“Ham is the homemaker’s delight,” declared an article in Woman’s Day magazine in April 1961. “You can dress it up for a holiday meal or down for hearty, simple family fare.”
Just before Thanksgiving 1964, Pete Campbell drops a Sugarberry canned ham on Peggy Olson’s desk.
“Happy Thanksgiving,” says Pete, sounding not at all happy.
“Oooh,” Peggy replies, “my mother is going to be over the moon.”
“Enjoy it,” Pete counters. “It’s the last thing we’re going to get from them.” Pete fears they’re going to lose the Sugarberry account because of the creative department’s lackluster work.
One dish Peggy’s mother might have made with her Sugarberry ham is pineapple glazed ham, a popular dish in the 1960s that makes at least two appearances in Mad Men. In season 1, episode 9 (“Shoot”), Don spies a pineapple-glazed ham on the top rack of the fridge when Betty fixes him a late-night snack.
“Look at that!” he exclaims.
“It’s raw,” Betty informs him, so he has to settle for a sandwich.
There’s also a pineapple-glazed ham on the dinner table when Joan Harris makes a Hawaiian-themed New Year’s Eve dinner for husband Greg in season 4, episode 3 (“The Good News”). Joan’s ham looks like it could feed a dozen, but there are just two of them at the table. Luckily for Joan, “the ham remaining after the first meal is no leftover in the usual sense,” according to Woman’s Day. “There are dozens of things to be done with it, each a new dish with nothing to indicate it had its origin in last Sunday’s dinner.” Whether reheated or cold, sliced or in chunks or strips, Woman’s Day assured readers that the entire ham could be used later, “so there’s not a penny’s waste in your purchase.”
Glazed hams have a long history in the United States going all the way back to George Washington. Washington had a smokehouse at Mt. Vernon, his Virginia residence, where Martha Washington closely supervised the preparation of meats served to their guests. One of the president’s favorite dishes was a smoked ham with a sweet glaze. Honey glazes have long been popular, as evidenced by a recipe for honey-glazed baked ham in Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management, an English classic published in 1861. As for pairing pineapple with ham, that appears to be a part of America’s love affair with the Hawaiian Islands that started shortly before Hawaii was admitted to the Union—as the fiftieth state—in 1959. This interest continued well into the 1960s and pops up on episodes throughout each of Mad Men’s seasons (see Joan’s Blue Hawaii).
You won’t find Sugarberry hams at your local grocery store—they never existed—but there are many other good brands to choose from.
ADAPTED FROM THE NEW GOOD HOUSEKEEPING COOKBOOK (HEARST 1963)
1 ham
1 cup pineapple juice, or reserved juice from pineapple can
3⁄4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 15-ounce can pineapple slices
Maraschino cherries, optional
YIELD: 1 HAM