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After all these years of enjoying Virginia ham, I just learned something yesterday that has me quite flummoxed! It has to do with the color of ham. OK. Slice a good Virginia ham, salted and smoked. Those slices are pink in color--sometimes nearly red, but not like raw meat, of course. Think of prosciutto. Nice and red, right? Or deep pink. Now think about fresh pork. It's sort of pink, and then you bake it and it comes out whitish-beige or whitish-gray with perhaps a bit of a pink center, which is fine as long as the temperature is hot enough. Here's my question: Why doesn't ham turn whitish-beige in the smokehouse? Why does smoked ham retain its pink color that actually deepens to a deep pink or even a red while smoking? Could it be that the temperature in the smoking process is never high enough to turn the pork whitish? The reason I ask this is because my mother cooked a fresh ham yesterday, something rarely done here. And, of course, it turned out whitish-beige and tasted, as expected, like fresh pork. And that made me wonder about smoked ham and why it doesn't turn the same color as fresh ham. I suspect it's the temperature difference in preparation, but would appreciate someone setting me straight. I'll bet of troy knows. 
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Carpal Tunnel
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Smoke has aldehydes that are very strongly antibacterial.
The temperatures are only high enough to promote dehydration, which coupled with salt, counter growth of
bacteria.
We've all heard of "red herring". I suspect color change
in the curing of herring is analogous.
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Carpal Tunnel
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ham is cured but not 'cooked' (in the conventional 'heat it till internal temp is 'XXX degrees). and the color comes from both the color of the meat, and the curing process. if you 'cook it' after its cured, it gets paler, but not as 'white' as cooked uncured pork.
cooking is just one method of making meat safe to eat. cooking kills of certain bacteria, and dries meat, (making it harder for other(a new crop!) bacteria to gain a foothold)
salting/sugar curing/and drying and smoking all do the same thing (by different methods.)
we have all seen old newpapers turn yellow, and then brown, and to finally flake away as dust.. the process is called 'slow combustion' the paper doesn't break out into flames, but it is destroyed, just as effectively as if it had been burnt to ashes.
salt curing/sugar curing(not as effective)/smoking (a form of dehydrating) can be use singly, or together to 'cook meat'(with out heat).
sugar curing was know before the civil war, but it became big then, when the south suffered major salt shortages --the one big salt works (in tennesse, i think it was) fell into northern hands for a while, and the union army pretty much destroyed the works.
you can also 'cook' with vinegar/lime juice, (i forget the term for it, but love it... soak shrimp in lime juice, with hot peppers, pour of the juice (give it about an hour to cook--and have the best shrimps for cocktails!)(connie might know it, since it is a mexican spanish term i think)
a second factor with color and salt curing is sodium nitrate (salt peter) is used as well as sodium chloride,(table salt) the nitrates in the salt combine with the meat to 'color it pink'.
there are hundreds of different 'recipes'.. concerning how long to 'salt cure' and how (if) to combine a salt cure with smoking or sugar.. and some like prosciutto (real italian prosciutto) are considered unsafe by FDA-(or were, for years, and couldn't be imported to US)
proscuitto was 'cured' but never cooked (smoked/heated) in anyway. all the 'curing' was done with salt and air (to further dry it) prosciutto is considered 'raw meat' by FDA. Many italian saugages (and other european sausages, Polish, etc) are cured the same way, and you can't bring them into this country.
salt cured food is ok, (not my favorite) i dislike most smoke cured foods. all the different methods of 'curing' reduce the moisture. (as does conventional heat cooking) dry meat (of fruits) keep fresh longer than 'moist' ones.
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Carpal Tunnel
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"you can also 'cook' with vinegar/lime juice, (i forget the term for it, "
Dear of troy: was "marinate" the word you were blocking on?
Webster's 1913 Dictionary
Definition: \Mar`i*nade"\, n. [F.: cf. It. marinato marinade, F.
mariner to preserve food for use at sea. See {Marinate}.]
(Cookery)
A brine or pickle containing wine and spices, for enriching
the flavor of meat and fish.
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Carpal Tunnel
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no--it is something like ceveche-- its specifically used for sea food, shrimp, or any sort of fish, most often using lime juice (which is more acidic than lemon juice)
the process also works with milk and eggs proteins.. key lime pie can be baked.. but if you mix the condenced milk with the eggs, and then add enough lime juice, the pie will thicken, and 'cook' (you can just add lime juice to eggs, and they will 'cook' and turn into something like a soft scrable egg.. key lime pie is a custard pie that is 'cooked' by the lime juice. it doesn't just thicken because the lime juice 'curdles the milk' the whole mixtures cooks/curdles. (and becomes safe to eat)
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It's very common in Peru, where they prepare all kinds of white fish as well as shrimp this way.
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The ASp knows her ceviche! I don't know what they put in it in other countries, but normally fresh cilantro goes in with the lime/lemon juice and hot peppers. When traveling in the third world (or anywhere, for that matter), always use fresh lime/lemon juice on your salads to prevent turista.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Turista = Montezuma's Revenge
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veteran
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veteran
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Or good ole English, "the trots".
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