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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> >Ray, I am not sure if the stuff you find in hams is the same. I  
> imagine it is. Sounds like James would know. : )

More's the pity, but I do.  Those watery holiday hams (I must confess my 
bigotry here and tell you that around there that sort of ham is referred to 
as 
'Yankee ham' as opposed to good old salt cured ham) indeed have phosphates.  
They 
aren't so much as injected as soaked in the stuff and the main reason, I'm 
guessing, is to add water weight.   But that's not the half of it, most of 
those 
hams also have sodium nitrate and sodium nitirite.  The nitrate is no real 
problem but the nitrite is unhealthy in the extreme.  It is only there to 
preserve the fake red color (the nitrate is to check rancidity).

Alas, and double alas, the otherwise magnificient real hams, Clifty Farms and 
Smithfield (Tennessee style and Virginia style respectively) also have 
nitrites.  It doesn't mean I never eat them, but it was one of the main 
reasons we 
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