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Heritage Magical Meat Tour Heads South: In Search of the Great Country Hams Part 3
  • May 19, 2017
Heritage Magical Meat Tour Heads South: In Search of the Great Country Hams Part 3

Newsom’s Old Mill Store was opened in 1917, and although it burned down and was rebuilt next door to the original locale, it doesn’t feel like much has changed. The poplar floor creeks like an ancient symphony, even the door whistles like a bluegrass concerto when it swings shut. Outside on the sidewalk, there are a dozen varieties of tomato plants for sale, and pretty much everything you might want for your garden. Inside, are every manner of beans and corn, and jars of country condiments, from Hot Chow Chow to Appalachian Piccallili.

Heritage Magical Meat Tour Heads South: In Search of the Great Country Hams Part 2
  • May 19, 2017
Heritage Magical Meat Tour Heads South: In Search of the Great Country Hams Part 2

wasn’t going to be easy to make a living curing hams.... so I wrote to everyone I could think of, anyone who could help, university professors, cooks, I wanted to hear everyone’s ideas, and I studied everything I could, but I could never improve on the recipe from the old smoke house behind the house I was born in — people really seemed to like it. At the beginning I was thinking about curing quickly, maybe one hour for a twelve-lb. ham – I thought if I was going to make it in this business I had to work very fast and quick-cure, which is what the business was. But my daddy told me ‘If you play the other guy’s game, you are always going to lose. Make it the best you can. Quality is what is going to sustain you.

Heritage Magical Meat Tour Heads South: In Search of the Great Country Hams Part 1
  • May 19, 2017
Heritage Magical Meat Tour Heads South: In Search of the Great Country Hams Part 1

It was teeming rain on the way from Nashville to Madisonville, Tennessee, the kind of rain that obscures the green, Smoky Mountains of Tennessee behind sheets of steam and fog and sounds like war drums on the roof of a rented car. It didn’t take much imagination to think we were driving through Skull Island, home of King Kong, or had somehow made a detour into the Heart of Darkness, a scene from Apocalypse Now.  The truth, however, was far more comforting: We were on a mission to see a King and Queen of country ham, Al Benton and Nancy Newsom.