IT'S JUST WASTED BACON:

Book celebrates ham around the world (KATHY MARTIN, 4/01/10, MiamiHerald.com)

If pork is the meat of kings, as a catchy online ditty has it, ham is surely the king's feast food. And just in time for the king of king's feast that is Easter dinner comes Ham: An Obsession With the Hindquarter by Mark Scarbrough and Bruce Weinstein (Stewart Tabori & Chang, $29.95).

The book celebrates a survival food -- a prerefrigeration method of preserving precious protein -- that's become a gourmet darling around the world. From Spanish oak forests to Kentucky smokehouses, artisan ham producers are riding high.