Hi everyone, got this Chinese ham from a dried goods store in a wet market in Singapore’s Chinatown. Noticed that it had a huge hole that was plugged by another chunk of ham and wondered if anyone here might know why this was done?

by hkmckrbcm

18 Comments

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  2. I’m going to say it was probably the hole left by a bone, and the meat cube is used to fill the gap left by deboning it.

  3. They cut a slit and added more meat to get the correct weight? Used to work at a restaurant and sometimes they’d add a cube to a strip or Ribeye to make sure it was 14oz weight before cooking. Could be a simple thing like that rather than cyst removal lol

  4. Akujinnoninjin on

    It’s not an entirely uncommon procedure in the west either – https://www.rd.com/article/meat-glue-ingredient-youre-eating/

    If there was a hole from bone, a removed cyst – or even just a knife slip – then rather than waste the entire cut, or process it into a cheaper form, some producers will patch it. Although usually much more neatly than this.

    *Edit: that RD article actually has a fairly major factual error – “thrombin-fibrinogen” meat glue is banned in the EU, but [transglutaminase](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transglutaminase) is not and never has been.*

  5. Tillallareone82 on

    It might be from tumors and cysts in the meat. I watched a video years ago of a butcher using a knife to pry out a gooey glob leaving a crater in the ham… 🤢🤮🤮 I could only eat poultry meat for years lol.

  6. MundanePlantain1 on

    Meat glue, its a manufactured product.

    look it up on youtube, you can see how they assemble cheaper cuts into a more valuable product. Its not bad for you or anything – just a food industry practise.

  7. I’ve worked in the meat industry for a long time, and while I can’t be 100% correct on this, what it looks to me is that there was a large kernel of fat there. So it was removed and replaced with meat.

    An abscess is disgusting, and unless you are cutting something freeze dried, you will never save. It’s basically a bacteria balloon, it gets everywhere and it’s mostly pus and disease.

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