04/13/2023
Family traditions are important. They remind us of our connections to family long gone. I would like to share with you a recipe from my family that reminds me of my great grandmothers, my grandmother, my parents, me and now I’ve passed this on to my children and granddaughter. Southern greasy rice or ham rice is a Southern U.S. recipe. Folks in the south that didn’t have a lot of money had to use every bit of the hog except the oink. This starts with cooking a ham. The ham is not part of the recipe but the fat and ham stock that comes out of that ham are one of the main ingredients in the recipe. Sometimes it’s hard to get enough fat and stock for greasy rice so I often add some smoked pork jowls or salt pork to the pan when I roast the ham so that I get extra fat and stock. I also add a quart of water to the pan that I cook the ham in to help create steam and extra stock. If you cook a whole ham, probably don’t need to add extra stuff to get all the fat and stock you need. But if you are cooking a shank or butt end ham…you will need the extra stuff to get all the liquid you need. You folks will have to bear with me on this. Measurements in this are based on how much stock and fat you get. So I can’t tell you exact measurements for any of it. This is just you as the cook deciding how much of fat and stock goes with how much rice.
Ingredients
Ham fat/stock, as much as you can collect
Rice…the measurement here is how much rice will go into your stock to make a very wet mix. The rice when put in the liquid should be very wet and very loose. Remember rice will absorb a lot of liquid in the baking process. You may need to practice this a time or two. But you’ll get the hang of this in no time.
Salt as needed. You will need to taste this before you bake it.
Instructions
Collect the fat/stock in a baking dish or pan
Add as much rice as needed to get about 60% rice and 40% ham liquid mix. It should be very loose.
Salt as needed and stir. You will want to taste this to make sure your seasoning is right. You can’t really salt the finished product.
Bake at 350 for 45 minutes to an hour. Pull it out when the rice absorbs nearly all the liquid.
