We’ve made it to the final primal cut in our Where Does This Come From? series:

the back leg of the hog.

Its location is pretty self-explanatory, but what we do with it is another story.

Like every other section we’ve explored this month, the back leg gives us several different products, each with its own purpose.

Ham Hocks

The lower portion of the leg, which we cure and smoke to develop a wonderfully rich, smoky flavor. Ham hocks are fantastic for slow-cooked beans, soups, stews, and greens. A little goes a long way when it comes to adding flavor to a pot of food.

Boneless Leg Roasts

A beautiful cut for a traditional pork roast. These were one of Shawn’s Grandma Betty’s favorites, especially roasted and served with sauerkraut. Sometimes the simplest meals are the ones that stick with you.

Sausages

Some of the meat from the back leg also makes its way into our sausages. As we’ve discussed throughout this series, knowing which muscles work best for which products is a big part of what we do in the butcher room.

But the real star of the back leg, and one of the most important products we make at L&S, is our Bone-In Leg Ham.

And this is where things get interesting.

Pull Up a Chair. We’re Going Back a Few Thousand Years.

The story of ham is, in many ways, the story of how humans learned to preserve food.

Imagine living thousands of years ago, long before refrigerators, freezers, or vacuum sealers. Raising livestock provided an important source of food, but there was a problem.

Once an animal was butchered, the clock started ticking.

Without refrigeration, fresh meat wouldn’t last long. And when a single animal provided far more meat than a family could eat immediately, finding ways to preserve it wasn’t a luxury. It was a necessity.

Enter one of humanity’s oldest food-preservation tools: salt.

Long before anyone was worrying about the perfect holiday ham, people were discovering that salt could help preserve meat by drawing out moisture and making conditions less favorable for spoilage microorganisms.

What began as a practical way to make food last eventually became an entire culinary tradition.

And pork, particularly the hind leg, turned out to be remarkably well suited to curing.

Why the Bone?

Traditionally, many hams were cured with the bone still inside.

There were practical reasons for this. Keeping the leg whole meant less cutting and processing, and the bone helped maintain the ham’s natural shape.

Over time, different cultures developed their own methods of salting, drying, aging, and eventually smoking pork legs.

The bone became part of the identity of many traditional hams.

Now, does the bone itself magically make a ham taste better? Not necessarily. Flavor depends on the meat, fat, curing method, aging, and preparation. But there’s something undeniably special about a whole, bone-in ham.

It’s a beautiful cut of meat, and it has a way of making an ordinary meal feel like an occasion.

From Ancient Rome to the Mountains of Europe

By the time of the Roman Empire, cured pork was already an established food tradition.

Roman agricultural writers documented methods for preserving pork legs with salt, and ham was appreciated both for its flavor and its ability to keep.

As curing traditions developed across Europe, different regions created their own specialties.

Spain became famous for dry-cured hams, including Jamón Serrano and the celebrated Jamón Ibérico. Climate, pig breeds, feeding practices, and long aging periods all contribute to their distinctive character.

Italy developed its own remarkable traditions, including Prosciutto di Parma, known for its delicate flavor and carefully regulated production methods.

Germany and Central Europe embraced a variety of cured and smoked pork products, using regional woods, spices, and techniques to create distinctly different flavors.

Same basic cut of the animal. Completely different results.

Sound familiar?

It’s something we’ve talked about throughout this series. The cut is only the beginning. What happens next is where the real craftsmanship comes in.

When a Ham Was More Than Dinner

For centuries, preserving meat was an essential part of preparing for the months ahead.

In farming communities, pigs were often butchered during cooler weather, and families salted, smoked, or dried portions of the animal to help provide food long after butchering day.

A properly preserved ham represented future meals.

It was food security hanging from the rafters.

European settlers eventually carried their pigs and meat-preservation traditions across the Atlantic, where new regional styles developed.

In the American South, country hams became an important part of rural food culture. States like Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and North Carolina developed traditions of salting, curing, smoking, and aging whole pork legs.

These hams were practical, but they also became something worth celebrating.

Certain regional hams eventually gained reputations far beyond the farms where they were produced.

And then came refrigeration.

When Refrigeration Changed Everything

By the twentieth century, refrigeration and modern food processing had dramatically changed the way meat was preserved, transported, and sold.

Ham no longer needed to be heavily salted and aged for months simply to make it through the year.

Boneless and formed hams became popular because they were convenient to portion, package, and slice into uniform pieces.

And there’s certainly a place for convenience.

But traditional bone-in hams never disappeared.

Maybe it’s the presentation. Maybe it’s the connection to family holidays and celebrations. Maybe it’s the satisfaction of carving a beautiful piece of meat that still looks like the cut it came from.

Whatever the reason, people still love a good bone-in ham.

And that brings us back to L&S.

Our Bone-In Leg Hams

Of all the things we make from the back leg, our bone-in hams are something we’re particularly proud of.

We’ve spent years developing and refining our curing and smoking processes, learning how to turn a whole pork leg into the finished product our customers know.

Our hams aren’t something we rush.

From start to finish, the process takes approximately 26 days, including curing, preparation, and a long smoke that can last around 16 hours.

That’s a lot of time and attention for one piece of meat.

But when you start with a whole leg and want to make a ham you’re proud to put on someone’s holiday table, the details matter.

It’s one of those products that reminds us why we got into this business in the first place.

And while a beautiful bone-in ham makes a fantastic centerpiece, don’t forget one of the best parts.

Save that bone!

After the last slices are gone, the ham bone can still add incredible flavor to a pot of beans, lentils, split pea soup, or homemade stock.

It’s a tradition that stretches back generations, and a perfect example of making the most of the animal.

Something we believe in very strongly here at L&S.

From the Whole Hog to Your Table

And with that, we’ve made our way through the hog!

Over the past month, we’ve taken you from the first stages of processing through the shoulder, belly, ribs, loin, and finally the back leg.

Along the way, we’ve explored where your favorite L&S products come from, why different muscles are suited to different preparations, and how much thought and work goes into turning one animal into so many completely different foods.

Bacon, pancetta, sausages, chops, ribs, coppa, lonzino, roasts, pulled pork, ham hocks, and, of course, our bone-in hams.

All from the same animal. Each with its own story.

When Shawn and I started L&S, we had a lot to learn. And even after all these years, there’s always something new to discover.

That’s part of what makes this work so interesting.

We hope this series has given you a better understanding of what happens behind the scenes at L&S, and maybe even encouraged you to try a cut or product you haven’t considered before.

Because there’s a whole lot more to a hog than bacon.

Although, let’s be fair, the bacon is pretty darn good.

Thanks for following along with us. 🐷