’s version of Spanish lomo (good versions of each are excellent but I prefer lomo cause I’m a pimenton slut, what can I say? I’m also half German which both sides say makes my preference worse — except for my mom, she still loves me).
Then there are “fresh hams” which are just the ham leg sold fresh which you then treat and cook. I like them all but this is a good option if you care to cook and not just heat up/slice for a festive occasion. You basically take your pork leg and brine it for a bit (or not) and then cook it, with the flavors you like. I can’t find the last one I made but it had some heat to it so it was something like this from Ryan: https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/chile-brined-fresh-ham (I remember making more of a chili sugar water that was painted on at the end but ya it’s been a while and that one is similar enough).
There are more names for different specific hams that fall into each of the categories of course but those are the basics of “hams” in this country.
Which one for you is best depends on the occasion and what you’re trying to do.
The discussion really changed course today with “sck” question
I go to the Piazza’s in downtown san carlos because it’s closer and the cheesemonger is really cool. The Piazza’s in Palo Alto might be closer in time but doesn’t have the cheese that san carlos has.
Hi! I didn’t know the distinction between a “city ham” and a “country ham”, but I can tell you what kind of occasion I’m thinking of.
I have a bunch of people over for dinner (10? 20?), and I cook a slab of meat, and I want that meat to be ham. I do not want to be an expert in curing ham for one (or a few) occasions. I want hot ham to be served, not cold. Imagine said people were about as sophisticated as present company, and if I got some kind of tinned armour ham there’s no way anyone would every show up at my house again.
In my extended family, a while ago, there was one gentleman from Virginia (I think he’d be listed as a cousin, as my grandmother’s sister’s husband, something like that), and Christmas day ham was from his tradition. I never found out where they came from, but they were good - I would now say fairly intense, but I was a young tyke with a smaller frame of reference than I do today. The family was from somewhere closer to the backwoods or southern part of virginia, not near DC, but honestly, knowing my grandmother, the hams could have been from Stu Leonards and dressed up in a tall virginnie tale.
Serving a hams where one leaves the curing to others do seem rather miraculous, and the idea of doing less work than my usual and serving a protein greatly admired seemed a plan, so I thought I’d ask how one goes about that.
Does that help with the occasion and goal portion?
