When I grew up in rural west Kentucky as a boy in the 1940’s, the most complimentary meat that could be served to your guests was your country ham. I can remember traveling out the dusty roads to my great aunt’s for a meal cooked on her wood-burning stove. There was nothing better than the vegetables, either home canned or fresh and biscuits topped off with a slice of the salty country ham that my Aunt Dellie and Uncle Walter Dorsett had cured in their smoke-house.

This was the ham that had been cured by salt and sugar packing and hung in their smokehouse for up to 2 years. This was a necessity as there was no refrigeration in those days. Rural electricity was not available until the late 1940’s.

The art of curing the hams was brought to West Kentucky by Lewis Thomas Wingo, my grandfather six times removed, and others like him who had traveled from North Carolina to West Kentucky in 1793 to settle in a little community named Golden Pond.

My grandfather and the other “kaintucks” would load their flat-bottom boats with tobacco and other farm products to sell in New Orleans. Having no way to bring the boats back up the river, the men would spend at least a month walking up the Natchez Trace to their homes. I can visualize the joy on his face when he finally arrived home to his wife, Mary Holt Wingo and some good country ham home cooking.

Until 1968, fried was the only way I had ever eaten country ham.. One Christmas my father-in-law, David (Bud) Barkley, was given a Broadbent country ham by Smith Broadbent of Cadiz, Kentucky. He asked me to try to bar-b-cue this ham. As I had only eaten fried country ham, I put up quite a battle, telling him that he was going to ruin a perfectly good ham. Over my objections, he told me to do what he said. He said that country ham was too salty for his taste.

I placed the ham on a large grill and using hickory wood I slowly brought the temperature to a point where the ham was sweating. After 12 hours I removed the ham and hoped for the best. Serving the ham was a gamble as no one had ever tasted it cooked like this before. However, I knew it was a winner when my daughter and her cousins kept coming to the table, tearing off a hunk of the delicious meat and eating it like candy.

This same dedication to a unique taste experience is what you will receive when you order your double smoked Holloway Ham.

We will personally guarantee that for a family gathering, wedding reception, business appreciation gift, or any catered affair, this will be a most enthusiastically talked about item.