14. The time required to travel in the mountains led to distinctly local diets
Until the 20th century, and in some locales even to this day, settlements in Appalachia were often remote and entirely self-supporting. Food was what could be obtained locally. Game was a mainstay of the diet, as was fish where obtainable, including crawfish. Hunting and fishing were necessary for the sustaining of life, and in many regions are still pursued today for the same reasons. With insufficient pasturage to raise cattle for beef, hogs and poultry became the mainstays for meat, and the need to preserve pork led to the famed Virginia and Tennessee hams, today considered the equivalent of the great hams of Westphalia and Parma in Europe.