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KENTUCKY BACON
Father's Country Farms (Charles Gatton Jr.)
Father's Country Hams (Lorene Gatton)
Meacham Country Hams (Rodman Meacham)
Meacham Country Hams (William Meacham)
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Interviews and photographs by Amy Evans.
Rodman
Meacham
MEACHAM COUNTRY HAMS
705 O'Nan Dyer Road
Sturgis, KY 42459
(800) 552-3190
www.meachamhams.com
Rodman Meacham was born to cure bacon. His father, William Meacham, had perfected his cure by the time Rodman was born and soon enough, Rodman was working in the ham house. By the time he was a teenager, Rodman knew he wanted to run the family business. Although he has other business interests, Rodman maintains great appreciation for the tradition of dry-curing meat. He now shares his knowledge with others, working with the Union Country Fair and the 4-H Country Ham Program, which teaches youngsters the traditional art of curing hams. Rodman is proud of what Meacham Hams has become and is especially proud to be able to pass his meat-curing knowledge on to the next generation. To him, meat curing is a connection to the past that should be celebrated and fostered.
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• • • Listen to this 3-minute audio clip of Rodman Meacham talking about kinds of salts, curing and memories from the farm. [Windows Media Player required. Go here to download the player for free.]
What follows is a portion of the original interview that has been edited for length. To download the entire transcript in PDF form, please click here.
SUBJECT: Rodman Meacham
DATE: August 22, 2005
LOCATION: Meacham Country Hams-Sturgis, KY
INTERVIEWER: Amy Evans
Amy Evans: This is Amy Evans on Monday, August 22, 2005 for the Southern Foodways Alliance and I'm in Sturgis, Kentucky at Meacham Hams and we're here to talk about bacon. And Mr. Meacham would you introduce yourself for the record and also your birth date, if you don't mind.
Rodman Meacham: Okay; I'm Rodman Meacham and my birth date is July 16, 1953.
Okay; and I was commenting before we started recording on your family homestead here; can you talk a little bit about how--how long the family has been right here outside of Sturgis?
Well
this--this farm is like a lot of western Kentucky farms; it has a lot
of history and--and it's been in our family for a long time. My dad actually
moved here in the '60s--1960s and built the first ham--the first part
of our ham house, the sales room as you came in up here, as the first
addition to our building here. He had--he had another building on what
he calls the home farm, which is closer to Morganfield where he cured
hams and--and bacon and things you know prior to that. So in the 1960s
he moved here and started doing hams a little more--a little more earnest
I guess you'd say and bacon as well.
But prior to that your family has been curing hams and making bacon for some generations; is that right?
Yeah; he--he learned the art and the recipe I guess was handed to him by his grandmother, which would be my great-grandmother and so she had--she had a recipe written in the back of a cookbook for--for the cure for the hams and the bacon and they started out. In--in those days you had a farmhand and you paid them with a hog or two for a year in the fall or early winter. They would--they would all get together and kill those hogs and then cure the bacon and the bellies and make sausage and--and put that meat up for the winter, and that's--that was part of the pay that those people got for working on that farm. So that's how he learned how to--how to do hams and--and bacon and he--it kind of grew from there.
And what was your great-grandmother's name?
He's going to get--he's going to get me if I don't do this right, but her--her--she was a Hamner was her--was her last name and I'm not sure about her first.
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Well can you talk about the process of curing ham back in your grandfather's era and your great-grandmother's era?
Well it's quite a bit different than it is now of course without the benefits of refrigeration and all the other modern conveniences, but basically you--you would kill the hogs in the winter time, which that's your refrigeration and they had a smoke house and part of the house was--was a salt box that they would put the bellies and the hams in to cure them and they kept up with it on a calendar and dad would say that if they had a day below freezing, they would take that day off and they would try and stay 40 days or whatever--whatever the time period was. And so if it had a day below freezing they--they would add a day at the end. So--so they tried--tried to have several days in there without freezing in a row. And then of course, by the end of that period, the curing time was--last you know a couple of months. They--at the end of that time the weather was starting to warm up a little bit in the spring and they would have what we call salt equalization which is that kind of early spring time when the temperatures are rising and humidity is low, which kind of allows the cure to further penetrate the ham and do a little better job and of course the next was the summer where you had the high summer heat and that was all of what they call the summer sweat. I'm sure--you're grinning so I'm sure you've heard these terms before, but they--the--that's where--that's where we think you get the flavor that you need from a good Kentucky country ham. So--and then--and then of course, you're back to winter again, so you start the cycle all over.
Do you know what kind of scale they were working with back then?
Oh, not really; I--I would say they would kill you know
20 to 50 hogs and where my dad really got his start--he was obviously
pretty good at curing the hams and--and he had some relatives and his
brother-in-law in Louisville, Kentucky, was an attorney, so as a gift
or a favor to him, he would send a ham up there and they would have a
party and they would serve the ham and then where did you get this and
get him to cure me a ham next year. So 
dad
started I guess buying extra hams as they--as they were killing extra
hogs or whatever, so that he would meet that demand, and by the time he
moved here and built this first ham house he was already you know I'd
guess you'd say a commercial operation because he was selling those hams
to those people and it just kind of grew from there.
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And what's your father's first name?
William--he's 92 years old and he's--he can't get to the ham house every day but he's still very much interested in what's going on, so I'm sure I'll have to report to him here shortly.
[Laughs] And so he came over here and started the ham house you say in the '60s?
Uh-hm.
Do you have an idea about that transition and when--when making hams and bacon went from a mainstay of a culture in western Kentucky to a money-maker and how he made that happen?
I'm going to say along that--in along that early '60s--mid-'60s was when his--people started asking him to cure more so it became--it became a business at that time and--and he never did raise a lot of hogs on this farm, so when--when he built his first ham house, it was--the intent was to buy the hams and cure them. So as the demand increased, he increased the number of hams he cured; so--AE: And what other business was he in?
Well he farmed; he farmed this, too, so--and--and he worked for the federal government. He was--he measured tobacco and worked for the--they called it ASCS. It's the Farm Services Organization now so he did that kind of as a sideline, too.
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And so when your father started the ham house, how did that start--build a cinderblock building and call it a ham house?
Yeah; pretty much--he built this first little room up here
and what is it--15-feet square maybe and he could cure about you know
200 or 300 hams in there--is about what you could hang up in there. So
he did it all right there in that winter except for the smoke house
was always separate out there; so he had a separate little side building
out there that he could hang up the hams and smoke them, because we smoke
our hams. Some people do and some people don't but we like to smoke them
and it's kind of hard to do it in the same room that you cure in; so--
Yeah; and so let's talk about your bacon.
Okay; well obviously if you've got hams you've got bacon to cure. So dad--dad always had an old country bacon, I call it, and--and some of the bacons that we produce today are still based on that formula. I--I think initially you used the same cure that you use with--for the hams, so you know they're going to taste salt--salt content and then maybe flavor wise they're going to be very similar but--but he always added a little maple to his; that's one of the things that we put in at least one of our bacons, and--and that--that gave it a very unique flavor and so that's kind of how we did bacon too and still do.
Uh-hm; and so over the years--40 years of--of being a retailer how has business changed?
It's changed a lot obviously. We've evolved into--into pretty much a catalog and internet based business. We do sell to some suppliers like Cracker Barrel and some other wholesalers that are again a catalog business, so we're--we've kind of targeted that as our niche. I think people's tastes have changed somewhat so we've developed some bacons that have a little less salt content. The downside to that is that they're not as quite shelf stable as--as the old country bacons were, and you can't just leave them out without refrigeration for a long period of time. But--but they are very flavorful and--and you know with some other additives--some pepper and some other things, you can create some different tastes; so--
What do you think about that--how creative people are getting with their bacon cures?
Oh I see--I see new bacons all the time. You know I--I like--I just like the old country bacon myself. I just don't think you can beat it. I do like pepper bacon; that's probably my favorite. But some people and put pepper in all their cures, but--but we don't. We don't put it on our hams, so I really like it in the--in the bacon cure.
How long do you cure your bacon for?
We're in cure about seven to ten days depending on the size of the bellies and then the procedure would be to you know--to take them up out of cure and wash that excess cure off. I like to let them hang a few extra days in and kind of firm up--just kind of--and then we go into the smoke house and smoke them just until we get the right color and the right flavor to them, and from there, you know they're either--they're either or sliced and package or sold--and sold in slabs. It's a pretty simple procedure, really.
Now you said you didn't have any in cure right now. Is this just a--a downtime for you or--
It's just a downtime of the year. We haven't started building our inventories for the fall and you just happened to catch us at a time when--it's pretty typical this time of year; so--
Uh-hm; what do you think as far as being a producer of both hams and bacons and they kind of go together as you say but there's a little bit of a different artform in the hams--so much importance is put on the hams, but the bacon is such a craft also. Can you explain the difference there or do you think that there is a perceived difference?
I--you know bacon is very--it's a lot easier and less time to produce than ham. So that's--that's a definite plus for it. I think there's been some health connotations from the past against bacon and--and we're trying to overcome those--the industry is. Certainly the hogs that--the product that we're buying now is leaner and--and not--doesn't have the real big thick fat it used to, so it's--it's got to be better as far as cholesterol and fat levels in it. But you know I guess ham is just something that's very popular and--and bacon should be as popular.
Growing up did you expect to be the Meacham Farm--you know did you expect that business to be handed down to you and you would be curing hams and--
I dabbled with some other things and I still have some other business interests. This is just one of the things that I do. But yeah, you know I--I think as of my late--my late teens I knew that I wanted to be involved in this. And my dad was really--he was one of those particular about how things are done and the quality of course is very--he's passed those things onto me, but--but he--at the same time he wouldn't let me participate in a lot--especially when I was younger, so he made me watch, and I guess that peaks your interest. When--when I got to be a teenager, I knew I could do it; so--
And in what--how has the Internet changed your business?
Well it obviously--I--I don't know how you can operate and
be in business especially with a catalog without--without an Internet
presence. So I like it because you know it's a fairly level playing field
out there. You can--you can have a nice website and look--look just as
big as the next guy down there who's a huge company. So that's not our
intent to do that, but--but it does sort of level the playing field. One
thing about the internet is you just have to constantly be you know evolving
with it as the technology increases you know; people--people want to be
able to get online and--and have an easy way to order, so we're you know
about every--at least once a year we're updating our--our shopping cart,
changing the website, trying to add the features that people are searching
for because they can go find something else pretty quick. That--that's
the downside to it. There's--when they type in the word bacon they're
going to find a lot of bacon, so try to grab them and keep them. So retaining
the customer is very important. So service and quality and--and all those
things--we think we can do a better job with those because we're a smaller
company whereas you tend to get lost in the shuffle maybe with some of
the bigger ones, but by the same token 
they've
got all the technology and the tools to--you know to--to keep up with
things. So it's a challenge.
What do you think outside of maybe it just being a family owned and operated small business, what do you think sets apart your product from other producers?
Well--of course, I--you know everybody thinks they have the best product and I'd be remiss in my job if I didn't say that, but--but there are a lot of companies--I'll say this; there are a lot of companies that have unique things about their business, but the--probably the most important thing we have is--is our customers. And--and everybody has their own customers and we might share with other companies but--but those are our bread and butter, so we try--we try to maintain those and you find them different ways. You--a lot of it's word of mouth, so you know referrals are--are important. But you know obviously we have--we have good products as other companies do, but everybody has got their own unique flavor, their own unique little thing that they do; I've always said this to people that--that I could give you my cure and let you go back here in this building and cure hams and they would probably taste different. The building is important; the procedure is important, but you know the times, the--the you know--how you mix things, how long to smoke, what kind of smoke--all those things have a big factor--a big influence on--on what it tastes like and what it looks like; so-- It's just--every business is unique and every business owner is unique, you know. So that's America. [Laughs]
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And then I'm thinking, too, about how in this part of the South curing was such a necessity as we talked about before and it's how you treated your food and it--now with refrigeration and all that you know, most anybody could have a hand in curing meat. What is it about this region and your family that makes it important to maintain that and still have, you know, a foot in that--that past but then also work it in the future and being part of the internet?
Well it's--you know it's--it's important to me to maintain the family business, to carry on I guess you'd say. It's a way of life in the South, you know. The family is here close by; my--my father is still living, so you know it's--it's just kind of what we do and--and I enjoy it.
Is there still a tradition in the country or in this area for home curing or hog killing?
There--you know there are a few people, a few--especially we've got a big farming community here and there are a few farm families that still get the family together and kill hogs. They primarily would grind it up and make sausage and whatever, but you know the whole--the day of making the lard and all that stuff is long gone. But yeah, I think there's still some of that. And--and we also have some custom slaughter operations here, so you know these--a lot of these farmers are grain farmers and they--they don't raise any hogs anymore but they may still have a hog floor and they may raise--may feed a few hogs that--just so they can kill their own hogs and--and then they take them to a customer processor and have--have it done. So people still think there's value in that.
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[C]an you talk a little bit about what exactly goes into your cure?
It's--it's a pretty typical cure; I think we probably use maybe a little bit more sugar than--than some people do because salt--of course, you can cure it with salt alone; so I just like--I like the flavoring that the sugar does to the ham and the bacon as well. Of course, we--we do--we do a little different combination to the bacon, but--but it's primarily sugar and--and salt and some curing agents; so--
It is important where your sugar and salt come from?
Not so much where they come from; it's just--especially the salts, you know there's--there are different grades of salt; there is a meat curing salt, there's some flake salts, and--and I like a salt that doesn’t dissolve too fast. So that maybe a little coarser salt; some of the flake salts are more designed for--you know for emulsification of liquid so that they broke down a little faster and--and that doesn't work for me because of the timeframe that we cure the hams. So--with a dry-cured ham you--you need a salt--you want it to penetrate but you don't want it to just melt and run-off in a few days or something. But you know sugar is sugar; you just--wherever you can get it the cheapest.
[Laughs] And then how many flavors of bacon do you offer or cure as a bacon?
We've got--we've got a pepper bacon, a regular bacon--it's what we call a country bacon, and a maple bacon; so we've got three bacons, and like I said, the maple bacon is--is pretty much my dad's old country bacon, where they call it the old country bacon, we call it a maple bacon because it's--it's got some maple in the flavor.
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[W]ell do you have a favorite thing or something that you would say that you like the best about being a part of a small ham and bacon operation?
It's--I don't know that I've got a favorite thing, but it's just a neat way of life. I like--I like the one-on-one--I answer the phone a lot during the holiday season. I like to talk to customers. I'm busy or don't have the time to do it as much as I used to but I do enjoy that. And I've got my own set of customers that will only talk to me, you know. And most of my employees do that as they develop a relationship with people because that's what it's all about. You know the level of service that we provide, you know--it gets harder to--to meet the bar every year because of all the technology. People want to know tracking numbers of when it was shipped and you know email confirmations and--and all that; so you know it's--you just have to--you just have to try to stay with the business and I hope it's something that I can pass onto my--my family.
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To download the entire transcript in PDF form, please click here.
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