My family and I recently visited Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. Every time we visit, I’m always amazed by the level of interpretation and attention to detail about British colonial life provided by Colonial Williamsburg interpreters and the foundation. It is the largest living museum in the world with more than 600 buildings and countless demonstration and interpretation sites.

Naturally, as a meathead, I was also curious about the degree of interpretation about animal husbandry in Colonial Virginia, and I was not disappointed. Colonial Williamsburg founded the Rare Breeds program in 1986 to “promote genetic diversity in livestock that research shows thrived in eighteenth-century colonial British America.” Such breeds include the Leicester Longwool sheep, Cleveland Bay horses, American Cream Draft horses, American Milking Devons and Shorthorns, Ossabaw Island hogs, and two varieties of chickens: Dominique Chickens and Nankin Bantams. Visitors can view the animals in their pens and even ride a carriage led by horses or oxen. Such interactive programs certainly reinforce the goal of education in Colonial Williamsburg and expose visitors, especially those from urban areas, to the complexities and foodways of agrarian life in Colonial America.

In terms of educating visitors about meat production, Colonial Williamsburg also occasionally provides demonstrations on hog processing, salting, curing, and “smoaking” (as it was spelled back then) meat. (Quite frankly, this part of the education program surprises me, especially since, as an industry, we are wary of scrutinizing public.) Hogs, except for feasts or same-day events, were mostly processed in the winter months of December and late January to prevent spoilage. All parts intended for consumption are rubbed with salt and tightly placed in half-barrels. After sitting for six weeks, the barrels were opened at the bottom to release the excess water, and then cuts were tied and hung in a smokehouse. Some cuts were rubbed with pepper, a natural pest deterrent, before smoking. The meat would be smoked for at least two weeks in the month of February, and it provided Williamsburg denizens with protein for months.

Colonial Williamsburg boasts 12 smokehouses on grounds of the living museum, demonstrating that smoking and preservation was a way of life in colonial America. The smokehouses were small boxy buildings with sharply pitched roofs. The walls were tightly sealed to prevent leaks and effectively preserve the meat. The timber of the roof is where the meat was hung to smoke, and there was a small fire pit in the middle of the floor. The most representative smokehouse at Colonial Williamsburg is located at the Peyton Randolph House.

If you have a chance to visit Colonial Williamsburg soon, I strongly suggest you add the foodways programs to your itinerary and make a pilgrimage to the various smokehouses. It was illuminating for me, and it provided a unique perspective meat production in British North America and early foodway practices, some of which are still used today in country ham production.

Foodways in Colonial Williamsburg

Join for free* to continue reading.