Front Burner
Sam Edwards lost his smokehouse after a fire two years ago. Now, friends have helped him cure Surryano ham.
CreditCreditTony Cenicola/The New York Times
Time to sharpen that chef’s knife, santoku or slicer. It’s the only way, for now, to take advantage of the newly released cured ham from Sam Edwards of Edwards Virginia Smokehouse. It’s the first Surryano ham that he is selling after his smokehouse in Surry, Va., was destroyed in a fire two years ago, and it is not yet available sliced, hence the knife. The European-style hams, cured like prosciutto and serrano from heritage pork, have been smoked for him by generous friends in Kentucky and North Carolina, then aged for 18 months, considerably longer than for regular country ham. Hams from Mr. Edwards’s own smokehouse will not be available for at least another two years. For now, the assertively salty-sweet hams are sold in boneless two- to three-pound chunks and whole. It will be a couple of months before whole bone-in hams, and slices in packages are available.
Surryano Ham, $128 for a 2- to 3-pound piece, $350 boneless whole, $320 to order bone-in whole, edwardsvaham.com.
More on the Edwards Virginia Smokehouse
A Rich Prosciutto to Slice and Savor
Fire at Virginia Smokehouse Leaves Pork-to-Table Movement Reeling
Florence Fabricant is a food and wine writer. She writes the weekly Front Burner and Off the Menu columns, as well as the Pairings column, which appears alongside the monthly wine reviews. She has also written 12 cookbooks.
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