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Ten things you never knew about ham

Callan Boys
Callan Boys

If your ham has bone in, then you know it's Australian.
If your ham has bone in, then you know it's Australian.Marina Oliphant

Australia loves a spot of cured pig, whether it's on pizza, pasta or chicken schnitzel. We especially love it at Christmas time when ham legs fill our fridges and the leftovers fill our Boxing Day sandwiches. Here's a few lesser-known porcine facts to munch on this ham season.

1. If your ham has a bone, and you're in Australia, you're eating a domestic pig (or an illegal Spanish swine). Frozen pork imported to Australia is not allowed to travel with bones in it.

2. Ham pairs particularly well with honeydew and rockmelon, thanks to unsaturated fats that break down during the ham's ageing process. A shedload of volatile chemicals are formed by the broken down fats, some of which have aromas similar to melon.

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3. Hams of high-calibre in the US are referred to as "country-cured" as opposed to mass-produced, low-calibre "city hams". According to Larousse Gastronomique, the best known variety of country-cured ham is a dark, lean variety from Virginia.

4. Champagne ham doesn't have any of the sparkling stuff added, and soccer-ball ham contains zero soccer balls. However, according to Australian labeling laws, honey-cured ham must have honey in it.

5. "You say Hawaiian, I say ham-and-pineapple." Whatever you call it, it's believed Australia's most ordered pizza has its origins not in the 50th state, but in Canada where a pizza twirler named Sam Panopoulos says he invented the pizza-of-the-picky-child in 1962. When grilled by the London Free Press about the pizza in 2010, Panopoulos responded with a terse "What do you mean I might have? I did." Jeez. If it means that much to you, sir, it's yours.

6. Not all hams are smoked, but the ones that are lose about 25 per cent of their weight during the smoking process.

7. Kentucky's Trigg County Country Ham Festival is in its 38th year. In 2014 the porcine party played host to a hog roasting demonstrations, the crowning of "Miss Triggy Piggy", a greased-pig catching contest, country music's "Ham Jams", and a ventriloquist. Sometimes there's a gospel concert hosted by a guy named Buck Rambo. I really want to go to the ham festival.

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8. Ham production is of French origin, says Larousse Gastronomique. It was the Gauls who first became known for the salting, smoking, and curing of pig about 2000 years ago. They would eat ham at the beginning of a meal to get themselves in the mood for more food, or at the end of a banquet to induce thirst (anyone who's ever read an Asterix comic knows the Gauls were partial to a drink).

9. Eating ham on a regular basis will contribute to your iron and zinc intake, says Simone Austin, a spokesperson for the Dietitians Association of Australia. However, she also cautions to vary your meat intake and not eat ham every day, due to its high salt content from the curing process. Easier said than done December 25 to January 2.

10. The brand name for the tinned smallgood of the apocalypse, SPAM, is not derived from "spiced ham". Nor is it an acronym of "shoulders of pork and ham" (which would be a dodgy acronym anyway). In fact, according to the SPAM website, only a small circle of SPAM executives know the origins of the name. I'm going with "slippery pink alpaca meat". Or possibly "salamander plasma and marrow". Or "slimey possum appendix mucous". I could go on.

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Callan BoysCallan Boys is editor of SMH Good Food Guide, restaurant critic for Good Weekend and Good Food writer.

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