ISSUE 33, VIRGINIA, Part 6: Virginia Ham
Virginia Ham
“One of the most popular features of the good living of Old Virginia before the war was the ham cured by the accomplished house-keepers of that day. It was the most delicious and toothsome article of the kind cured in any part of the globe.” Alexandria Gazette (September 8, 1874).
No item had more mystique on the old Virginia table that the Virginia Ham. It was a salted, smoked, dry cured country ham, cold smoke with green hickory, and aged until it dried out. The hogs in 19th century Virginia belonged to no set variety, but tended to feed on mast. It wasn’t until the turn of the 1890s that peanut fed hogs became an item. The Virginia ham was considered “done curing” when it got rock hard and the “lean absorbed the fat.” While you could have off a slice and eat it uncooked, most preferred to cold soak it in water for a day or two, and then cook it—baked, fried, or boiled (simmer a half hour for every lb of weight was the old formula). In the 3rd quarter of the 20th century a sect of Virginia ham devotees soaked the ham in cocoa cola.
There were certain perils in the smokehouse, the most troublesome being skippers, insects that would bore into the meat and turn it to mush. To inhibit insects, house-keepers coated the surface of the ham in pepper, or red pepper. Some added brown sugar to their mix. In the 20th century bagging the hams for protection when they aged became conventional, particularly in commercial products.
Southside Virginia was particularly famous for hams—Smithfield and Surry. But early in the 20th century Virginia Ham began to be used generically to designate all dry cured country hams. These were distinguished from the wet cured pork barrel city hams promoted by the grocery chains that were coming into being. In 1906 labeling legislation forced curers outside of the Old Virginia to designate their joints as Virginia Style Hams.
These days if you want an old style Virginia Ham, the commercial choice is Edwards Smokehouse of Surry, but there are numbers of smokehouse free lancers who create good ham. The Traditional has bone in and a mahogany colored skin. It’s always good to keep an eye peeled for their work.