I thought that it might liven up this list if I drew attention to J.W. Apple, Jr's article "Americana, Salted, Smoked and Sliced Thin," on the famous Smithfield process ham.  Apple is a fan of this extrordinary gastronomic contribution by southeast Virginia to the world.  He goes into some detail describing the process by which Smithfield process hams were and are now made.
  I must admit here that when I first saw Smithfield ham on the breakfast menu at the 3rd Street Cafe in Richmond, I ordered it and as soon as it came spit it out.  I couldn't believe how salty and dry it was;  nothing like ham as I knew it.
  Addiction comes quickly for certain things and this rich, peanut-fed, carefully cured to extreme perfection ham became my addiction.  Whenever I am within 100 miles of Surry County I look for Smithfield ham on the menu.  
  The Times article makes clear what I have learned through serious shopping;  Smithfield ham is not even available at soul food restaurants in Harlem or Bed-Stuy in Brooklyn.  (Neither is spoon bread as far as I can tell.)
  Brother Jimmy's, a restaurant chain in New York which proclaims "put some South in your mouth"--which does offer a delicious Brunswick Stew and firstrate pork ribs in various finishes--doesn't offer Smithfield ham.
  Apple's article notes that only about 140,000 hams--two to a hog--in the Smithfield Corporation's massive hog (12 million annually) operation are prepared in the traditional "Smithfield" process."  My understanding is that about 800,000,000 hogs are produced and slaughtered annually in the US.  Smithfield process ham then is almost as rare as caviar and for my money it tastes better.
  Not belonging to that tribe of the California-born who want to become beautiful corpses, and born and raised to South-rooted parents who cooked with bacon grease and lard, I raise my cup to the wonders of southern cooking and its Virginia roots.  Long may this distinctive tradition be preserved.

Harold S. Forsythe
Golieb Fellow
New York University, School of Law

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