Pigs are more than ham on the hoof! Some folks keep them as pets, too.
The man in today's sculpture hardly seems poised to slaughter his playful hog! Let's hope those with porcine pets don't take offense during October—Eat Country Ham Month.
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Swine and Dine Me
Pigs are more than ham on the hoof! Some folks keep them as pets, too.
The man in today's sculpture hardly seems poised to slaughter his playful hog! Let's hope those with porcine pets don't take offense during October—Eat Country Ham Month.
Virginians began curing country ham during the mid 1700s, using sugar or molasses, smoke, salt, and a variety of other ingredients to create a perfect blend of flavors in a meat that would not spoil from one harvest season to the next. Today country ham is made all over the American South and beyond. While methods vary from place to place, and the controversies about dry curing and smoking, brown sugar or honey, and just which blend of spices makes the perfect ham will continue for generations to come, the experience of the perfect mouthful of ham and beaten biscuit will delight millions of Americans this month.
Pictured: Clark Coe, 1847–1919, Killingworth Image, Man on a Hog, about 1890, carved, assembled, and painted wood; tinned iron; and textile remnants, 30 1/4 x 20 x 14 3/8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr. and museum purchase made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson.