Olivers nattered on
:

We (hosts) serve to ourselves and to guests sweetened
foods/sauces/condiments as part of ancient cultural memory, that we
were of an affluence which allowed us to purchase sweeteners (in a
time when sugars were vastly more expensive/harder to get than today).

And in the present day is a symbol of poverty, given that salt, sugar, and
fat are the hallmarks of the lower-class/prole diet.

venues in which it is most often available. Unsugared hams are hard
to find

But thank the Powers that Be that they still can be found. (Indeed, even
unsmoked--just cured and aged.)