After two devastating fires, how will Edwards ham recover its distinctive terroir?
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Country ham is beloved for its funk. The complex flavor builds during a mysterious mix of curing and actual meat fermentation that’s unique to the place where the hams hang. This is Virginia ham “terroir.” Much like sourdough bread starter, wild yeasts and healthy bacteria from the local area permeate a meat curing shed over time, infusing each new batch of hams with local flavor.
That’s what Sam Edwards III lost when the famous Edwards Virginia Smokehouse plant in Surry burned in January 2016. The third generation to run the smokehouse, Edwards immediately started looking for partners to keep producing the company’s smoked hams and sausages. He insisted they follow his family recipe of precise ingredients, timing, humidity and temperatures established by Edwards’ grandfather when he built the company’s first smokehouse in 1926. But Edwards hadn’t counted on the terroir.
“I knew our flavor was distinctive,” says Edwards. “But I didn’t know how much until we followed our exact recipe at another facility and saw the impact their terroir had.”
Edwards fussed with a handful of “co-packers” before he found some who could recreate cured meats to his standards. Now, as Edwards rebuilds its curing houses in Surry, the nearby co-packers ensure a steady (although smaller) stream of Edwards hams, bacon and sausage.
One co-packer in Kentucky matched the terroir so closely that the cured Spanish-style Surryano ham even impressed Edwards: the company’s pickiest taster. But just as product was about to be released last spring, that plant also burned down and the Surryano—carried by national retailers including Williams Sonoma—was lost.
But Edwards isn’t giving up.
In the old days, meat-curing plants would carry the funk forward by saving a bit of sausage from each batch to add to the next. “That kept the flavor going from batch to batch,” Edwards explains.
He is trying a similar approach. After the fire, Edwards moved the surviving hams and salvageable plant equipment into cold storage. He hopes the bacteria and yeast on the hams and equipment will help him re-introduce the famous Edwards terroir to the new facility the company will build once they settle the insurance coverage.
“We’ll find out if that works,” Edwards says. “I’m not sure how much was in the air and how much was on the equipment.” Fingers crossed. This is one strain of bacteria that all of Virginia hopes will go viral. EdwardsVaHam.com
