Thought it was a ham joint, it's pork - slow cooker help

Spendless

Mr S informed me he'd bought a ham joint from the butchers stalls at our market. I thought it looked like pork when he fetched it home,but believed either it had been labelled ham or the butcher had told him it was, so today I put it in the slow cooker all day.

Came home, having been out all day and realised it was pork and not ham. Turns out husband has just assummed it was ham cos 'it looked like it'!! It doesn't smell as pleasant as ham does in the sc and is bland tasting. If I'd known it was pork, I'd have put in more ingredients to flavour (eg onions) if I was cooking it in sc, but I'd have been much more likely to roast it.

Husband suggested putting in the oven to crisp up the skin, but I can't see that improving the flavour or throwing it in the bin, saying it only worked out at around £2.50. The price is cheap due to living in a large market town and having a regular indoor market with plenty of butchers stalls.

Any other suggestions?

elsien

Turn it into a curry?

THIRZAH

Pull it apart and mix with spicy beans and serve in tacos or heat it up in a BBQ sauce or even add to tomato sauce and serve with pasta.

thriftwizard

I did this, not all that long ago - took what I assumed was a ham out of the freezer, defrosted it & chucked it into the SC with water, onions, celery, carrot, bay leaves, pepper, cloves & juniper berries, which is how I do ham. But it was pork... didn't taste too bad, I have to say, but not very special. I think I'd have added quite a bit of salt if I'd realised in time!

We did use up the meat; I think I casseroled it with cider, chopped peppers & tiny bits of hot salami. But the stock was very bland & started to ferment just about as soon as it cooled, so it went out very quickly.

jackyann

pull it apart, stir fry the strips with BBQ sauce or similar - peppers, onions & tomatoes if you have any.
Left-overs: mince with onion & sage + some other herbs & make rissoles
or chunk with apples, onions & herbs into a "fidget pie"
you can also make some gravy, par boil some potatoes, make some suet pastry and make a proper "ock'n'dough"
this recipe uses ham, but it was also made with beef, and pork was considered one of the best: http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/what-s-on/northamptonshire-food-traditions-explored-1-989291

SailorSam

Spendless wrote: »

throwing it in the bin,

Any other suggestions?

You wouldn't really throw it away would you.
Curries and casseroles and stir frys, or even enough lunch time butties for the week.

madvixen

Shred it and mix it with some BBQ sauce - it's yummy :-)

trolleyrun

Ehm, isn't ham and pork the same thing? As in it's from the same animal?

theoretica

Bland is fine - means you can add whatever flavour you like. I would chop it up and add to tomato passata + whatever else I felt like for a pasta sauce.

SailorSam

trolleyrun wrote: »

Ehm, isn't ham and pork the same thing? As in it's from the same animal?

Pork is when it's fresh off the animal, it becomes ham whem it;s been processed in some way.

Spendless

Thanks for the suggestions. I like the pulled pork or taco ideas, though would probably use tortillas instead. Curry doesn't appeal with pork, I know you get it on chinese menus though not (usually) Indian ones.

Yes, I would have gone with husband's other suggestion of slinging it, if it couldn't be improved. I decided to ask here first, but if the answer had been 'there's nothing that can be done' in the bin it would have gone.

Perhaps people call them gammon joints rather than ham? I'm aware that pork and ham are from the same animal but the joints are different. They are different flavours, not sure to explain how or why, but at a carvery pork and ham are 2 different choices. Thanks for the info that someone else did the same thing. I will quiz husband more carefully in future if I think something doesn't look right.