Ham: An Obsession with the Hindquarter

A ham is (let us not mince words) a pig’s rear end. It’s a hefty hunk of flesh and bone, weighing in somewhere between 12 and 30 pounds. Fresh or cured, ham can be prepared in innumerable ways. And (here’s the clincher) ham is incredibly delicious—the kind of meat whose sheer scrumptiousness can entice even the most diehard vegan into having second thoughts.

In Ham: An Obsession with the Hindquarter, Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarborough take readers on a globetrotting tour of th…