In This Corner of Maryland, Holidays Mean a Stuffed Ham

If you're looking for origins, cast an eye to France and jambon persille.

anything but kale...please.

What to drink? You need a 10 oz. Bud! If you are going to eat local ,you need to drink the local drink.

I worked as an assistant at the Department of Labor while I was a grad student in Washington DC and there was a man in the office from Maryland who introduced me to the glories of Maryland stuffed ham. I grew up in Virginia and had never heard of them, as their notoriety was so specific to Maryland. I was so thankful for his generosity.

I was a local/regional reporter who wound up in southern St. Mary's county on a story one weekend. I thought I'd get supper at a local restaurant only to find there were none to be had. I did, however, pass a sign for a church fundraising supper. I mentioned this to the man I was interviewing and it seems he had spent the night before shredding 100 loaves of bread for crabcakes to be served at the fundraiser. So, of course, that's where I wound up eating! It seems there's a rotation among churches, the volunteer fire department, and other local non-profits as to who has their fundraising supper on which weekend. There weren't any local restaurants because they weren't needed--you could just go from fundraiser to fundraiser to eat your fill and eat it well, at the same time you contributed to the community. Seems like a pretty good system to me.

I grew up in northern Maryland, and only learned of this dish when one hot summer day in 1990 I was helping my cousin put a new roof on her barn and the talk of the assembled crew turned to Maryland’s culinary traditions. One fellow roofer had grown up in southern Maryland and spoke of ‘pillowcase ham’ stuffed with a ‘slaw’ of onions, kale, cabbage, salt, black pepper, and chili flakes, then packed in a pillowcase and simmered in a large pot before being cooled (to allow the meat to re-asorb the flavors), then warmed back up and carved for serving. As soon as I got off the roof I jotted down the ingredients on a slip of paper, which I still have. I still save old pillowcases (they work much better than cheesecloth in my experience) for this dish, which I make every couple of years as the centerpiece for a large party. Recipes for this dish finally started appearing in internet searches a few years back, but they do exist in old Maryland cookbooks, complete with debate as to origin, ingredient ratio, and fabric. Note: if you plan on making this at home, be sure to thoroughly rinse the pillow/muslin/cheesecloth before use and have good ventilation in the kitchen, as the delicious smell can linger longer than the leftovers.

Many years ago, as a graduate student at the University of Maryland, I taught a night class for Maryland's University College at Patuxent Naval Air Station. My wonderful students gave me a St. Marys stuffed ham as an end of the semester gift. It was absolutely delicious and I think about it nearly every time I eat ham. I tried once to reproduce it, but failed miserably.

There is a new(ish) restaurant in College Park, Maryland, called the Old Maryland Grill, that has this style of stuffed ham on the menu. The restaurant specializes in local cuisine and foodstuffs from Maryland. I invite local readers to check it out. They also have a great oyster selection at happy hour for a reasonable price.

Stuffed ham ?!?!? Don't we already have one president? Seriously though, I'm sure it's great.

Looks a little like Ham a la Queenie which is served in Edna Ferber's Show Boat.

Fun facts on St. Mary's not in this article. St. Mary's was the original capital of Maryland, established in 1633. Wiki: "St. Mary's City is also considered the birthplace of religious freedom in America, with the earliest North American colonial settlement ever established with the specific mandate of being a haven for both Catholic and Protestant Christian faiths." St. Mary's City has a recreation of a 17th century village and there has been some 300 archeological digs in past 30 years, with some originals open to visit. There's a beautiful park at the southern tip with a swimming beach right where the Potomac River meets the Chesapeake. The water is very placid and clean. The park was the site of one of the largest camps for Confederate prisoners, though most of the foundations are now under water (before Global W!). "By June 1864 more than 20,000 prisoners crowded the camp. Terrible conditions led to the deaths of 3,384 men. Cemetery and monuments to the prisoner dead are located near the entrance to the multi-use park." http://www.visitmaryland.org/escape-route-john-wilkes-booth It also has Tudor Hall/St. Mary's County Historical Society. Wiki: Tudor Hall, a large, rectangular, ​2 1⁄2-story, Georgian brick building built about 1798. It was Maryland Legislature in 1720. It is home to the St. Mary’s County Historical Society.

I've lived in St Mary's County for almost 16 years. Chief's is a great local watering hole where we take out of town guests, and we used to live behind (and shop at) Raley's before they closed. It is so nice to see my little corner of the US profiled in the NYT, and I wish more than anything that this was the only reason we were in the news today. But, the shooting at Great Mills High School changed that. While there are things that make us special (like stuffed ham, 10oz buds, and crabs & oysters), we are just like the rest of the country in that we are not immune to senseless violence. Thanks for the wonderful piece, Ms Severson!

This stuffed ham goes on my bucket list! Amazing.

These are the things that continue to make our ever-more-homogenized society interesting...please, next-gen southern Maryland dwellers - DON'T LET THIS DIE. The country needs these cultural gems to balance out the vast tracts of strip malls and chains that to flatten us and conflate us.

I go to a yearly ham-stuffing party in St Mary’s County. We cut, chop, pepper and stuff in honor of our host’s Mom, the incomparable Doris Guy, a stuffed-ham maker of some renown. It is a lot more fun than work!

I grew up in Southern Maryland and witnessed the food rituals that were over-fried, salted as if from a salt mine and other unhealthy preparations. Glad to have fled the culture after graduating and judging from this article, the locals left behind could use some tutelage about healthy eating. Lose the ham!

I grew up in Marion County, KY and now live in Nelson County, KY. This area , along with Washington county, is called " the holy land, " because of the very early (1700,s) Catholic settlers who came to this area for Maryland. I bring this up because I grew up having stuffed country ham every Christmas. My mother used cabbage and onion and used a pillowcase for boiling the ham. We lived in Calvary, a spot in the road with one stop sign, but I remember people in other parts of the county, Loretto or Holy Cross, would use kale stuffing. This thing is, I have never heard of stuffed ham anywhere else, ever. I'm thinking this must be something that was brought here with those very early settlers and then adapted to use with country ham.

The custom of church suppers is a great one. Not just anyone can cook for a church supper. You have to be one of a small group of "the best" in the congregation. As a teenager those kindly women would always ask, "You sure you won't have some more?" And I usually did. In those days I could get away with it. These stuffed hams sound quite delicious. They are a heritage dish which I hope we do not lose in our current society of quick, easy and usually tasteless food. These remote islands of culinary uniqueness have some good eats. But I fear that stuffed hams, Cajun boudin, the hero sandwiches of Atlantic City, scrapple, Philly Cheese, the crazy Chicago hot dogs made only with Vienna Sausage hot dogs, Texas hill country smoked brisket; the list is delicious but disappearing. There is nothing under the golden arches that will ever come close to our regional treats. White Castle, maybe. Roadfood by the Sterns is a goldmine of information on regional treats. The stuff we remember but can no longer find. Stuffed ham sounds like a great one. Not as complex as Brunswick Stew but every bit as worthy of preserving. Thanks for a great article.

My wife and I starting stuffing hams twenty years ago. Her family was of German descent and had a dairy farm near DC. She grew up eating stuffed ham. Every time we made one it turned out great. My job was to stuff the kale/cabbage mixture into the corned ham, wrap it in cheese cloth with all the extra stuffing and boil it in a big pot for about five hours. Turned out great every time. Very simple process. Having 17 pounds of ham requires a lot of family and friends to eat it. Great article.

I was born and raised in St. Mary's County. Stuffed ham means HOME to so many of us. Over the years, I have made many a stuffed ham with my family, most recently my dad and I stuffed one just before Thanksgiving and split it in half. When I pull the little bit that's left out of the freezer for Easter, I think it will taste just that much more like home. Thank you for the article and the link to the video. Bittersweet after Cap'n Bowes and Andy's passing. Tall Timbers lost two great men within such a short time. I have no doubt Matt Bowes will do a great job of following his father's footsteps. Love and miss you all!

I grew up in the county, but we moved there when I was a toddler so I was always a bit of an outsider When everyone has lived there since the Ark & the Dove, and your family just showed up, well... let's just say we wouldn't be able to call ourselves local unless I married a waterman and stayed there 5 generations. But I raised oysters in 4-H Club, won blue ribbons at the county fair, caught crabs off the pier, and so forth (though I never did get up the courage to jump off the bridge to St. George's Island. As a young adult, I was surprised and thrilled when my friend's mom called me up and invited me to come over early before Easter. She said, "It's about time you girls learned to make stuffed ham." This was a rite of passage I never thought I'd go through, getting a family recipe taught to me! I carefully wrote down all the steps, and it was delicious and so worth all the work! This year I got married, and of course I had ham from Dent's at the wedding. I'd been telling all of my DC-based coworkers and my husband's Missouri family about it for so long that they ate every bit! (My only disappointment was that there was none leftover for cold sandwiches the next day).

Stuffed ham isn't the only thing we miss, having recently retired to Delaware from Charles County. As touched upon in this terrific article, stuffed ham and Southern Maryland Catholic parishes (the oldest in the U.S., including St. Ignatius at Chapel Point dating back to 1641) seem to be permanently linked. The older parishioners are passing away, along with many of the cooking traditions we enjoyed at summer festivals and funeral repasts. For the 1998 bicentennial of the reconstruction of the brick church, St. Ignatius parishioners contributed their favorite recipes for a parish cookbook. We got no less than three stuffed ham recipes -- two with cabbage and kale, and the third with watercress, kale and brussels sprouts (go figure). I believe only one of the three contributors is still alive.

We were old friends of both Andy Dent and Bobby Bowes and their families. They and their work in the community to carry on the old tradition of stuffing hams will be sorely missed, but luckily, they trained the younger generation to continue feeding the community. There are still a good number of persons who make stuffed hams within their own homes. You can still come to the Dent's country store and also to our local Catholic church Christmas bazaar to enjoy this unique colonial style dish. Even the local grocers carry the particular kind of ham - corned, not smoked -so people can make their own. So please, when you visit southern Maryland (you would probably not find the ham in any other part of Maryland!) make sure you seek out a place offering this unique regional delicacy.

I think a dream of mine is to eat my way around America - BBQ, crab cakes, hot chicken, Korean burritos, peach pie (the list is almost endless) and now stuffed ham :)

Not a thing here, but looks good. Graat article, is nice to read about long family owned stores and traditions.

For folks from all over the country who might not know about this splendid Maryland tradition, please visit the Land of Pleasant Living to eat the crabs and by God try this ham. It is astounding.

Years ago, I visited a restaurant in upstate New York. With a friend. The place was called "The Odyssey Steakhouse." Nice place. The "Odyssey" part was no idle boast. On the back of the menu was a short essay, describing all the places in Homer's Odyssey that describe food and feasting. And (of course) the people EATING the food--DOING the feasting. So interesting! And so true! Like your wonderful article, Ms. Severson. All about "stuffed ham." Live and learn! I never HEARD of stuffed ham before. I knew nothing about it. I know a LOT about it now. But there was so much more. Living, moving around in the article were the people that MAKE the stuffed ham. Family members. Church people. Community people. People that share. People partaking--and preserving--a common heritage--a heritage embracing (as it were) black people, white people, all kinds of people. It really WAS a wonderful article, Ms. Severson. Down to the last line. The young man all but choking up as he prepares to follow in his father's footsteps. Carry on the tradition. Stuff the ham. There are so many things--such a MULTITUDE of things!--that bring us together. That bind us together. "Blessed be the tie that binds!" And one of those many things, I guess. . . . . .. is FOOD. More power to it!

I grew up in the Washington DC area but on weekends my parents would often head down to St. Mary's County or parts of Charles County for church dinners where stuffed ham was always a star.

I went to college in the late '70's in St. Mary's County. In my first year, the cooking at the dining hall was done by local women, both black and white. They cooked everything from scratch - no food service cans, no frozen food. Because of the bounty of the near-by Chesapeake Bay, we had fried oysters, crabs, fresh corn, biscuits and on special occasions, stuffed hams. It was my first introduction to it and it was amazing. We always looked forward to the holidays when we knew the cooks would take the time and effort to make hams to feed the students they cared for. My second year, the school went to a commercial food service, with the same women still cooking, but a lot was lost in the transition. I had always felt that the main ingredient in their cooking was the love of the food they cooked and the pride in the sharing of the local and family traditions.

I have never met a ham I didn't like, some were just better than others. There's something soothing & comforting in a nice slice of ham - it's beautiful blend of honey or maple with a touch of spice & savory in each mouth watering bite, & the meat is so tender and rich. I never heard of a stuffed ham. I won't knock it before I try it, I just think off the cuff, the stuffing is overkill. It almost reminds me of a slice of chocolate cake, smothered in chocolate icing, topped with chocolate ice cream, chocolate fudge sauce, and chocolate sprinkles. But I'm game and will be adventurous in my trek to order one of these delights on line for Easter Sunday. But what I found so bittersweet, tender and loving in this article were the stories about the families who learned their craft and skill of making stuffed hams from their parents. So many of my treasured recipes came from my mother. I am so lucky that she took me under her wing and taught me so much about cooking and especially baking. Every time I make one of her recipes, I feel as if she is in the kitchen by my side. The stories of David Dent, Daniel Raley, Gilbert Murphy, and Matt Bowes brought a tear to my eye. Learning a family tradition and then keeping it going by passing it down from one generation to the next is keeping the memories of their loved ones alive. And that's one of the things I love about ham - it bring families together while munching on a slice of stuffed ham. Thanks for a great article.

Nothing made me happier than seeing Tall Timbers on the site this morning. May I suggest for those whose interest is piqued but are reluctant to lug an entire ham home to stuff that they check out some of the Southern Maryland retailers that ship stuffed ham nationally (including WJ Dent!).

I grew up in thuh canny and seriously do not remember this ham. Granted I grew up in the big old city of Lexington Park around the time of that salmonella death. That part I actually did remember for some reason, I’ve never forgotten, and I’ve spent every time I’ve gotten food poisoning scared it was going to get me too. Who knew it was all over some ham?

I find it quite funny that Murphy's Town and Country Store has a New York Deli.

I am exceedingly fond of Southern Maryland including stuffed ham. If we lose the Chesapeake, nothing else will ever matter.

I have never had the pleasure, either of preparing or eating this dish, but just reading about the social impetus behind the food in our lives makes me smile. And feel a little hungry.

What a wonderful article, thank you! I grew up in Howard Co, Maryland and only experienced the blue crab as a Maryland specialty growing up. St. Mary's county not only highlights how many of Maryland's coastal communities have retained unique traditions from their ancestors, but also how Maryland culture truly adheres to "America in miniature".

Great article. I grew up in St. Mary’s County in the area known as the Seventh District. My ancestors settled there in 1634 on the ships the Ark and the Dove. My mother made stuffed ham when her mother was no longer able to do it. My husband and I continue to make her stuffed ham recipe usually at Thanksgiving and freeze some for Christmas and holiday parties. We NEVER put cabbage in it, ONLY kale was or is used in our family. The comments about the “aroma” are true. We cook ours on our crab cooker in the garage.

I attended St. Mary's College of Maryland in the mid-1980's and recall this being served at the Madrigal Dinners held at the old State House around the Christmas holidays. I hadn't heard of it before or since, but enjoyed the dish while there. The county is a unique place and this article brings back fond memories.

I grew up outside DC, but my father fell in love with everything about Souther Maryland. He made it a couple if times, but, in a hurry, you would pick one up from local grocery chain Mattinglys, which is no longer around.

Until this article, the only time I'd heard of stuffed ham was a chapter in Jane & Michael Stern's wonderful travelogue-cum-autobiography "Two For The Road", where they relate their search for stuffed ham throughout Maryland and talk to a few home cooks in St. Mary's County. Anyone whose appetite has been whetted by Kim Severson's equally wonderful article should seek out a copy of the book.

I first had this as a student at SMCM, in '93. I worked for the caterer who kept a small cafe in the historic area. Although I was allowed to eat more or less what I liked on my lunch break, I failed to register that the stuffed ham was special and off limits, and I indulged on several occasions. I didn't keep that job very long! I've since learned better job and people skills. I'm going to make this very, very soon, and I'll raise my glass to my old boss who made a very good stuffed ham and was pretty tolerant toward a clueless employee, at least for a few months.

I grew up in St, Mary's County, MD, and several family members still live there. Which is great. While I have made stuffed ham a few times, the stuffed ham currently in my freezer was shipped to CO by my bother and made by SOMEONE ELSE. Bless their furry little hearts.

I grew up in St. Mary's County, MD and several family members still live there. Which is great, because while I have made stuffed ham a few times, the stuffed ham in my freezer currently was shipped to CO by my brother and made by SOMEONE ELSE. Bless their furry little hearts.