Kicking the Imported Ham Habit with Virginia's Surryano Ham

As much as I hate to think of the fuel used to bring delicacies across the world to my plate, some things are worth importing. We gave up Pellegrino a few years ago, I avoid Chilean apples and I tend to favor domestic cheeses (although have yet to find a really great domestic Parmesan-like cheese) but I thought I couldn't kick the Prosciutto and Seranno ham habit. It's just too good.

That's what I said when I hadn't yet tasted Sam Wallace Edwards III's Surryano ham.

Surryano ham is a European-style cured ham made from Six-Spotted Berkshire hogs who are pasture-raised without antibiotics or hormones. With a nod to Virginia tradition of setting the hogs free to roam the peanut fields after harvest, the Six-Spotted Berkshire hogs' diets consist of 2lbs of peanuts per day on top of the natural feed and the pasture they nibble during the day. This fatty dessert makes the ham well-marbled and subtly flavored.

It's cured with salt, smoked for seven days over hickory logs then hung to dry for 18 months. It's meant to be served thinly sliced with little fuss. We tried it straight, and melted over pizza in it's last seconds of cooking. Both incredible. I regretted knowing about the peanut diet before trying the ham; it would have been fun to see if I could have guessed it. There is definitely a deep nutty flavor to the meat, the marbled bits are not annoyingly chewy, and it crisped up nicely under the heat of the pizza oven. True appreciation of this ham comes eating it plain, but after a few bites, I had a goat cheese and fennel pizza calling for something salty and fatty, and so it went.

At $26 for 3/4 pound, it's not cheap. Like many high-quality artisanal domestic food products, the price starts on the high side. The way to drive it down would perhaps be if more of us kicked our habit of putting our hams on planes. Apparently the savings really start when you compare whole Surryanos to, say, a whole Prosciutto ham. Not something usually on my weekly shopping list, but perhaps I should consider it.

• Find it! Surryano Sliced Dry-Cured Ham, $26 (three 4-oz packages) at Virginia Traditions

Comments (7)

Somewhat off topic, but what will happen to the parmigiano-reggiano producers if everybody stops buying it? They're already in trouble as it is. I buy Italian parm often and with no compunctions, because I feel that I'm helping to keep the cheese-making tradition alive.

It takes fuel to transport things cross-country, too. Depending on the relative location of the object and the recipient, it might just be better to buy overseas. EG, I am on the East Coast, and for me, European wine has less of a carbon footprint than California wine.

That sounds delicious!! I'd have a hard time giving up other fine, imported goods though. Especially if they're small producers.

Emily

A decrease in serrano ham (or olive oil, wine...) imports would sure hurt my country (Spain), but I think the idea of the post is very good and I would encourage that kind of actions. The comment about the carbon footprint is also very good, hehhehheheh. When I was living in SF it took me 6 hours to flight to NY and 13 to go back to BCN.

I would like to add a comment from an european (Spanish) point of view. Living in SF, I found that people loved a lot what they call european products. They paid important amounts of money for products that for me were not of good quality.
But I was wrong. The quality was not bad, the quality was what they demanded. The taste in US is different than in Spain. That is all. As an example, the picture of the ham in the post would be in Spain qualified as bad, plastic like, cheap ham. But the ham that we appreciate the most here was there considered oily, grease, and too soft. Talking with Italians they told me similar stories with other products.
Some of our companies end creating products adapted for the US taste. Then what is the point of producing them here and send them there??? Probably just to say that it is really european...

Salut!!!

By the way, the pizza looks incredible, hehhehhehhehe!!!

I'm with the rest of the comments--no way I'm giving up real Parmesan. However, there are some incredible dry aged Jack cheeses out of California that I find to be excellent just for eating on their own, or as subs for Parm. Vella Jack (http://www.vellacheese.com/pages/jack2.html), is awfully nice (is shipping from Cali closer than Italy if you're on the East coast though?).

thats about the price of prosciutto per lb...?