October marks the beginning of our holiday ham production at Ream’s. Every week until Christmas, we make about 100 of our whole Old Fashioned Hams. It’s a complicated process with lots of moving parts—let’s get into it!

Monday morning, a refrigerated truck delivers a 2000-lb. bin of fresh, raw hind legs of pork from the packing house. These all need to be trimmed, to round out the presentation of the skin, and to defat the muscle. Once trimmed, they are rolled to the bandsaw to shorten the shank, leaving us plenty of material to make our Smoked Ham Hocks.

Tuesday morning, we mix up a big batch of our homemade brine, and inject a small amount of flavorful solution into each ham. After that, the hams go into a vacuum tumbler, which spins around slowly, massaging the hams and ensuring the protein holds onto the juices. Keep in mind, we’re only adding a small amount of solution—after the hams are smoked, cooked, and cooled, they are back to their original raw weight.

After tumbling, we let them sit for several days to develop color, flavor, and tenderness. Once we’ve achieved those important qualities, we put each ham into a net, hang them up, and let them smoke and cook overnight.

The next morning, they are removed from the smokehouse, and moved into our blast cooler. Once chilled, they are cut in half on a bandsaw (ham steaks taken when the ham is large enough), trimmed slightly, and vacuum packaged. Ready for sale!

The best way to cook a Ream’s Old Fashioned Ham (half) is in the oven at 300 degrees for 1.5 to 2 hours. Then take out of the oven, remove the skin, score the top fat with a knife, and sprinkle your packet of provided Ream’s Ham Glaze on top. Then put back in the oven at 375 and cook another 30 minutes.

For more information, please contact or visit:

Ream’s Meat Market

250 S. Main St. (Rt. 47)

Elburn, IL 60119

Ph: (630) 365-6461

reamsmeatmarket.com