Ham
Ham is the symbol
of the holiday season to many people around the world, but especially in the
US, Ham is considered an main entrée to many meals Americans eat during the
thanksgiving and Christmas time, many of us do not think about the history of
this delicious food when it is on the table, but Ham has had an big impact on
many important people in the history of the world.
Though Ham
has been around since the year 4900BC it only started making waves in our
history when a man named Christopher Columbus embarked on his voyage to the
undiscovered Americas with eight pigs on his ship, But the history of the
American pork industry was started by a man named Hernando de Soto brought to
the new world 13 pigs over from Europe, those 13 original pigs were the
breeding stock for almost every pig in America, by the 17th century
almost every farmer in America had pigs on the farm, for many reasons, one
being food, the pig would be able to fees the whole family for a week. Many
farmers salted their pork to extend its shelf life, and so the ham was born.
Many people
choose Ham over the chicken and the beef for their holiday celebrations because
of its ability to feed many people. Many companies starting in the 1900 started
producing hams on a massive scale, to keep up with the demand and the new
invention of the can, a few companies caned their full hams and sold them all
year around, with this industrial change people started eating hams all the
time, people made ham sandwiches, ham salads, and many other ham based dishes.
Ham can now
be found in any place that sells food, for example Publix, Kroger, Ands also a
few specialty food shops such as the Honey Baked Ham Company. Prices on the ham
may differ according to the weight and the quality of the product, the main ingredient
you need to make a delicious Ham for the holidays is the ham itself, many Hams
come cured and salted, some even come sliced and glazed, ready to eat.
Ham has been
the staple food of the American people, even before the apple pie, and today it
still carries the name of the original 13 pigs that made that voyage across the
Atlantic to start a legacy in the few found land, America.