York ham (, formerly often called "Yorkshire ham") is a characteristic type of ham that originated in Yorkshire, England. Like prosciutto or Westphalian ham, it is made by a dry curing process, but unlike them it is eaten cooked. At its best it is widely considered one of the finest hams. However, it has never enjoyed protected designation of origin status, and has been imitated in many places. Various productions, some of doubtful nature, have been sold as York hams. Contrary to common assumptions, York hams did not originate in the City of York.
Gastronomic reputation
In his classic Le guide culinaire (1921), Auguste Escoffier said it was difficult to decide what was the best ham in the world, but the preference should go to the Prague ham for serving hot and the York ham for serving cold, although the latter was excellent hot too.
Charles Elmé Francatelli, formerly chief cook to Queen Victoria, wrote (1861):
Tom Stobart's Cook's Encyclopedia (1980, repub. 2016) says York ham is "at its best, regarded everywhere as the finest type of cooked ham".
Leto and Bode's The Larder Chef (2006), a professional cookbook, says that "York ham is considered to be one or the finest hams and is well known and appreciated as a delicacy on the Continent and elsewhere".
Gastronomiac, a French-language online encyclopaedia says "Le jambon d'York, d'origine anglaise, est aujourd'hui un fleuron de la gastronomie française" ("York ham, of English origin, is today an ornament of French gastronomy").
Early history
Before refrigeration was developed country people preserved meat over the scarce months of winter by curing hams and other parts of the family pig. Regions developed their own cures. According to historianThe author signs himself "W. Cestr" (William, bishop of Chester); in 1888 the incumbent was William Stubbs, until recently the Regius Professor of History (Oxford). William Stubbs, from public records of 1166 it is evident that — for whatever reason — Henry II of England got his hams from Yorkshire.
The British Agricultural Revolution signified larger food surpluses, sent to an increasingly national market. By mid 18th century Yorkshire had a London reputation for its hams. In 1740 Thomas Dyche said "this county of late years is become particularly famous for making and curing legs of pork into what are commonly called hams". Ten years later William Ellis wrote: According to Malachy Postlethwayt (1766) there was sent to London "a kind of well prepared ham from Yorkshire". In The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy (1796) Hannah Glasse wrote Madam Johnson's Present had already said that 25 years before.
From about 1760 there are advertisements in the provincial and colonial newspapers for 'Yorkshire hams' (e.g. "A Parcel of exceedingly fine YORKSHIRE HAMS"), or, less frequently at first, 'York hams' (e.g. "Finest York Hams in highest preservation").The British Library's online British Newspaper Archive gives, for all newspapers published before January 1800: advertisements in the following newspapers and dates: Manchester Mercury 18 November 1766, p.4; Kentish Gazette 17 July 1770, p.1; Kentish Gazette 7 February 1778, p.1; Northampton Mercury 22 June 1778, p.3; Kentish Gazette 16 October 1779, p.1; Royal Gazette of Jamaica 20 October 1779, p.7; Royal Gazette of Jamaica 22 January 1780, p.4; Kentish Gazette 15 April 1780, p.1; Royal Gazette of Jamaica 10 February 1781, p.11; Royal Gazette of Jamaica 17 March 1781, p.13; Calcutta Gazette 13 July 1786, p.2; Salisbury and Winchester Journal 14 January 1788, p.3; Salisbury and Winchester Journal 16 March 1789, p.3; Salisbury and Winchester Journal 27 July 1789, p.4; Royal Gazette of Jamaica 11 October 1794, p.20; Calcutta Gazette 23 October 1794, p.4; Caledonian Mercury 18 May 1795, p.1; Calcutta Gazette 5 November 1795, p.3; Calcutta Gazette 10 December 1795, p.3; Hampshire Chronicle 14 July 1798, p.3; Calcutta Gazette 28 November 1799, p.3; and Sussex Advertiser 26 July 1762, p.4; Madras Courier 17 July 1790, p.4; Calcutta Gazette 23 August 1792, p.3; Calcutta Gazette 1 August 1793, p.1; Calcutta Gazette 27 March 1794, p.3; Calcutta Gazette 5 February 1795, p.2; Calcutta Gazette 14 January 1796, p.2; Stamford Mercury 23 June 1797, p.2. By 1830 the usage 'York ham' was the more common of the two and thereafter predominated.The British Newspaper Archive database reveals the following statistics:
+ Number of newspaper articles that mention "York ham(s)" "Yorkshire ham(s)" 1800–1810 31 70 1810–1820 72 129 1820–1830 342 240 1830–1840 1,475 314 1840–1850 1,312 148 1850–1860 6,701 603 1860–1870 9,387 1,422 1870–1880 6,626 1,763 1880–1890 6,212 3,217 1890–1900 5,689 2,948 1900–1910 6,484 1,545 1910–1920 2,789 1,084 1920–1930 4,538 469 1930–1940 5,564 858 1940–1950 274 34 Nearly all hits are small or display ads. York ham was not available during the Second World War and the subsequent years of austerity.
(Population of database: every newspaper in the British Newspaper Archive. Interrogation of database: through search engine provided. A hit (article) counts as one unit if it mentions the interrogated term one or more times.) The expressions were interchangeable.Thus The Practical Grocer: A Manual and Guide for the Grocer and Provision Merchant and Allied Trades, with Contributions by Specialists Trade Experts and Members of the Trades (1907) had: ()
York was described as famous for hams in a cookbook in 1845. The phrase "the famous York hams" appears explicitly in comparative advertising in 1848,Illustrated London News, 8 July 1848, p.14. The advertising campaign ran in several newspapers, and made no sense unless York hams were indeed famous. and "the celebrated York hams" in 1857.In The Official Illustrated Guide to the Great Northern Railway (ed. George Measom, W.H. Smith and Son) p.159. The advertiser was a grocer in York itself who described his shop as "Depot for the celebrated York hams". By 1861 Jambon d'York was in a book of menus for aspiring"We will give some new menus each year, because there are fashions in the menus as in dresses, and the hostess will be grateful to us for keeping her informed of the fashion for ceremonial dinners". French housewives, p.40 and an item that guests might hope to see served at balls in Paris.
The first mention of York ham in an haute cuisine context is on 2 April 1851, when it appears on the menu — as jambon d'York — for a banquet given for Lord Stanley at the Merchant Taylors' Hall, London. It was one of 123 dishes served to the diners, all of whom were male; ladies watched from a gallery.
Substitution, and generic use of name As, increasingly, reputable products were sold in distant markets — where the consumer did not know the producer — it became easier for suppliers to substitute spurious versions. As Richard Wilk put it:
An author of a late Georgian book on domestic economy said Although Ireland made excellent bacon, it also exported large numbers of hogs "hastily and improperly fattened" for the Liverpool and Bristol markets, where they were slaughtered while still unwell from the journey and cured in unhygenic conditions. Most of the hams sold in London as from York were said to be tainted hams from these imported Irish hogs. An 1843 travel book agreed that London shopkeepers passed off Irish hams as and for York hams. The Practical Cook, English and Foreign (1843) — its senior author claimed to have been cook to Princes Razumovsky and Esterházy — warned its readers: which was missed in the first edition of Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household ManagementThe 1861 edition did not mention York ham; she knew "York" or "Yorkshire" as a breed of pig; her readers were given directions on pig-keeping: but picked up in the third.The 1888 edition said "The best hams come from York, Cumberland and Westmoreland, or are reputed to do so; but many sold under those names are imported from Ireland or sent from the west of England: . One curer in Ireland sent almost his entire make of York hams to the cities of Hull and York.
In Yorkshire, hams were farmhouse products; there was no ham or bacon factory in the county until the end of the Victorian era. Hence
They also came from America. An unsigned article in The Boston Journal of Chemistry noted:
This was noticed in France. Urbain Dubois — who is credited with establishing the modern custom of serving dishes in sequential courses, instead of all at once — wrote that although York hams were reputed the best, the merchants of England sold many mediocre versions, which they got "from everywhere".
Thus, "York" or "Yorkshire" did not guarantee high quality ham without a trustworthy supplier: one who put his personal reputation on the packaging that secured the goods. This concept was the origin of modern branding.
Definition York ham does not have protected designation of origin status and there is no universally agreed definition of what it is.
At various times it has been claimed that a York ham should have one or more of the following attributes: a rear thigh of a pig of the Large White breed, bred, reared and killed in Yorkshire, dry-cured and aged on the bone according to a traditional procedure, in the City of York; banjo-shaped, with very white fat, a characteristic, mild savour and meat of a light colour.
Those claims are considered and referenced in the remainder of this section, but in summary, few (or no) hams today fulfil every single one of those criteria, if they ever did. "York ham" is a style of ham.
Terminology A ham (count noun) is a cured rear leg — specifically, the thigh — of a pig. Ham (mass noun) is meat from a ham, or should be. Bacon is cured meat from another part of the animal.
Breed of pig
Several authors say York ham traditionally came from a pig of the Large White breed, known in America as the Yorkshire Pig, although York ham was being advertised before the breed was developed.
Origin of breed The breed originated in 19th century Yorkshire, where industrial workers around Leeds, Keighley and Skipton had a strong tradition of keenly competitive, spare-time pig-breeding. According to a Victorian academic, the Large White became famous and was taken up after a Keighley weaver, Joseph Tulley, entered one in the Royal Agricultural Society's 1851 Windsor exhibition. Tulley Tulley sold specimens to professional breeders at high prices and they spread round the world.
The first herdbook for the Large White was published in 1884. In 1954 it represented 76% of the total male pig population of the UK.
The breed today In recent years the Large White has seen a dramatic decline. Today it is considered a breed at risk. Of about 50 members of the British Pig Association, only three have sizeable Large White herds, and in 2022 there were only 355 registered Large Whites left.
Geographical origin
As foreshadowed, the connection with Yorkshire was gradually lost with the passage of time.
Fell v. Army & Navy Co-Operative Society (1877) was a dispute between traders about what was York ham. The Army & Navy Stores of London had ordered 500 York hams from a Sheffield supplier, but sent them back, saying they were not proper York hams, only hams from Scotch pigs fattened for the Yorkshire market. The supplier said they were proper York hams and sued for the financial loss. The case was tried by Lord Chief Justice Coleridge and a Yorkshire jury. The supplier proved the pigs had been fed, killed and cured in Yorkshire, but not that the pigs were bred in the county, nor did he claim the hams were cured in York. The jury found in his favour and the judge strongly agreed. A meat inspector testified he could tell they were Yorkshire killed and cured by the characteristic odour. He said that if all York hams were bred in York that ancient city would be "one vast piggery".