The One-Step Solution To Overly Salty Store-Bought Ham

A ham can be a frugal way to bulk-purchase plenty of delicious pork. But what if your only options are all cheaper, brined versions with too much salt for your palate? Good news: All you have to do is give them a nice long bath. Keep in mind that these suggestions are for whole, American cured hams — it's not recommended to soak "charcuterie" hams like Jamón Ibérico.

Sometimes a ham is just overly seasoned, but most of the time, the ham labels you need to avoid at the store include things like "water added" or "ham and water product." These mean manufacturers brined the meat before packaging, so salt water replaced some of its natural juices.

Luckily, all you need to do is submerge the ham in cold water for a few hours to draw out the excess brine. Brine naturally moves to areas of lower concentration, so over the course of four to six hours, it exits the ham and diffuses through the bath.

Be sure to rinse off the ham afterward to remove salt from the surface. This method is particularly effective with brined hams but is less so with cured varieties. However, just because it's not quite as effective doesn't mean water isn't key to correcting an overly salted aged ham. You'll just need more patience.

Cured hams are a bit different than brined ones. Typically, these hunks of delicious pork were salted, smoked, and then left to dry for months on end. Since they're aged, their muscle fibers have hardened up and stiffened, making them much drier than their brined cousins. Top-notch American purveyors of cured hams actually recommend soaking cured ham, regardless of your salt preferences, to loosen up the muscle fibers and make them more delicious.

A "country" ham, one that's been aged between three to six months, should soak between 12 and 24 hours. At 12 hours, the muscle fibers have been adequately hydrated to be palatable, so it's good to eat. However, you can soak for up to 24 hours if you prefer them to be less salty.

Some hams, often considered the grand champions of the ham world, age for up to a whole year. These need to soak for a minimum of 24 hours and a maximum of 36, depending on your tastes. Hams need to be quite sizable to stand up to a full year of curing, so the extra soaking time accounts for their mass.

Regardless of the type of ham, change the water every four hours. If you buy a cured ham with mold on the outside, don't throw it out! This is a normal part of long curing processes; all you have to do is gently scrub the mold off before beginning a soak.