This weekend I stumbled upon a full display case at the Cub Foods on Elston devoted to country ham products from Hobe's of North Carolina. After my Virginia ham satori in September, I've had the hankering but not the ability to enjoy a Southern cured ham (as noted elsewhere, I am a lazy man and would therefore be disinclined to purchase all or part of a ham that required soaking and baking). Anyway, I saw this whole display of Southern ham products (mostly hocks for flavoring), and saw they had end cuts from cured hams. So I bought a pack and promptly fried it up. I found it somewhat disappointing, because while it had the requisite funk, it had none of the smoke I loved in the Virginia version (the best of which, by the way, I had at the evergreen Mama Steve's Pancake House in Williamsburg). No smoke, a lot of salt, plenty of funky rotten ham flavor (in a good way), but not my ideal. Anybody have suggestions on where I could get a labor un-intensive fix for a Virginia style, smoke cured ham -- i.e., a small portion thereof?
JiLS