thread: When does the christmas ham go bad?

  1. #1
    Registered User

    Feb 2008
    Near the Snowies!
    2,975

    When does the christmas ham go bad?

    We are still eating our ham..maybe have a few day's worth of sandwiches left. we bought it the Wednesday before christmas and opened it on Christmas day. The last few days it's starting to get a bit crusty looking, I think it's just salt though. Does the christmas ham ever go off? How would I know if it was going bad? It still smells like ham..

  2. #2
    Registered User

    Jan 2010
    1,975

    It does go bad but should last several weeks, maybe a month. You'll know it's bad because it'll smell. Are you keeping it in a moist pillow case (or Ham Bag) soaked on a mixture of water and a bit of vinegar? If you change the bag every couple of days (just re-soak it in the vinegar mix) your ham will keep longer and won't dry out on the edges.

  3. #3
    Registered User

    Feb 2008
    Near the Snowies!
    2,975

    it's just wrapped up in a tea towel in the fridge. It doesn't seem to be going dry, just the skin of it is a bit crusty with what looks like salt. I dunno..I did tell DF we didn't need anything too big

  4. #4
    barney Guest

    aww good question hun cause this is the first time ive eva had a ham and i stARTED A THREaD TO ASK WHAT TO DO WITH LEFT OVER HAM AND I ALSO DIDNT KNOW HOW LONG THEY LASTED (dam caps sorry ) so thanks as im a bit funny with left over stuff

  5. #5
    Registered User

    Aug 2006
    On the other side of this screen!!!
    11,129

    Just bearing in mind - if you baked your ham it needs to be used within a couple of days because bacteria grows while it is still warm whereas if you just have a straight out ham that has been kept cold all along they last much longer.

  6. #6
    Registered User

    Feb 2008
    Near the Snowies!
    2,975

    nah it's not a cooked one. Thanks MD!

    I'm the same Barney..goodness knows how much food I've thrown out that has probably still been fine because I'm paranoid about leftovers! Lol

  7. #7
    Registered User

    Jan 2006
    The Hawkesbury
    4,505

    Just make sure once its starts to look a bit bad (discolour) or smell a bit, get rid of it. The year before last our ham started to do this on one side, on the inside it looked fine.. so i had some.. and (TMI) was on the toilet every 20 minutes (literally!) for the next 36 hours. So just becareful