Virginia Ham: The Local and Global of Colonial Foodways

Abstract

The Virginia ham, a regional delicacy, provides a unique opportunity to explore the local and global dynamics at play in the colonial foodways of the British North Atlantic. Moving beyond the simple question of origins, I ask why people ate this food with such gusto in this period and place and seek to explain the ham's development and rise to fame. Whereas earlier scholarly fixation on the food as object provides important insights, the interests of this article lie with the broader universe of people and practices within which production and consumption were embedded. Evidence demonstrates the transfer of Old World techniques to the Chesapeake Bay, and the fusing of these traditions with native practices in the creolizing social and physical environment of colonial Virginia. My contextualization provides for a deeper understanding of the historical and social processes that influenced the development of this food and the culinary heritage of Tidewater Virginia.