True Southern Maryland Stuffed Ham: Basic Recipe

[Joseph Allison]

This is the true Recipe. This may be altered to taste.


Ingredients:

1 Salted (Country) Ham at least two months old, or older.
(Preferably from North Carolina) as large as you can find, 25 pound or better.

3 cored Cabbages (save the core)

4 Vidalia Onions if available, or a half bowl or better of wild onion

Cracked Peppercorn, about a half cup

Fresh, whole Red Peppers (smallest you can find for flavor - smell the stem for ripeness).

Slaw Cabbage and Onion, Boil until it smells

Add Cracked Peppercorn and slawed Red Pepper to taste

Carefully remove the covering of the Ham, it will be re-boiled in this wrapping

Take a knife, and cut holes in Ham. Twirling a large knife is preferred method as deep as you can

​

Squeeze out cooking water from Cabbage and Onions

​

Fill the holes with the solids, add more salt to taste, or, season as desired

​

Re-wrap Ham in what should be a wax or hardened cheese cloth, tie up tightly

Place in large pot, suspend from bottom with river rocks (much like crabs) Fill to cover Ham with more water if not enough was used to boil the Cabbage and Onion and Re-Boil at just a skooch lower than boiling for at least 5 hours.

​

Half way through, add Cabbage Cores and re-fill pot with boiling water (the aroma will tell you when it's just right for this) water level should be a little lower than the top of the Ham.

When it was about done, Momma would add a half bottle of Honey to the water, and then when it was done, she would re-use the water for potatoes, and trimmings from the Ham.

Refrigerate and serve ice cold, with Mustard/Sour Cream Sauce, or anything you care to add, but it might not be necessary (she had one she added several years later it seems)

It is actually better if allowed to cool on the table for several hours - this is the Christmas Recipe from my Mother's cook book.

​

Enjoy. There's other Recipes available, but this is the Genuine one, from Fenwick.​

 

[ImnoMensa]

Must be from down the county.

Here in the 7th. we use half and half Cabbage and Kale.
Spring onions if we can get them.
Leave out the peppercorn and add a little mustard & celery seed use a little red pepper to taste. Salt & Pepper.

The rest of it is about right. An old but clean pillowcase will work as well as cheese cloth.

The real problem now is getting a good corned ham. No company does them right any more they dont cure them properly. Instead of soaking them in the corning solution (brine & sugar, a tad of sodium nitrate for color) they squirt a solution in them that sometimes doesnt go through all of the meat. Leaving some of the ham still fresh,you can tell it in the color.

Also many of the caterers and stores that sell stuffed hams get lazy and dont stuff them. They bone them and stick the stuffing in the hole the bone came out of and tie it all together along with a bag of stuffing and then steam them .

It isnt bad that way,but it isnt Gen-you-wine either.

You can tell pretty easily if this was done because there arent any slices that have round holes with stuffing in them. They just slice it off and throw the stuffing on top of the slices. Most of the church dinners are done this way too. Its a lot easier , and only the diner with educated taste buds can tell the difference.

Now a days some people will bake a stuffed ham, but to me its dry and salty.
Boiling is the only real way. Bring 'er to a rolling boil and then back 'er down a bit.
I stopped guessing about cooking time a few years ago and now use a meat thermometer. 160 in the center is the rule I usually go to 165 just for good measure.
Cool it down in the ice box or if its freezing outdoors sit it on a table on the back porch.
Make sure the dog cant get it.

 

[wood Butcher]

Everyone seems to have their own recipe for stuffed ham, St. Mary's County Stuffed Ham that is. Since very few people, except in St Mary's County, make this wonderful traditional dish than we should refer to it by its proper name. I agree with the second post from the 7th District. Half kale, half cabbage, onions, celery, mustard seed, salt and red pepper flakes are the correct ingrediants. Boiling the ham is by far the best way to prepare it.

 

[FerretRescue]

Must be from down the county.

Here in the 7th. we use half and half Cabbage and Kale.
Spring onions if we can get them.
Leave out the peppercorn and add a little mustard & celery seed use a little red pepper to taste. Salt & Pepper.

The rest of it is about right. An old but clean pillowcase will work as well as cheese cloth.

The real problem now is getting a good corned ham. No company does them right any more they dont cure them properly. Instead of soaking them in the corning solution (brine & sugar, a tad of sodium nitrate for color) they squirt a solution in them that sometimes doesnt go through all of the meat. Leaving some of the ham still fresh,you can tell it in the color.

Also many of the caterers and stores that sell stuffed hams get lazy and dont stuff them. They bone them and stick the stuffing in the hole the bone came out of and tie it all together along with a bag of stuffing and then steam them .

It isnt bad that way,but it isnt Gen-you-wine either.

You can tell pretty easily if this was done because there arent any slices that have round holes with stuffing in them. They just slice it off and throw the stuffing on top of the slices. Most of the church dinners are done this way too. Its a lot easier , and only the diner with educated taste buds can tell the difference.

Now a days some people will bake a stuffed ham, but to me its dry and salty.
Boiling is the only real way. Bring 'er to a rolling boil and then back 'er down a bit.
I stopped guessing about cooking time a few years ago and now use a meat thermometer. 160 in the center is the rule I usually go to 165 just for good measure.
Cool it down in the ice box or if its freezing outdoors sit it on a table on the back porch.
Make sure the dog cant get it.

Sounds good, are the any places that sell this already made?

 

[Mikeinsmd]

Sounds good, are the any places that sell this already made?

Absolutely.... Chaptico Market & Murphys in Avenue.

Others will chime in with locations further down the county.

 

[onebdzee]

Absolutely.... Chaptico Market & Murphys in Avenue.

Others will chime in with locations further down the county.

I mostly get mine from that place on Mt. Chance Farm

I get it for free 'cause the youngest mutt really likes it

 

[FerretRescue]

thanks all. I will give them a try....

 

[bcp]

screw that.
McDonalds is open on TG now.

 

[Dukesdad]

a little variation

I like to use collard greens or mustard greens in mine as well as the cabbage and kale. It gives it a little different flavor.
My recipe also incorporates Wild Turkey Bourbon. (That goes in my while stuffing the ham...)

 

[BadGirl]

In the original posters note, he said to use a salted country ham.

We always used a corned ham, not a salted country ham. What does stuffed ham taste like with a salted country ham? It sounds yucky.

 

[Mikeinsmd]

In the original posters note, he said to use a salted country ham.

We always used a corned ham, not a salted country ham. What does stuffed ham taste like with a salted country ham? It sounds yucky.

Corned ham is whatya want.

 

[onebdzee]

In the original posters note, he said to use a salted country ham.

We always used a corned ham, not a salted country ham. What does stuffed ham taste like with a salted country ham? It sounds yucky.

salted country ham is the ham that is salt cured....you have to soak the ham for several days(changing the water every 6 hours or so) to get the salt off

I have to agree with Mikey....corned ham is the way to go

 

[aFTeRLiFe]

Sounds good, are the any places that sell this already made?

Raley's in ridge!

 

[vraiblonde]

In the original posters note, he said to use a salted country ham.

We always used a corned ham, not a salted country ham. What does stuffed ham taste like with a salted country ham? It sounds yucky.

Thank you. It's a corned ham! Period! End of story!

Friggin salted ham. Come here. Dumb bell.

 

[FireBrand]

True Story !
When I worked at Webster Field many years ago, there was a girl in my office that had just moved down here from DC, city born and raised.
Someone had given her a recipe for stuffed ham and she had to try it out for herself.
While cooking the ham on a Sunday, she realized that she had no cheesecloth
to wrap the ham up in, so she used the only other available alternative..a pair of pantyhose.

She said that the resulting ham tasted a little funny.
We told her that she should have used a 'clean' pair of panyhose.

I'm sure that the melted nylon gave off some noxious results !

City girl never lived that one down !

 

[SLIM]

In the original posters note, he said to use a salted country ham.

We always used a corned ham, not a salted country ham. What does stuffed ham taste like with a salted country ham? It sounds yucky.

SALTY!!!

 

[SLIM]

Must be from down the county.

Here in the 7th. we use half and half Cabbage and Kale.
Spring onions if we can get them.
Leave out the peppercorn and add a little mustard & celery seed use a little red pepper to taste. Salt & Pepper.

The rest of it is about right. An old but clean pillowcase will work as well as cheese cloth.

The real problem now is getting a good corned ham. No company does them right any more they dont cure them properly. Instead of soaking them in the corning solution (brine & sugar, a tad of sodium nitrate for color) they squirt a solution in them that sometimes doesnt go through all of the meat. Leaving some of the ham still fresh,you can tell it in the color

Also many of the caterers and stores that sell stuffed hams get lazy and dont stuff them. They bone them and stick the stuffing in the hole the bone came out of and tie it all together along with a bag of stuffing and then steam them .

It isnt bad that way,but it isnt Gen-you-wine either.

You can tell pretty easily if this was done because there arent any slices that have round holes with stuffing in them. They just slice it off and throw the stuffing on top of the slices. Most of the church dinners are done this way too. Its a lot easier , and only the diner with educated taste buds can tell the difference.

Now a days some people will bake a stuffed ham, but to me its dry and salty.
Boiling is the only real way. Bring 'er to a rolling boil and then back 'er down a bit.
I stopped guessing about cooking time a few years ago and now use a meat thermometer. 160 in the center is the rule I usually go to 165 just for good measure.
Cool it down in the ice box or if its freezing outdoors sit it on a table on the back porch.
Make sure the dog cant get it.

I'm from the 'MIDDLE' of the county(Oakville) and this recipe is very close to how we make it! I have never heard of making it with 'country' ham and asked my 75 yr old mother and she hasn't either.
Everyone has made up thier own rendition of the 'TRUE' St.Mary's Stuffed Ham just like you would an apple pie or something. Corned Ham it should be and instead of mustard seed you can use ground mustard and instead of celery seed you can use chopped celery or the flakes or the salt, that way you don't have to worry about getting seeds stuck in your teeth!
My mom also told me that you knew it was "hot" enough when your hands started feeling 'warm' from the red pepper when you mixed it up!
And we don't cook the veggies before we stuff!
And last but not least,
BY GAWD don't throw away those old pillow cases!

 

[SLIM]

screw that.
McDonalds is open on TG now.

Too bad you can't just run to the store and get some, your too far up the road! I'll save you some at Thanksgiving time and send it to ya!

 

[Gigi]

Corned Ham is a must. 7th District all the way.. My grandmother used to make it and it was great. My new husband and I make one every Thanksgiving and sometimes at Christmas. We use to get our mix from Mattingly's and now they are gone. I know it is kind of cheating but, let me tell you getting all of those ingredients cut up and seasoned is alot of HARD work. Now that Mattingly's is gone I will try McKays but, no one can top Mattinglys Stuffing mix.

It is funny to see how many different recipes there are for Southern Maryland Stuffed ham...

 

[czygvtwkr]

Boiled meat is spoiled meat