Hams.
—Hams are of two general kinds, short-cut and long-cut. The former are made from comparatively fat, plump hams, trimmed short and round at the butt, and the shank cut off at the hock joint. They are sold either as Regular Short-Cut, Skinned, or Boneless Rolled Hams. Long-cut hams are lean, long hams, with the butt left full and the foot taken off at the first joint below the hock. The principal grades are Regular Long-Cut, Stafford Cut, Manchester Cut and Italian Cut Hams.
Short-Cut or American Cut Hams.
—These are cut from the side midway between the hench-bone and slip-bone,[A] trimmed round at the butt, cushion[B] faced full, not undercut on the skin side, and shank cut off in or above the hock joint. Until 1909 the Board of Trade required that the shank be cut above the hock so as to expose the marrow. Practically all hams are sold as sweet-pickled or smoked meats. For regular delivery on the Chicago Board of Trade as sweet-pickled hams, they must average, in lots, not to exceed 16 pounds, with no ham to weigh less than 12 pounds and none to weigh over twenty pounds. The short-cut hams is the leading ham cut and has to a large extent taken the place of the long-cut ham in export trade.
[A] The hench-bone is the flat portion of the hip-bone that remains attached to the socket joint of the ham when the hog is split. The slip bone is the portion of the hip-bone that lies in contact with the back-bone near the end of the loin.
[B] The cushion is the fat butt of the ham where the tail piece is cut off.
FIG. 115.—BONELESS ROLLED HAMS.
Short-cut hams are graded by packers according to the brand of smoked hams for which they are suitable. For the first brand (known as “extra selected” or “fancy-cured” hams) they are selected for thickness and firmness of lean meat, plump, well rounded shape, solid, white fat or medium thickness (one to two inches on a medium-weight ham), smooth, soft skin, bright color, small shank and absence of bruises. The bulk of this grade weigh 10 to 16 pounds, 10 to 12 pounds being most desirable for family trade, and 14 to 16 pounds for hotels and restaurants. See [Fig. 113]. Second brand or second grade hams (frequently termed No. 1’s) are deficient in one or more of the points just mentioned, but must be reasonably good in general quality and not exceedingly deficient in any particular. Many of them are too fat for the first brand. The third brand (also known as “seconds”), includes those from which a skin-bruise has been removed, also thin, light hams and any others which lack the shape and quality required for regular meat market trade.
