This northern boy just made his first red-eye gravy. And it came out pretty darn good, if I do say so, m’self!

We’re still working through the fantastic gift box Mike and Barbara sent us and tonight was country ham from Kentucky.

I have to admit I’ve only had real country ham a couple of times in my life. It’s nothing like it’s spiral-cut supermarket relative and more like it’s distant cousin speck. Dry and salty with a really firm texture. And pretty awesome flavor. It needs to be soaked in water – or milk – for about 30 minutes prior to cooking. I opted for the water.

It was simplicity itself to cook. Trim the rind, place in a hot skillet and brown on both sides. The even easier part was the red-eye gravy. Add a cup of coffee to the skillet and scrape up the bits. Serve over ham.

I was a bit leery about the gravy. I have a vague memory of making it once and thinking it was the most gawdawful thing I had ever tasted. It must not have been the right ham, because this one came out just fine.

I served it with Adluh Grits from Columbia, SC because they’re the best grits out there. You can buy them online.

The fun thing is we get to do it, again, because we only cooked up half of it!

I gave Nonna a reheated potato puff from last night because she won’t do grits. Her loss, for sure, but the potato puff reheated really well.

Next is going to be the bacon…..