Virginia Country Ham Review

Virginia country ham is the state’s oldest and most defining flavor: pork rubbed in salt, hung in a smokehouse, and aged for months to a year until it turns deep, dense, and intensely salty — a preservation art older than the United States. The most famous comes from Smithfield, where a Virginia law actually dictates that a true “Smithfield ham” must be cured within the town limits, and old family curers like Edwards in nearby Surry have been at it for generations. It’s not the soft pink ham of a holiday buffet; it’s sliced paper-thin, salty enough to make you reach for the biscuit, and unmistakably Virginia.