No doubt things they handed down through generations of living here
for 10,000 years, give or take [depending on what authority you talk
to], and brought in from Siberia, and maybe Ice Age Europe [again,
depending...], plus accidents of fate. Smoking is a very old way of
preserving food; maybe someone used some hickory in their smoke fire
one time and hey, it tastes pretty good, let's try some more of this!
Works for fish, let's try a haunch of deer meat! It might be kind of
like someone from the Amazon basin coming to NYC for the first time,
and wondering who taught everyone how to ride elevators, turn on a
light switch, and open a box of Cheez-Its. Like most oral societies,
too, theirs was a very conservative one, things handed down from one
generation to the next and carefully preserved. But I would love to
go back to the mists of time and find out the first person to eat a
raw oyster. Now there was a brave soul.

Nancy

-------
I was never lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.

--Daniel Boone



On Jan 11, 2007, at 8:51 AM, Diane Ethridge wrote:

> Regarding these Smithfield & similarly prepared smoked hams, is it
> necessary to also add the various chemicals & preservatives  like
> nitrates, nitrites, etc?   If not, there would definitely be a
> health advantage to them.   Wish I could find info on just how the
> Indians learned these things such as preparing & preserving food &
> all their many other "tricks" for survival.
>
> Diane in TX
>
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