Stuffed Ham

Stuffed ham is a corned or smoked ham that has been stuffed with vegetables and spices. Slits or holes are cut into the ham and the ingredients are packed in. Traditionally, the stuffing consisted of differing amounts of cabbage, kale, and onions. Variations may include celery, watercress, turnip, mustard seed, and spinach. Spicy elements are celery seed, mustard seed, ground red pepper, black pepper, and salt.

Stuffed ham is thought to have originated in southern Maryland, specifically in Saint Mary’s County, where it is a specialty dish. Saint Mary’s, dating from 1634, was Maryland’s first settlement and is located southeast of Washington, D.C., off the Potomac River. Hogs were available to Maryland settlers in the mid-seventeenth century. There are no references to stuffed ham in the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries in Maryland, nor are there written references in the nineteenth. However, there are references to vegetable- and parsley-stuffed hams in Maine in 1786 and in Virginia and Kentucky in the early eighteenth century.