York ham (, formerly often called "Yorkshire ham") is a characteristic type of ham that originated in Yorkshire, England. Like Parma 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 quality, have been sold as York hams. Contrary to common belief, 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 historian 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"). By 1830 the usage 'York ham' was the more common of the two and thereafter predominated. The expressions were interchangeable.
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, and "the celebrated York hams" in 1857. By 1861 Jambon d'York was in a book of menus for aspiring French housewives and an item that guests might hope to see served at balls in Paris.
The first mention of York ham in a 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 Management but picked up in the third. One curer in Ireland sent almost his entire make of York hams to the cities of Hull and York.