Good country ham is a delicacy that deserves to be in gourmet company. Dry cured with salt and other natural ingredients and aged to a rich intensity, true country ham boasts a flavor and texture that puts the more common wet-cured ham, which is soaked in brine or injected with a salt solution, to shame.

This book celebrates country ham's colorful culinary past and its continued close ties with life across the South. Jeanne Voltz and Elaine Harvell discuss the lore and history of country ham; walk the reader through buying, preparing, and serving a country ham; and present some 70...