A new old Virginia ham is now on display — and still dripping — in a Virginia museum
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From left to right: The world's largest ham, the oldest one, a 1930s branded ham, and the newest ham — the last genuine Smithfield ham known to man. Image: Courtesy of VCU anthropology professor Bernard Means
Over the summer, a team of VCU students and their teacher digitally preserved the last genuine Smithfield ham.
Why it matters: Their work will help a Virginia museum maintain its vast collection of extremely important old Virginia hams.
The big picture: In January, Smithfield Foods announced it would stop producing its flagship ham: the genuine Smithfield ham, a smoked and salt-cured country ham that's aged for up to a year.
- Turns out, consumers just don't like old ham like they used to.
So Smithfield discontinued the line and donated its last genuine ham to the Isle of Wight County Museum, a museum dedicated to the history of the town of Smithfield and surrounding county, include its hams.
- Its collection includes the world's oldest ham (122 years young, as of July), the largest ham (65 pounds), a circa 1930s Smithfield branded ham and, since April, what the museum calls The Last Ham.
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Zoom in: VCU anthropology professor Bernard Means and his class journeyed to Smithfield, about 70 miles southeast of Richmond, this summer to create 3D scans of The Last Ham, mimicking the work they did a years ago for the museum's oldest ham.
- 3D scanning lets museums create 3D prints of objects for visually impaired visitors, plus detect any changes in an object over time, Means tells Axios.
- And in the case of this object — a still aging and ripe-smelling ham — change is inevitable.
In fact, The Last Ham is so fresh it's still dripping ham juice in its display case and will do so for the next two or three years, museum director Jennifer England tells Axios.
- "We are vigilant in cleaning the case regularly. The other three hams, while they are still losing water, it is not as significant," she added.
Yes, but: The dripping made for a slippery day of work. Means went through nearly a full box of rubber gloves trying to keep his hands grease-free.
- The ham also had a distinct "very smoke-hammy" smell.
Of note: Smithfield, the ham company, was Virginia owned and operated until about 2013 when it was sold to a Chinese company for just over $4 billion.
The bottom line: The Isle of Wight's old ham collection is now one old ham larger. And you can see (and smell) for yourself, drippings and all, daily at the museum. Admission is $2.