Ham and protein

Reyman

Does anyone know how ham rates as a protein source? It's handy for making sandwiches and I like the good quality types but I'm doubtful about how processed it is and the dodgy additives.

Any views?

rubadub

In a thread ages ago somebody was saying it was a bad choice, red meat & chicken being better. Then I mentioned this again and another poster said it was fine, and seemed to know their stuff.

One thing I know is many are watered down, cheap processed ham can be low in protein due to all the added water, and is full of additives and other crap. The packaging will usually state the full ingredients, so just check it, also check the small print for "reformed cuts" or other nice ways of saying MRM http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanically_separated_meat

hardtrainer

Its easy enough to tell the difference between the reformed cuts and the actual slices of ham from a joint. The good stuff is good, on a par with chicken, the reformed stuff is a little over processed, but the protein content is similar. The water content is down to the curing process. When you salt pork to cure it, the result is that cooking the meat causes the meat to take on water, hence the added water in a lot of ham. The only thing you should watch with pork is the salt content.

rubadub

hardtrainer wrote: »

Its easy enough to tell the difference between the reformed cuts and the actual slices of ham from a joint.

Usually it is fairly obvious, but I have seen some more expensive ones that look quite similar, like they went out of their way to make it look real, and slap on a high price so you presume it is "real".