Maybe someone from or near Virginia can tell me what went wrong? Four years ago I had to travel to Virginia for a class, and while there I decided to get a "real" ham. I called a friend and asked if he wanted me to pick him up one, which he did. So I packed two huge Smithfield hams into my suitcase and brought them back.
We both decided we were going to be soooooo cool at Christmas with our delightful hams, and from what Vinnie tells me, he started soaking his (in the bathtub, too!) about the same time I started soaking mine. I scrubbed it, I soaked it, I scrubbed it some more, I soaked it some more - probably at least three days. I finally decided it was just supposed to smell that way (can't describe it other than chitlin's fresh out of the pig - you get the idea?) so I set it up to bake.
Half way through baking it (this is Christmas Eve, mind you) it stunk up the whole apartment so bad we had to leave, and even Grasshopper hid under the bed. I figured I was just being a weenie and it would probably be great, after all, they eat 'em in Virginia, don't they? Well, needless to say, it was the moldiest, saltiest, piggiest, stinkiest thing I ever tasted. Dadcat refused to even taste it and my friend called to ask what the hell did I bring him? Let's just say I cut it up and used a little of it for seasoning beans, the rest went in the trash. A well wasted $30.00. Not to mention going out for dinner Christmas, since we didn't have anything we could eat!
So, my question is either did I get a bad ham? or how are you supposed to cook 'em? Are they really supposed to stink like pig guts?