Yesterday I found a new product in the deli section of the supermarket. It was in a vacuum pack and hanging with the packages of sliced salami, ham, cheese, and other sandwich fixings -- Shaved Country Ham. Woo hoo!
The product was from Clifty Farms -- a Tennessee company that sells whole country hams as well as country ham steaks, ham pieces (for seasoning), and thin slices of raw ham for biscuits. Clifty doesn't make the best country ham around, but it's pretty good and Clifty does make the most ubiquitous products (you can find the company's ham in most grocery stores in the area) in the greatest range of packaging. This product was different in several ways. It was pre-cooked, sliced very thin (about 1/16 inch), and being marketed as a sandwich meat. It was also labeled "American Prosciutto," but I'll save you my rant about that. Suffice to say, I had no choice but to buy a package and make a sandwich.
I decided a panini would be best. I had a loaf of fairly good French bread that was getting old, but would do fine for a grilled sandwich and I bought a wedge of Alpenzeller reasoning that its flavor was strong enough to stand up to the ham. Brushed with olive oil and grilled on my cast iron grill pan, I had a marvelous lunch with the salt in the ham pairing perfectly with the acid in the cheese.
By the way, Clifty Farms products are available online as well.
For more recipes and essays on food and cooking log on to my blog, Seriously Good.
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Comments: 14
Yum, now I'm going to have to get my grill out!
I almost never buy bread -- I usually make it myself. But there's a Whole Foods lookalike here that produces damned good bread and so sometimes I buy it. The best panini bread is somewhat chewey with an open crumb -- almost always made of unbleached bread flour. You need a bread that can stand up to the pressure of the press. Most bread works better grilled in the sense of "fried" than gril in the sense of placed on a grill.
And personally, I think home-baked sourdough is the absolute best.
Donna,
A Lodge. Their products aren't what they used to be, but the two-burner grill/griddle is a good grill (and probably a poor griddle, but I have a Calphalon griddle I use).
Shawna,
Pshaw. If you're not going to use fat then you've entirely missed the point -- especially when you've got a sandwich made of ham and cheese. Go eat some raw veggies and go to bed unsatisfied.
If it's similar to sandwich thingy I gave my brother for Christmas a few years back, absolutely.
I have some very old Lodge cast iron pans. They truly are wonderful.
Check out the Clifty Farms Web site.
http://sandwichrecipes.gather.com/
And you're absolutely right - calling country ham "American Prosciutto" is ridiculous, especially when there is such a thing as domestically produced prosciutto. Not to mention that the two are nothing alike in taste or texture.