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Country Ham

TCurtis75

Senior
Feb 4, 2004
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Where is the best place to get country ham in Lexington? Does anywhere around have really good country ham? I don't eat it but my elderly mother wants me to take her some when I go see her this weekend.
 
Kroger carries Clifty Farm country ham which is pretty good. Paul's fruit markets in Louisville has better but I don't think they have a Lexington location.

 
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I guess I'm too old-school Kentucky to think of HoneyBaked/Heavenly hams as "country". They're tasty, but just "city ham" to me.

I grew up in small town KY and had rural relatives with hogs. They'd rub, cure, and hang the hams to age. We'd get a ham from them at Christmas. Old Kentucky ham is kind of an acquired taste with complex flavors. Derby Day with beaten bisquits and old ham!

Lots of states have country hams that are cured similarly. E.g. Virginia Ham, but the taste is different because the hogs are peanut-fed. Kentucky hogs tend to be raised corn/clover fed.

I no longer live in Lexington, but perhaps Critchfield Meats in Southland has some authentic Kentucky country ham. I remember getting an old ham sandwich at "Wallace Station" years ago. It's a little side-of-the-road restaurant in horse country between Versailles and Midway known for their sandwiches.
 
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Is there a difference from Country Ham and Breakfast Ham? Are we calling them the same thing in this thread?

I think we're talking about "salty" ham, which we always called breakfast ham....

(-;
 
Country ham can have the bone (circular bone) still in it. Delicious.
 
Is there a difference from Country Ham and Breakfast Ham? Are we calling them the same thing in this thread?

I think we're talking about "salty" ham, which we always called breakfast ham....

(-;
I hadn't heard the term "breakfast ham" before, but what I think you're referring to are also called ham steaks, yeah?
 
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I order ham and bacon from Benton’s Smoky Mountain Country Ham all the time. Both products are amazing!
 
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IDK about Lex, but go to Sulphur Well in Metcalfe County and eat at The Lighthouse. Great ham and the red eye gravy is a must. Good red eye gravy is so good. Yes it's horrible for you. I've been eating at that restaurant since the early 70s.

Lighthouse Restaurant
I have heard good things about The Lighthouse and have plans to go eat there. I've heard the stewed potatoes are the bomb. As for red eye gravy, my grandmother used to make it and we would use homemade biscuits to sop it up from the saucer. While it was delicious just talking about it makes me wonder why I don't have heart problems. 😂
 
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I have 3 salt cured hams hanging in the attic at the farm that we cured this past winter. Going to cut into one next month.
 
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We used to do that when I was a kid. I remember them hanging in our "smokehouse".
Best way to get them. Unfortunately, you can't buy them like that since our government decided in recent years that it is unsanitary, despite being a method used for tens-of-thousands of years to cure meat 🙄
 
Best way to get them. Unfortunately, you can't buy them like that since our government decided in recent years that it is unsanitary, despite being a method used for tens-of-thousands of years to cure meat 🙄

those big ass hams I see in groceries and for some reason truck stops aren't made in a smokehouse?
 
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