World's Ham Capital - VOA Story

Genuine Smithfield hams have graced dinner tables in the U.S. since nearly the settlement of the nation itself. The "Ham Capital of the World," Smithfield, a quaint town of 6500 residents in the eastern state of Virginia traces the history and the art of making the famous Smithfield ham.

Virginia ham is known for its superb taste and is a popular dish at Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners in the U.S.

Larry Santure, Director of Sales at Smithfield Foods, tells the story of Virginia ham. "The history of Virginia ham is very unique and very interesting. Marco Polo actually brought the basis of curing the Virginia ham to Italy from China, and they thought about how they could make the ham in Italy, and this turned out to be the prosciutto. The settlers brought the formula for making prosciutto with them to the United States."

Smithfield was one of the earliest towns colonized near Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America. Santure says the area's ham tradition owes much to the Native Americans living there.

Santure continues, "The Indians have devices and methods of taking sea water from the oceans not far from here and dehydrating it and producing salt, which is critical to making cured hams."

Many consider genuine Smithfield ham the crown jewel of Virginia hams because of the meticulous way it is made.

Smithfield ham is salt cured for at least 50 days at three degrees Celsius. The next step is for the ham to be heated and smoked using hickory and fruitwood, a technique dating back more than 200 years.

"It allows the concentration to equalize throughout the muscle and the whole ham. Then we go through a process of heating the ham. In this particular area, we use a smoke. That's a time-honored way that we acquired actually from the Indians long, long ago."

Smithfield ham is salted, cooled and smoked. The entire dry-cure process takes at least 180 days before the distinctively delicious ham makes its way to dinner tables. Judy Winslow, Director of Tourism for Smithfield and Isle of Wight County, says anytime is the right time for a Smithfield ham.

"We do not have a special occasion or probably any occasion in town that Smithfield ham is not served," says Winslow. "Certainly when anyone has guests in from out of town, it's always on the table."

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Smithfield
• ham
• virginia
• Marco
• Polo
• powhatan
• Italy

[katanaburner]

Vegans also tend to be on the unhealthier side in the long run. I LOVE SMOKED MEATS!!!

[Michaelprotectsme]

to purplemustard03 look we are meat eaters by nature the protien is good for you god put these animals here for us to eat  im getting sick of this veagen bullshit jesus you would think the things are humans look its natural you have to kill it to eat it animals eat other animals you hate them to so stop this veagen bullshit if you wanna eat seaweed fine just dont preach oh i bet you cry when you see a slaughter house boo hoo everyone do yourself a fav eat meat im eating a ham sandawchrightnowyum

[lexlex11223344]

uhm lets see, from summer of '99 to summer of '05

[gainunits]

i live in smithfield..when did u live here

[lexlex11223344]

HEY THEY SHOW THE JAMES RIVER BRIDGE!

i lived next to there =]

[lexlex11223344]

oh geez, this brings back memories of growing up in smithfield, i remember once one of the pig trucks tipped over and the pigs ran away. i hate the smell or marsh and slaughter. it smells soooooo bad. but i love smithfield. i also remember the worlds largest ham biscut

NASTY

[Raiders757]

Whats funny, is the road the pig trucks take up to the back of the plant, is rural Rt. 666. I am not joking. The road has a name now, but it's still Rt. 666. Taking pigs to their doom. Still, country ham is damn good, and no bad smells etc, etc. will stop me from grubbin' on a salty ham biscuit. Yummy!!

The slughter house does smell something terrible though.

[purplemustard03]

ahhhahahaha i can't believe there's a video for this. it looks so pretty UNTIL YOU SMELL SLAUGHTER IN THE MORNING MIXED WITH SMITHFIELD MARSH! no really... it's lovely. at night we swim in the pagan with all the two headed fish and pig guts. yum.

[gainunits]

it is a tasty ham.and smithfield is pretty nice too