OK this effort was a colossal waste of time and resources. The ham was indeed moldy around the edges. I scrubbed that off . But the fat streaks that ran between the muscles had the appearance of spoiled milk and smelled terrible. After baking the thing (it looks pretty in it’s "Whole condition") to a temp closer to 170 than the stated goal of 160 degrees, I noticed that the few pieces of mold that had survived the scrubbing ran deep into the meat itself. When I tried to shave the "bad stuff" off the surface..Like skinning the fat…I found that the ‘yuck’ penetrated the meat in places right thru to the bone.
We cut the meat away from the bone …trimmed the yucky looking and smelling parts off what we considered the "good" and found that we were throwing out almost 40% of the ham.
I will not buy a whole ham in this condition again.
We have boiled the remaining meat for quite awhile this evening. It appears to be safe, but has lost any and all of it’s chewly texture and any possible positive attributes. I am afraid I have had a very negative experience with Whole Country Hams. [xx(][:(][|)][xx(][:(!][xx(]