COUNTRY HAM AND EGG OMELET
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 pat (tablespoon) butter
- 1 thin slice country ham, chopped fine
- Black pepper to taste
Whisk the eggs together with the water. Melt the butter in a medium-sized non-stick skillet or a well-seasoned cast-iron skillet (or use an omelet pan). Meanwhile, chop a slice of country ham into small pieces. When the butter is melted, reduce heat to medium, pour whisked eggs into the pan, and dot top with the ham bits. Cook until omelet is solid on the bottom and around the edges and then turn it. When omelet is firm, slide the cooked egg-and-pork combination from the skillet onto a plate and serve immediately. No salt is needed because of the saltiness of the ham.
NOTE: This basic omelet can be fancified to suit all sorts of tastes through the addition of ingredients such as cheese, chives, chopped onions, cilantro, parsley, and the like.
JC
—Celebrating Southern Appalachian Food written by Jim Casada and Tipper Pressley
We love country ham. I know it’s too salty for some folks, but we all enjoy it. Getting it from our local grocery store has always been hit or miss. The same goes for streaked meat (salt pork).
A few months ago I decided I’d see if I could order some streaked meat online. I found Suncrest Farms and decided to try some from them. I noticed they had country ham and got some of it too.
We have greatly enjoyed both. Suncrest Farms is in North Carolina, you can read about the history of the third generation farm here.
You pick up a copy of our cookbook here.
Last night’s video: Packing for Camping Trip & Picking More Berries.
Tipper
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I like the Suncrest country ham too. I used to find it at Food Lion too but the last several times I have gotten any it was from an Ingles but I live about 40 minutes away from the Ingles closest to us. When I was growing up some of my mother’s family still kept hog(s) on the family farm and my aunt would make a ham at holiday time so I grew up liking country ham. My husband did not grow up eating it but he has come round to the right side now : ) I never knew my mother to wash it off to get some of the salt out so that was new to me to hear people did that, so I tried that because it is too salty for my son and I was trying to get him to still eat a little. Country ham makes a great dinner meal too with the right sides.
Best Breakfast with country ham. Get mine Daniel Boone Country Ham at Ingles made Boone NC like I helped Grandfather make same as his. we killed 10 hogs a year!° Try it Tipper same as Hardee’s, Bojangles!!!!
I love country ham, usually have it with biscuits, grits and maybe cantaloupe, if it’s in season. And red eyed gravy. I agree with you Randy, eggs must be well done!
That combination sounds really good to me and like what I grew up enjoying at home.
Suncrest Farms is a little over 30 miles from here as the crow flies. Surely they would have their products in stores near here. I’ll have to look the next time I have to go out.
Suncrest Country Ham is delicious! We send several pounds to NC friends who now live in AZ every year at Christmas. They say NC country ham is something they miss so much living in AZ as no one knows what country ham is out there. We still have my grandparent’s smokehouse on our property where my grandpa cured hams. Nothing like a country ham biscuit for me. This recipe looks yummy, and I plan to try it; thanks for sharing.
Yum! That sounds delicious! Have a wonderful camping trip ! Praying for all !
I ordered the country ham and salt pork from Suncrest farms and the porkskins.
Everything was delicious, seasoned just right. Thank you for the referring them.
It’s almost like making a frittata with prosciutto, except the ham is probably smoked (I’m guessing?) instead of just air-dried in your shed for a couple of years. The country cuisine of many cultures sort of converges, with similar foodstuffs, similar preservation methods and similar preparation methods. It’s the small subtle differences that make for an occasional interesting departure from the same old thing in home cooking.
I love omelettes! We have chickens and get more eggs than we know what to do with this time of year, so eggs are often on the menu. Recently I have been making sheet pan omelettes by whisking a dozen eggs, adding 1/2 c milk and salt and pepper to it and then putting parchment paper on a cookie sheet and pouring the egg mixture onto it . Then you can add any assortment of toppings you’d like and fully customize it to your taste and preferences (cheese, meat, veggies, hashbrowns etc). Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350 and you have a quick protein meal that can feed several people vs cooking each omelette individually! It makes great leftovers, too. Have a blessed day, Acorns!
You can pickle and can your excess eggs.
Thank you, Mr. Ammons! Wonderful suggestions. 🙂
I love country ham, Yum!! And I love your cookbook!
I’m praying for Papaw Tony.
Country-cured ham and eggs with grits is good for you. That’s one of my top choices for a supper meal, too. Hot buttered biscuits and honey finish it off, that and a glass of cold milk. As my dad would say, “If the good Lord made anything better than this, He kept it for Himself.”
Gene, you have done gone and “flung a craving” on me. This is an example of a breakfast we would eat when I was a kid before leaving for school or Daddy for work when I was growing up. There was no cereal or toast in the house. Mother and Daddy would work together and get up early enough to cook this. My all time favorite breakfast is fried steak of lean or fatback, milk gravy made using the grease (hunky doo in my family) and homemade biscuits. A good piece of homegrown cantaloupe to go along with this would make you whoop and holler for joy. I think I would ask for this for my last meal if I was on death row.
I mean this in a humorous way , but want to add it to my first comment. The ones that think store bought brand of country ham is salty need to try salt cured ham like it use to be when folks killed their own hogs and would salt cure their hams, fat back, streak of lean and in our family, the shoulders in a large (feet not inches) wooden box and cover the meat with many pounds of salt. This would have been in 50 and 60’s when winter weather would turn cold around Thanksgiving and stay cold until spring.
Osage Farms in Rabun Gap always has side meat (streaked meat) and usually has ham whenever the produce stand is open. I go there and stock up in the summer so I have it all year. It is from Suncrest Farms and is excellent.
Hi Tipper and Acorns. TY so much for the recipe and the link. I want some of their Fresh Peach Salad too. I enjoyed y’all video last night about the packing and berry picking. I found a hanger and pole to make a berry pickin’ hook. The neighbor burned all the blackberries in his brush pile. Some folks have no use for what The LORD provides. I’ll add him and his family to my prayers. Ed has been having nosebleeds and anxiety these past 2 weeks because of the smoke and smoldering. That too will pass. Keep us in your prayers, I’m looking for a place to move to. We need closer to the Medical Center anyway. I don’t want to live in the city but it won’t matter. The LORD sent us here when we needed shelter and HE will send us somewhere else. I keep everyone here and up Wilson Holler in my prayers. I’m so glad to hear Papaw Tony is doing ok with his treatments. I keep him and his in my prayers as well. I want to thank you all for keeping Ed and me in your prayers, we feel the blessings, they get us thru most days. Love y’all.
I am sorry for what you and Ed are going through. I am praying for you and these difficult situations, Barbara.
I also love country ham. In the past, I have ate Suncrest ham but now I most often buy Thomas Brothers if the local Bargin Store has it. I will buy up to 5 packs at a time if it has a long expiration date and have froze some of it at times. I have noticed there are many different brands of country ham , most all of them are located in NC. I am lucky, I can streaked meat along with fatback at a local produce store. It is not like what you get in a grocery store, it is more like what we had when we killed our own hog. They also have fresh sausage each week starting on Wednesday made using a longtime family recipe. People come from miles around to get the sausage, I have saw people from far away as Georgia with ice chest buying 25 lbs or more at a time. One quick family memory, in the late 70’s my wife’s widowed grandaddy and a friend would go and camp with other members of the family at Oconee State Park at Mountain Rest, SC. He raised his own hogs and cured his own hams. He would be up at first light cooking ham, eggs and coffee. You could smell it all over the park. He had became friends with the park ranger and the ranger would come by and eat breakfast with him. Another good memory of past times with family that makes me wish I could turn back the hands of time.
Great post. Yesterday before church Diane made me a beautiful breakfast of country ham and an over easy fried egg with a piece of bread fried in some saved bacon grease. Nothing better.
Ron, I am teasing with you, but please, please , please don’t bring a half raw, runny yolk egg! I love eggs -scrambled, fried, or deviled or about any other way, just as long as they are well done. When I worked the third shift and would eat with my coworkers in the cafeteria, my stomach would do a”flip flop” when seeing some of them eating those runny yolk eggs. I do cook my eggs in left over bacon, or sausage grease, but often make red eye gravy after cooking country ham for my grits, keep the oatmeal.
Randy, I like eggs fried in hot grease in a hot cst iron skillet after frying sausage, bacon or ham. Spoon the grease over the egg, watch for the edges to turn brown and put it on the plate. Those sometimes crunchy spots but with the yolk soft solid are just the best as far as I’m concerned. I’ve never found them just right anywhere except Mom’s breakfast table.
sounds good!
It sounds quite delicious! Never heard of a spoon of water in eggs to whisk. Maybe that explains my “lack luster” eggs. I hope you have a wonderful camping trip! I bought country ham and although it’s salty (and to me somewhat stinky) it’s tasty on a biscuit. I bet it would be great in an omelet too. Have a blessed day everybody!
Sounds delicious!
thank you for the recipe, I probably won’t ever eat any more ham, they seem to have a little too much sodium in it for me, I’m going to the doctor today if good Lord is willing, see a neurosurgeon, got to make some arrangements to see about getting a picture made of this thing in my head, it’s been a year, it’s time for a follow-up to see what’s going on, possible aneurysm, the doctor told me last year he thought it was an infundibulum, I hope it hasn’t changed and I hope they don’t find anything else new, pray for me and thank you and God bless everybody, God bless Matt’s father Tony, with deliverance from cancer, heal his body and make him well in Jesus name, Amen, and God bless you and your family in Jesus name
Praying for your appt, Norman