On Wed, 15 Apr 2009 09:52:02 -0400, "cybercat" >
wrote:

>
>"Damsel in dis Dress" > wrote in message
.. .
>> On Wed, 15 Apr 2009 09:07:07 -0400, "cybercat" >
>> wrote:
>>
>>>I figured it out. It's a ruse to attract people who hate the salty crap
>>>(even properly prepared and "sliced paper thin to release the full country
>>>flavor") and make them buy it anyway.
>>>
>>>I'm betting that enough of them miss the fact that is is cured with 8 cups
>>>of salt and 2 cups of sugar that it works, too.
>>>
>>>Refrigeration. It's a good thing.
>>>
>>>Why return to the hams of your technologically impoverished forbears?
>>>
>>>Do you think they LIKED all that salt?
>>>
>>>IT WAS THE ONLY WAY THEY HAD TO PRESERVE MEAT.
>>
>> I sense a little reticence. Let it out, hon. We're here for you!
>>
>> Carol, who doesn't like salty food, but finds Smithfield ham strangely
>> and strongly addictive (Maybe it's the way Boli slices it)
>>
>
>I gotta be me. But I would defend your right to love country ham, Smithfield
>or otherwise, to the death. Just don't believe there is such a thing as
>"sugar cured" country ham, e.g., country ham that is not cured primarily
>with SALT.
>


You just don't understand the terminology or it has been used
incorrectly to give you the wrong impression. A sugar cured country
ham does, indeed, have lots of salt in the cure mixture, but also
includes sugar. These hams can be cured with salt and NO sugar or with
a combo...when it's a combo, it's referred to as "sugar cured."

All sorts of country ham cure instructions he

http://www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/foods/458-223/458-223.html