Quote:
Originally Posted by RubyCamaro
Well Country ham is ham, but it is salt cured (burried in rock salt for a period of time) then smoked (hung in a smokehouse with smoldering fires under it, usually with savory woods like hickory, maple, etc). It has a LOT of salt but when pieces are used as seasoning, you just don't add any additional salt. It has somewhat less fat that other ham as some is drawn off in the salt & more is lost during the smoking, but it is still a fatty meat. Country cooked vegetables often also have a bit if sugar added (not much, maybe a 1/4 tsp in a big, dutch oven sized pot of beans and maybe also a large onion cut up in it. Then it is cooked a LONG time. I know, the longer it cooks, the more nutrients are lost, but it tastes soooooooooooooo good. When I do it at home, I trim all visable fat from the ham pieces. When my grandmother cooked it all the fat was left on AND she would add a heaping tablespoon of lard. My guess is Cracker Barrel is somewhere between the two. They probably don't trim the fat as much as I do, but probably don't add the lard.
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Obviously, any added fat or lard would be unacceptable, the amount of sugar you describe is not of enough significance to concern me, the salt is, if you restrict your salt intake and buy foods with no salt added then it may be acceptable but again how much is used/eaten is what would be of the most concern. I feel it is always better to get foods with no salt and then add what you use yourself so you know how muchyou are consuming and when possible always use sea salt instead of table salt.
You just have to make choices, your results will depend on them.