Ham & cured meats
Cooked ham: read beyond the deli-counter name.
Water, ingredients, serving size and storage tell you more than an Italian-sounding label.
Category: Ham & cured meats
Cooked ham is one of the easiest deli purchases to get wrong, because the counter name is usually more visible than the package. Cooked ham: read beyond the deli-counter name. separates prosciutto cotto from the dry-cured product Americans often call prosciutto, then works through the USDA added-water categories that change texture, yield and price. It explains why an uncured claim does not release you from reading the ingredients, why visible fat proves nothing about how an animal was raised, and what the CDC reheating precaution means for people at higher risk from Listeria. Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano? gives the same treatment to the cheese case.
Cooked ham is one of the easiest deli purchases to get wrong, because the counter name is usually more visible than the package. Cooked ham: read beyond the deli-counter name. separates prosciutto cotto from the dry-cured product Americans often call prosciutto, then works through the USDA added-water categories that change texture, yield and price. It explains why an uncured claim does not release you from reading the ingredients, why visible fat proves nothing about how an animal was raised, and what the CDC reheating precaution means for people at higher risk from Listeria. Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano? gives the same treatment to the cheese case.