What is a Bavarian style ham?

Answer 1

Ham has a proud lineage in Germany: both Westphalia ham and Black Forest ham are well-known the world over for their quality. A Westphalia ham is cold-smoked over juniper wood. A Black Forest ham is salted along with a medley of spices for two weeks, then smoked for months with fir wood. With these two proud pork products establishing Germany's skills in ham-making, it's no wonder that other, lesser ham-makers want to ride in on their coattails.

Bavarian ham is simply regular, wet-cured ham, flavored with salt brine and sugar. It is unregulated, and so what one company calls Bavarian ham can vary wildly from what another company calls Bavarian ham. Some hams include smoke or smoke flavor, others may have spices added. Other Bavarian hams may be just pressed scraps of shredded, brined pork molded into a log shape! Most Bavarian hams are made in the United States, but they seem to be especially popular in the United Kingdom.

The Bavaria region of Germany isn't especially noted for its ham production.