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STUFFED HAM WITH A KICK

STUFFED HAM WITH A KICK
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December 5, 1982, Section 10, Page 16Buy Reprints
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Its not true, as some tasteless cynics say, that it takes at least a 12th-generation southern Marylander to love southern Maryland stuffed ham. Occasionally one hears of a newcomer - a visitor, even - whose sensitive palate quivers with delight at the first piquant bite. Piquant, in the sense of being pleasantly disturbing.

Few foods can match the aromatic mixture of sweet boiled ham redolent with cabbage, kale and onions, laced with mustard seed, celery seed, crushed hot red pepper, black pepper and salt. When spiced with a heavy hand, southern Maryland stuffed ham can curl the tongue and open the sinuses even before it reaches the lips. Some restaurants tone down the seasoning, but it is never bland.

For those who can take it, the dish is especially savored because it is available only in southern Maryland, that remote point of the jigsaw puzzle formed by the Potomac and Patuxent Rivers and Chesapeake Bay. St. Marys County, the real home of the ham, is about 50 miles south of Washington, on State Route 5.

The Ark and the Dove brought the first settlers to Maryland in 1634, landing at St. Marys City, near the tip of the peninsula, and there is convincing evidence that they brought the recipe for stuffed ham from England. Many residents of the county are direct descendants of the original settlers and have kept the recipe ''in the family'' ever since.

There are many recipes, each with minor variations. Some call for ''field cress'' to be added, and the amounts of spices vary according to tolerance for such high seasonings. But basically, cabbage, kale, onions, spices and seasonings are chopped and mixed, then stuffed ''with the thumb'' into deep slits slashed in a whole, corned ham. (That's corned ham, not canned.)

These 10 or so slits, or pockets, must be cut vertically, and on a 45-degree angle, each stuffed to the depth of the ham. Any remaining vegetable and spice mixture is then packed around the ham, and the whole package placed in a cloth bag. (Many recipes call for an old pillowcase, sewed or tightly tied.) The bag is covered with water and set to simmering for four hours or more, 20 minutes to the pound.

When done, it must cool in the ''likker,'' or juice, for at least two hours. Then the bag is removed and the excess stuffing repacked tightly around the ham, which goes into the refrigerator overnight, to soak up the strong flavors of the stuffing even more. Total preparation time: close to 16 hours. If you corn the ham yourself, add a few months. The time factor alone could explain why the dish has never achieved the universal popularity of the Maryland oyster, which can simply be lifted from the shell and allowed to slide down the throat.

The ham is traditionally served cold, and often in a sandwich, although in some homes and restaurants it is offered as a hot, main course.

''It's a meal in itself,'' says Cuthbert Fenwick 3d, who serves some of the best southern Maryland stuffed ham in St. Marys County at The Willows, a mile south of Leonardtown on Route 5. The Willows is a small, family restaurant with but 10 tables, two booths and a partitioned bar in the back.

The 28-year-old Mr. Fenwick, who was born and raised in the county, bought the restaurant a few months ago from Irene Holdson, who ran it for 11 years and who searched the area for an expert in preparing stuffed ham, knowing instinctively that it took a native to do it right. (Mrs. Holdson is from ''Ballmer,'' or Baltimore, so does not qualify.) She found her expert, Helen Schreiber from Mechanicsville, about 15 miles up the road, six years ago, and Mrs. Schreiber has been preparing the dish for the restaurant ever since. She is now ''Chip'' Fenwick's head cook.

Mrs. Schreiber learned the technique and the recipe from her mother, who ''used to go around to people's houses to prepare their hams.'' Mrs. Schreiber's mother had learned from her mother, and back through the generations, all southern Marylanders.

At The Willows, simply boning a ham and stuffing the cavity is considered the lazy and the wrong way of doing the job. ''To get the full flavor through the ham you have to cut the pockets and stuff each one,'' says Mrs. Holdson. Another taboo: preparing the ham before the first frost. ''The stuffing sours too easily to keep it around in warm weather.''

There are rumors that the dish appears on some Kentucky tables at Easter, a phenomenon explainable by the fact that a few early Maryland settlers went to Kentucky in the late 1700's. Otherwise, it remains in St. Marys County. Oh, it has traveled a bit for special occasions - a White House dinner during the Eisenhower Administration, a British Embassy banquet honoring the late Lord Louis Mountbatten, the Governor's Mansion, and the Maryland Pavilion of the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair, where 28,000 orders were served.

There are numerous stories about the origin of the dish. One says it originated in the county in the early 18th century when a slave at St. Inigoes Manor House dished it up as a special Easter treat for the Jesuit Fathers emerging from their Lenten fast.

The most credible stories, however, trace the recipe back to 16thcentury England. A personal note on George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore, recorded in English archives of 1599, mentions that as a boy he partook of stuffed ham while at the ''ancient family estate'' on the Yorkshire coast. It was the Calverts, of course, who founded Maryland. ''Stuffed Chine,'' a familiar recipe in Elizabethan England, called for a ''Bradenham gammon (ham) ... cut to the bone with slots and a mixture of herbs and lots of parsley pressed in, tied in muslin and boiled.''

Although there seem to be no traditional vegetables or condiments served with the ham, beaten biscuits are often put on the table when it is prepared in homes in the county. These biscuits, which resemble small cannonballs, and are almost as hard on the outside, are beaten (with an axe, says one old recipe) for no less than 20 minutes before baking. Restaurants do not feature them.

The Willows charges $2.50 for a stuffed ham sandwich, while the ham plate is $7.95 with vegetables and salad, plus individual loaves of homemade bread and coffee. The ham is served only in winter. The restaurant also serves a seafood imperial dinner, with shrimp lobster and crab, for $8.75. (The Willows is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 A.M. to 11 P.M and on Monday from 11 to 3; in summer it opens on Sunday, 1 to 9.

The few other St. Marys County restaurants - there are not many down there -that also serve authentic stuffed ham include the St. Marys Landing on Route 5 in Charlotte Hall, and the Belvedere Motor Inn on State Route 235 in Lexington Park. At the St. Marys Landing, the ham sandwich costs $2; and the ham with a vegetable, salad and bread is $3.50. A stuffed ham dinner costs $6.95. The Belvedere lunch menu offers ham on a roll, with coleslaw and french fries, for $2.65. On the dinner menu it is a cold platter for $9.25, including an appetizer, salad, choice of potato, three vegetables and rolls. Both places are able to serve the ham the year round because of their large cold-storage spaces.

MARY Z. GRAY, a writer who lives in Maryland, is the author of a book of humorous essays to be published by Atheneum.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section 10, Page 16 of the National edition with the headline: STUFFED HAM WITH A KICK. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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