On Mon, 10 Nov 2003 13:53:41 GMT, Christine Dabney
> wrote:

>On Mon, 10 Nov 2003 03:50:06 GMT, "Kent H." >
>wrote:
>
>>Smithfield county hams, by law, have to made in a certain way, and
>>nothing in that code would allow a "low sodium" ham. You have to dry
>>salt the ham, and age it until it ends up as a Smithfield Ham. Some
>>sneaky little bugger outside the county line injected your "low sodium"
>>ham with a bit of brine, and then proceeded to make it like a Smithfield
>>by dry curing it following. A true Smithfield ham is very hard to
>>desalt, as Julia Child says in many of her writings.

>
>I am not sure if it is the cure that is all important, but the area in
>which the hams were made. I think they have to be cured in the
>Smithfield area: I seem to remember a certain radius which was the
>defining line. And the hogs had to have a certain diet, which was
>characteristic of the the area.
>
>I could be totally wrong on this, but somehow this rings a bell in me,
>about the definitions of what goes into being a Smithfield ham. The
>cure could be a part of it too, but I don't remember that.

"1926 To protect the good name of Smithfield products, Virginia
enacted a law defining Genuine Smithfield Meats as peanut-fed hogs
raised in Virginia or North Carolina and cured in the town limits. In
1968, it was amended to include hogs raised elsewhere."

From the Smithfield Foods web site. The deciding factor is being cured
and processed in Smithfield, Virginia.