Steve Geddes Ham Fest!

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When peripatetic chef Steven Geddes called us to a ham-fest (at the home of sommelier Joe Sauerwein), ELV was in faster than you can say Wynn/Encore Has Jumped The Shark.

The ham in question was an Ossabaw Island pig (a cross-breed actually, with those pygmy, feral pigs), raised in West Virginia and salt-cured in Kentucky, and only a few hundred are raised by Woodland Farms for a select few customers. The fat cap is two-three inches thick…2-3 times thicker, in fact, than any we’ve seen on any Spanish, American or Italian ham…and the grain a tad coarser, but just as sweet, nutty and creamy as any we’ve encountered on two continents.

It was American artisanal eating at its apex, and a lesson in ham carving/slicing to boot! (No.1 tip: use a very sharp knife. Geddes’ blade was so fine we could’ve shaved with it.)

These hams are so precious, you won’t find them turning up anywhere but the best restaurants anytime soon. But for one glorious hour, ELV was porcine-ly packed with preĆ«minent perfection.

Practically pacifying his piggish passions.

Perhaps…but not in palaverous panegyric perpetuity.

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