Everybody knows about the Chesapeake Bay’s exemplary soft-shell crabs, spiced boiled shrimp, and crab cakes, but few outsiders have heard of stuffed ham. “They are ham-ignorant in Baltimore,” a local chef once bluntly told us. But to the residents of St. Mary’s County, stuffed ham is at the core of their culinary identity. It is a mainstay of church suppers and firemen’s balls from Thanksgiving to Christmas and into spring, and many restaurants serve it in the cool-weather months, at least intermittently. Its seasonal appearance dates back to the days of the autumn hog slaughter, when plantation slaves were given the hog’s head, which they made more appealing by stuffing it with such late-crop produce as kale, turnip tops, wild watercress, or collards and mustard greens. The harmony of pork and greens was so good that the concept went up the food-status ladder from head to ham. Stuffed ham generally is served cold, in slices that resemble piggy braciole with alternating ribbons of meat and filling. A roadside tavern in Charlotte Hall called St. Mary’s Landing has it on the menu year-round, for breakfast, lunch, and supper.
Those greens are tart and spicy—a welcome balance for sweet ham.