The Ham & Lamb Party: Part I

This is the origin story.

I’m here to tell you the tale of the ham and lamb party. A dinner party, that, hasn’t actually happened yet. The ham and lamb party is my current hyperfixation, so much so that it will take me two whole blogs to talk about it. This is the ham and lamb party origin story.

It all began perusing the Snake River Farms website in pursuit of what would be my perfect ham. What started as an innocent endeavor to procure the star of the party, the reason for the season, the zenith of all hams quickly transpired into a cart full of miscellaneous meats. Did I consider purchasing Waygu Hot Dogs? Um, yes. Was I admiring the marbling on an overpriced NY strip? You bet. Did I blackout and end up with a $200 cart because I NEEDED to hit the free shipping threshold? 100% correct. I was once referred to as a “meatasaurus” (by my boyfriend’s father, no less), and it was in that moment, I realized– meatasaurus I am. So, with $200+ of meats en route, of which included a beautiful 6.5 lb Kurobata half bone-in ham, the ham party prep officially began.

The ham and lamb party originated well before my loss of control on the SNF (nickname basis now that I’m part of their VIP club) website. The ham party has an origin story. And it comes in two parts.

Part one: Ham party is not original to me. It originated when Alison Roman (my muse) introduced the world to Ham Party. It is her creation and to her, I say thank you. But, this is where the story gets CRAZY. At the time of Alison Roman’s iconic Ham Party debut, I was a big time vegetarian. Thus, Ham Party resonated only peripherally before it was stored away into my brain filing cabinet of “things that sound cool and maybe would do when I’m an adult and decide to eat meat.” It lay dormant, patiently awaiting to be reawakened. Born anew. Cue my Uncle Gary.

Every Christmas, Uncle Gary makes ham. And every year, it's a big deal. We go through the whole rigmarole of the ham had a good life, it's a special ham, and we don’t Ham like Americans Ham. We Ham like Lebanese-Armenian Americans do–which means with extra flavor, more class and good wine. We can unpack that later. All this to say, you GOTTA eat Uncle Gary’s ham, no vegetarians allowed. Being the meatasaurus I now am, I went IN on the ham this year. It was so delicious–the perfect combination of lightly sweet and immensely savory. It had a delectable dark mahogany skin and it was accompanied by a perfectly balanced tarragon mayo sauce. It was quite simply perfect. It was in that moment that I thought, wow would I love to share this ham with my friends. And to me Ham party was born for the first time. To me, the idea of ham party in that moment felt just like this:

I was so excited to ham party that, cooking dinner with my friend Robin, I blurted out of the blue “We must do Ham Party”. To that she said “Ah yes, just like Alison Roman’s”. It was in that moment that the filing cabinet of “things that sound cool and maybe would do when I’m an adult and eat meat” opened in my brain and I remembered Ham Party is an established thing. A little disappointed that I was not the genius who created Ham Party, I was nonetheless determined to Ham Party and do it my way.

Then, several days later, a miracle happened–I was overserved. As I lay the next morning, experiencing a hydration emergency, hanging on to my will to live, I turned the TV on to my ultimate comfort show–Barefoot Contessa. Nothing that Ina Garten’s soothing voice and perfect kitchen cant fix. The episode was dubbed “cheese”- perfect, just what the doctor ordered. As I watched the Barefoot Contessa run through a myriad of recipes that would require me to have an IV of lactaid and probably cause a UC flare up of the century, I felt life come back to my hungover soul. Then, she whipped out a rack of lamb and something clicked. What if we didn’t just do a Ham Party. WHAT if we did… a ham and lamb party.

And thus, ham and lamb party was born. A beautiful love child of the brilliant brains of two of my biggest idols.

With the Ham and Lamb Party officially locked on the calendars for president’s day weekend, we’ve entered the manic planning phase of cooking for friends–my speciality. For the next two weeks I will be fixated on the following:

• How do we season the ham? Do we go the Uncle Gary route and glaze it the not-American, but actually American way? Do we follow in Alison Roman’s footsteps and give it a dry rub?

• What condiments will need to be present? How many types of mustard do we really want?

• How should we season the lamb? What cut of lamb? Should it be a rack? A shoulder?

• What fun dessert can we make?

• And how do we invite as many friends as possible without cooking for 3 days straight?

The answers to all of these questions are unknown. It will all unfold in the coming two weeks inevitably with several bumps along the way. I will probably think about ham and lamb party in the middle of meetings about which new product we should launch at work. I’ll probably call my grandma Teta and talk to her about lamb. I’ll probably text Robin with a hundred different ideas that are not feasible. I’ll probably get stressed by the uncertainty of it.

But that is the joy of it all–the process. The alchemy of turning the unknown, the chaos, the miscellany into a beautiful symphony of tastes, textures, flavors; the invigoration of bringing an idea to life. And the cherry on top? Sharing it with friends.

If you made it this far, thanks for the read.If you have ham or lamb opinions please share, I must know. Also, if you have opinions on anything else I could write about, tell me!

Either way, I’ll be back to bother you next week.

Uncle Gary’s Ham with my perfect Teta in the background