The Irish Ham wars

Muahahaha · 11-05-2019 7:05pm #1

I dont think Ive ever seen any food product advertised so widely and consistently on tv/radio as you do ham. Between Bradys Family ham, Dennys Deli style Crumbled Ham, Shaws Hand Carved ham, Carrolls Traditional Ham, O'Heliheys Cooked SLiced Ham, it goes on and on. Rarely a day goes by you dont hear an advertisement for ham but you rarely hear much for chicken, pork, beef, lamb etc.

I cant even remember the last time I bought any kind of sliced ham. Maybe I'm missing something here, is the rest of the nation completely obsessed with ham or something? The amount of advertising certainly seems to suggest so.

Just saw that the company behind Carrolls Ham in Tullamore sold in 2015 for €40m. Is ham some kind of black gold for the Irish? And ultimately who comes out top in the Irish Ham wars?

suicide_circus · 11-05-2019 7:07pm

how many potatoes does it take to kill an Irishman?

None.

Dtp1979 · 11-05-2019 7:08pm

If you ever saw how that “ham” was made, you’d think twice about eating it. Complete shjte

dxhound2005 · 11-05-2019 7:10pm

Dtp1979 wrote: »

If you ever saw how that “ham” was made, you’d think twice about eating it. Complete shjte

I believe it's made from pigs.

One eyed Jack · 11-05-2019 7:13pm

I don’t think you’re missing anything OP, you’ve probably just become more attuned to the advertising because you started to take notice.

In saying that though, ham sandwiches are fairly traditional Irish food anyway. I just thought about it there and I’d often have ham sandwiches for lunch, had bacon for dinner yesterday, and pork chops for dinner the previous day.

Now I think of it, I also had two beef steaks for supper the previous night. I don’t plan on becoming vegan any time soon, but maybe that’s why there’s an increasing amount of advertising around promoting meat in our diets, to compete with the constant barrage of nonsense about “adopting a vegan lifestyle” :rolleyes:

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 11-05-2019 7:15pm

11-05-2019 7:18pm

Leave that near me and I assure you it will be missing pieces.

zapitastas · 11-05-2019 7:20pm

Stopped eating ham a long time ago. The smell from it when you would first open a packet would turn your stomach. Fried bacon on the other hand i don't think I could ever stop

EmmetSpiceland · 11-05-2019 7:27pm

Anyone who’s eating that muck thinking it’s some sort of “gourmet” product is deluded. That stuff is sprayed off the pig carcass, swept off the floor and hammered into ham slices. The idea it’s sliced from a pig is laughable.

Some of those competitors are probably getting the processed ham from the same factories and just stamping their logo on it. Brady’s doesn’t run their business out of the grandfather’s shed.

Those lads in factories are smart, they don’t waste anything. The only part of the pig that’s left is the bung, the arsehole. Don’t think there’s a market for it here but places in the States have been getting away with selling it on as imitation calamari but not labelling it as imitation.

11-05-2019 7:32pm

Dtp1979 wrote: »

If you ever saw how that “ham” was made, you’d think twice about eating it. Complete shjte

A family member of mine does occasional work in a pig abbatoir doing veterinary inspections.

The Irish pork crisis of 2008 was caused by industrial oil getting into pig-feed, and it wasn't detected for months. My relative has relayed awful stories about pig carcasses not being properly tested for salmonella, and the test for a kind of parasite (trichinella, which lives under your skin, if contracted and cannot be removed) being routinely ignored.

There's only so much veterinary inspectors can do, because it isn't their job to supervise the lab staff. Thats the role of the QA manager who is an employee of an abbatoir.

Bad practices are an open secret in the pork farming and slaughtering sectors, I can't understand why it hasn't been picked up on by the likes of Prime Time Investigates, or even any young journalist with a bit of curiosity in them.

It's an industry with a disproportionate amount of chancers in it. Maybe due to the intensive nature of the farming, and the fact that its run by a very small number of farmers and processors.

Dodgy AF

Thelonious Monk · 11-05-2019 7:32pm

It's always some prick with a beard and check shirt or people going to GAA matches in the ads. I always thought the same, this country is obsessed with the stuff. That packet ham is all disgusting.

OldMrBrennan83 · 11-05-2019 7:34pm

Dtp1979 wrote: »

If you ever saw how that “ham” was made, you’d think twice about eating it. Complete shjte

No it all isnt. Like everything there's ****e and there's good stuff. And there's also stuff in between, whatever you're trying to peddle.

kneemos · 11-05-2019 7:35pm

dxhound2005 wrote: »

I believe it's made from pigs.

May contain nuts.

Sam Quentin · 11-05-2019 7:38pm

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

A family member of mine does occasional work in a pig abbatoir doing veterinary inspections.

The Irish pork crisis of 2008 was caused by industrial oil getting into pig-feed, and it wasn't detected for months. My relative has relayed awful stories about pig carcasses not being properly tested for salmonella, and the test for a kind of parasite (trichinella, which lives under your skin, if contracted and cannot be removed) being routinely ignored.

There's only so much veterinary inspectors can do, because it isn't their job to supervise the lab staff. Thats the role of the QA manager who is an employee of an abbatoir.

Bad practices are an open secret in the pork farming and slaughtering sectors, I can't understand why it hasn't been picked up on by the likes of Prime Time Investigates, or even any young journalist with a bit of curiosity in them.

It's an industry with a disproportionate amount of chancers in it. Maybe due to the intensive nature of the farming, and the fact that its run by a very small number of farmers and processors.

Dodgy AF

I bet you're a beef farmer!?

kneemos · 11-05-2019 7:41pm

Tried some Pork Scratchings a few weeks ago. Smell of pig out of the bag and they tasted like shoite, weren't even all crispy but soft like fat.
Need to be drunk I imagine.

Mena Mitty · 11-05-2019 7:48pm

kneemos wrote: »

Tried some Pork Scratchings a few weeks ago. Smell of pig out of the bag and they tasted like shoite, weren't even all crispy but soft like fat.
Need to be drunk I imagine.

I thought Pork Scratchings were dog treats. Are you sure they're sold for human consumption ?

11-05-2019 7:49pm

Sam Quentin wrote: »

I bet you're a beef farmer!?

ha! I come from a farm but I'm not a farmer. Beef abbatoirs have their own share of scandals, and they've been reported regularly.

Pig farming is different to other types of farming. There are only about 400 farmers in the country, some with thousands of pigs. So when something goes wrong in one of them, it turns into a wildfire.

And as far as I know there are only about 5 pig abbatoirs in the country. So again, if anything goes wrong (and it does), the repercussions are massive.

Combine that with a few dodgy characters / farmers... Well, be careful where you source your pork.

JohnnyFlash · 11-05-2019 7:53pm

I wouldn’t be a fussy eater at all, but I’ve pretty much given up eating pig meat. And if I do eat it then I buy proper fancy free range and slow breed stuff. Gubeen and the likes. They are lovely animals and I get a small bit depressed thinking about the intensive farming methods used so we can have cheap ham and sausages

freshpopcorn · 11-05-2019 7:57pm

I adore ham cant get enough of it but I prefer the stuff you cook yourself.
The packet stuff isn't great tough.
You've to search through packets and packets of it to get a packet that might be okay for a toasted sandwich.
I never got much good out of Denny or Carroll's tough.

kneemos · 11-05-2019 7:57pm

Mena Mitty wrote: »

I thought Pork Scratchings were dog treats. Are you sure they're sold for human consumption ?

Now!

Thelonious Monk · 11-05-2019 7:59pm

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

I wouldn’t be a fussy eater at all, but I’ve pretty much given up eating pig meat. And if I do eat it then I buy proper fancy free range and slow breed stuff. Gubeen and the likes. They are lovely animals and I get a small bit depressed thinking about the intensive farming methods used so we can have cheap ham and sausages

Same here, I saw some piglets playing with each other a few years ago, they're just like puppies. Haven't eaten pork in a few years, I get sad even thinking about their existences

I've never seen free range pork in Ireland mind.

fussyonion · 11-05-2019 8:02pm

Denny Fire & Smoke is the only ham I buy. I can't stand the ham that has loads of fat running through it.

suicide_circus · 11-05-2019 8:03pm

pork is the most consumed meat in the world

EmmetSpiceland · 11-05-2019 8:05pm

kneemos wrote: »

May contain nuts.

They wouldn’t be wasting succulent testicle meat on nasty packet ham. Scrotum and perineum, certainly, but the balls would be used for better products.

Muahahaha · 11-05-2019 8:08pm

fussyonion wrote: »

Denny Fire & Smoke is the only ham I buy. I can't stand the ham that has loads of fat running through it.

I know some people dont like fat running through it but wouldnt that be a sign that it was sliced off a single piece of the pig like the leg rather than being some kind of factory pressed reformed ham made from all the innards and entrails?

Charles Ingles · 11-05-2019 8:08pm

suicide_circus wrote: »

how many potatoes does it take to kill an Irishman?

None.

How offensive to the memories of those who died during the famine

Rows Grower · 11-05-2019 8:09pm

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

ha! I come from a farm but I'm not a farmer. Beef abbatoirs have their own share of scandals, and they've been reported regularly.

Pig farming is different to other types of farming. There are only about 400 farmers in the country, some with thousands of pigs. So when something goes wrong in one of them, it turns into a wildfire.

And as far as I know there are only about 5 pig abbatoirs in the country. So again, if anything goes wrong (and it does), the repercussions are massive.

Combine that with a few dodgy characters / farmers... Well, be careful where you source your pork.

There are loads of approved abbatoirs for the slaughter of pigs all over the country. There's probably 5 alone within an hours drive from my house.

I've bought piglets from one pig farm near Kilgarvan on more than a few occasions over the years and the conditions there are more hygienic than some houses I've worked in.

OldMrBrennan83 · 11-05-2019 8:10pm

Muahahaha wrote: »

I know some people dont like fat running through it but wouldnt that be a sign that it was sliced off a single piece of the pig like the leg rather than being some kind of factory pressed reformed ham made from all the innards and entrails?

Once it's all pressed and cooked you'd never know though. Grand stuff.

suicide_circus · 11-05-2019 8:12pm

Charles Ingles wrote: »

How offensive to the memories of those who died during the famine

yep thats the idea

whisky_galore · 11-05-2019 8:12pm

Muahahaha wrote: »

I know some people dont like fat running through it but wouldnt that be a sign that it was sliced off a single piece of the pig like the leg rather than being some kind of factory pressed reformed ham made from all the innards and entrails?

You'd have to have wonder about someone if they can't tell the difference between a single piece of pig and a Billy Roll.

OldMrBrennan83 · 11-05-2019 8:12pm

suicide_circus wrote: »

yep thats the idea

It's ok, we're the only ones who are fair game these days.

The Irish Ham wars

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