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Originally Posted by skysidhe
I wonder why taste and texture is different. Isn't a pig a pig?
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Curing technique; otherwise a ham would come out indistinguishable from a pork shoulder, and bacon (streaky) from salt pork.
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and gammon sounds inedible for some reason.
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Perhaps
this is why?
From a
101st Airborne page on equipment:
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GAMMON GRENADE
The British-made device known as the 'Gammon Grenade' was a mixed blessing. The cloth bag was stuffed with varying amounts of composition C-2, an early form of plastic explosive. This could create a blast comparable to an exploding 105mm artillery shell. The user would hurl the grenade, holding onto the strap, which armed the device as it flew through the air. Although these grenades had a devastating effect on the target, they were almost as hazardous to the user. The [fulminate of mercury] detonators were highly unstable, and many instances of accidental detonation took place. Lt Robert Pick, an S-2 officer of the 502 PIR, was seriously injured in England during the summer of 1944, while demonstrating a Gammon Grenade. An 82nd Airborne trooper accidentally dropped one in Normandy while marching. It exploded, killing him and wounding several of his buddies. Photo courtesy Dennis Davies.
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I'd always, because of this, understood gammons to be small hams, no bigger than both one's fists set together.
The gammon grenade developed as a less exciting/perilous alternative to that rather desperate antiarmor weapon, the Sticky Bomb -- a considerable charge of explosive encased in knit fabric impregnated with birdlime, the whole contraption protected in a handy hinged cover. You ran up to tanks and chucked it at them and it would stick, you see, to their presumable detriment when the fuse ran out. But do handle with care -- if it accidentally got stuck to your battledress in all the excitement, any problems with constipation just might be at an end.
Sticky Bomb (enlargeable images)