When it comes to Easter celebrations, there’s one dish that’s sure to be on every Southerner’s table: ham. Whether it’s glazed, smoked, or spiral sliced, serving ham on Easter Sunday is a tradition in many households. No matter where you live in the South, there’s sure to be a favorite way to eat whole ham. Just as Virginians and Kentuckians are likely to serve a version of salted country ham, Maryland has its own preferred way of enjoying ham during the holidays. Stuffed ham, a whole corned ham that has been sliced open and filled with chopped greens, cabbage, turnips, and spices, is a delicacy in Maryland, specifically Southern Maryland near the Chesapeake Bay. It’s a dish you’re not likely to find in the rest of the state, or even anywhere else across the South. But once you’ve tried a Southern Maryland stuffed ham, you’ll agree that its unique blend of salty, peppery spices may be the best ham you’ll ever eat.
Passed Down Through Centuries
Stuffed ham has its roots in the Southern peninsula of Maryland, specifically in St. Mary’s County, a rural part of the state bordering the Chesapeake Bay. The region was agriculturally rich, yet isolated from larger cities and towns, so it developed its own food culture. “Stuffed ham dates to the 17th century, but it’s hard to pinpoint the exact date of origin since it was a recipe that was orally passed through generations,” says Joyce White, a Maryland food historian. “We know that it has its roots in both British and African food traditions.”
The closest food historians can find to a stuffed ham is a traditional British dish called stuffed chine, which was made up of a pork backbone bulked out and stuffed with chopped green herbs. There are several theories about how stuffed ham became an enduring part of Southern Maryland cuisine. Some people say stuffed ham was first made by an enslaved person on St. Inigoes, a rural community on the Chesapeake Bay that was a part of the first colonial settlement in Maryland. Others point to a plantation in Leonardtown as being the first producer of stuffed ham. Regardless of who first invented this salty and savory speciality, the earliest version of stuffed ham was a much humbler dish.
Plantation owners who ate whole hams often gave the less desirable parts of the pig, frequently the jowls, to enslaved people who stuffed it with vegetables to bulk out the servings. When the jowl was stuffed with the seasoned greens, it was tied with cloth and boiled through. The dish was so tasty that it eventually reached the upper classes, who decided that if the stuffed pork dish was so tasty using the worst parts of the pig, then surely it would be even tastier if it used the best part of the animal…