Lamb ham making a US comeback

The Revival Of Lamb Ham: A Colonial Tradition Renewed : The Salt : NPR:

"Third-generation country-ham curemaster Sam Edwards, of Surry, Va., and shepherd Craig Rogers, owner of Virginia's Border Springs grass-fed lamb farm, are resurrecting the "lamb ham." The spring delicacy was a fixture of American foodways in colonial times, gracing the tables of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. ...

It was David Shields, a professor of English at the University of South Carolina, and author of the just published Southern Provisions: The Creation and Revival of a Cuisine, who first stirred Rogers' interest in lamb ham. In 2013, Shields sent Rogers a note about the prevalence of lamb and mutton ham in the 1800s, first in England, and then in colonial America.

"In the British Isles the mutton ham was winter fare, a cured haunch of a 14-pound [lamb] that would come to the table for slicing when company came or when the home needed something rich and comforting," Shields tells The Salt. "Prior to the 19th century, it appeared at one of two meals: at breakfast, for its rich nutrition, or at late supper for its way of complementing a nightcap."

British colonialists brought the dish to America, where a sugar-cured, smoked variety became popular in Kentucky, and a smoked lamb ham adorned sideboards in Philadelphia. Thomas Jefferson served lamb ham, "not too severely salted," at a breakfast of eggs, coffee, and dry-toast, or in the evening with Madeira wine at Monticello. By the 1850s, lamb and mutton hams were a feature of the Southern table as well. Says Shields, "Americans loved lamb ham because it tasted to them like venison — and they thought it was the best possible accompaniment to a glass of bourbon."

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