Tasso
Sus scrofa domesticus · Meat
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Tasso (often called tasso ham) is a Cajun specialty of lean pork shoulder rubbed hard with a peppery spice crust, briefly cured and then heavily smoked. Highly seasoned, deeply smoky and intensely savoury, it is not a ham eaten in slices but a seasoning meat — diced or julienned into gumbo, jambalaya, red beans and rice, étouffée and cream sauces to lend a smoky, spicy backbone.
Picking a good onedrag
Hard, dry-barked, smokyTacky, slimy, sour or mouldy
Opened and chilledEveryday bestRefrigerate it unless the label says shelf-stable: the cut faces are moist. Pregnant, 65 or older, or immunocompromised? Steaming hot, 74 C / 165 F: Listeria.
The barkDark and dry, a little fat or purge from the pack
Feel of the pieceFirm and cool, faintly moist, not tacky anywhere
The cut faceThe cut face a shade duller, the edge starting to dry
Smell at the cutSmoky and clean, the pepper a little quieter