A HAM-my Story
DID YOU EVER wonder why almost all Christian communities in the world that celebrate Christmas have a ham dish on the table on Christmas Eve, when in fact, early Christians abhorred pork meat and considered it spiritually dirty?
Read on and find out the many peculiarities behind this food that Filipinos have come to love.
Pagan Origin
The word ‘ham’ came from the old English word hamm, denoting the ‘hollow or bend of the knee.’ It is associated with the gammon, the smoked bacon from hind-leg pork, which was derived from the old Northern French word, jambe.
The earliest evidence of ham production may be traced back to Ancient Rome around 420 to 400 B.C. During those times the curing and preservation of pork meat was a guarded secret of the Italian province of Parma. Hence, the name of the ham from this region is Prosciutto di Parma. Biblically speaking, pork is spiritually ‘unclean.’
So how did ham end up as the main dish on the Christmas table?
Freyr was the Norse god of crops, fruitfulness, peace, and prosperity. In many parts of Europe from Scandinavia to Germany, people gave honor and tribute to this pagan deity and to implore him to show favor for a bountiful harvest the following year by offering cured boar's meat including the head with an apple in its mouth. It was brought into the banquet hall in a large silver or gold platter to the sound of trumpets and accompanied by the songs of minstrels.
The Anglo-Saxon brought the medieval feast of serving of ham, first to the Isle of Britain and then to England (500-600 A.D.). From this pagan celebration, it was said to have been inherited by Saint Stephen I (circa 975-1038) of Hungary. Although he tried to suppress paganism in Europe and was instrumental in the Christianization of the Magyars, he adopted several pagan traditions including the eating of ham during Christmas Eve.
In the Philippines
The Philippines, like Spain, the United States, and many countries in Europe with a predominantly Christian population, celebrate Christmas Eve with an array of sumptuous food. And ham is one food which doesn’t fail to make an appearance during Noche Buena. The serving of this cured meat dish on the Christmas table is clearly of Spanish influence. The word hamon itself was derived from the Spanish jamon.
The making of ham, especially the popular dry-cured ones, however, was borrowed from the Chinese Jinhua, which according to existing historical documents date back to the Song Dynasty (c. 450 A.D.). One of the most famous Chinese hams, the Jinhua ham, is a dry-cured ham used to produce a dish known as “Buddha jumps over the wall.” Jinhua ham is used in Chinese cuisines to flavor stewed and braised food as well as for making the stocks and broths of many Chinese soups. The ham first became world-famous when it was awarded first prize in the 1915 Panama International Merchandise Exhibition.
The Filipino Christmas ham is similar to the Chinese ham, where it is dry-cured and has to be cooked in a special sweet broth after being soaked to reduce the salt. Then the ham is scored, glazed, and roasted to perfection.
On the other hand, the Hamon de Bola is an alteration produced by major Philippine food manufacturers to suit the sweeter Filipino palate. Because of ham being a traditional centerpiece of the Noche Buena and Media Noche, orders for pork is massive from the beginning of the Yuletide Season.
Bites of Warning
The original method of making ham doesn't include artificial preservatives. Today's ham, however, is allegedly laced with dizzying amount of chemical preservatives from nitrates to aldehydes.
The large demand for ham during the holidays makes manufacturers rush which results to many a ham to be undercooked. Undercooked ham is the one single biggest food source of tapeworms, a tape-measure-like parasitic worm which can grow to several feet inside your body. Gross!
So, make sure ham is well-cooked before eating or serving it.
We’ve all heard it before on several news bulletins. There are several tons of botcha or dead pork meat. Because the meat underwent several processes, it is highly possible to camouflage the botcha and make it look like good meat. But the moment you cook or reheat it, you will still notice the difference by their aroma — rotten meat, well, smells rotten when heated no matter what!
So this coming Noche Buena and Media Noche, eat wisely!
- Ernee Lawagan
