black forest ham () is a variety of dry-cured smoked ham produced in the black forest region of germany. since 1997, it can only be made in a well-defined geographical area. in the case of black forest ham, the salting, and curing needs to be done in the black forest. most of the pigs used come from other regions of germany, or the european union. this only applies to the european union, though. in the united states and canada, there are different kinds of ham which are sold as "black forest ham": these are usually produced locally, and very often, the methods of producing them are different from the original of the black forest.