The Origins of Hormel’s Famous Cure 81 Ham

Walk through any grocery store deli and you’ll likely spot packs of Hormel’s iconic Cure 81 ham. Its distinctive black and gold packaging features prominently in the cured meats section. But why is it actually called Cure 81?

In this article, I’ll explain the story behind this famous ham’s peculiar name We’ll look at how Hormel chose the name back in the 1960s, and why the number 81 was significant

A Futuristic Name for “The Ham of the Future”

Hormel Foods introduced their new cured ham product in 1963. At the time, they wanted a name that sounded high-tech and futuristic.

According to Hormel’s own history, the company envisioned Cure 81 “as the ham of the future”. 1981 seemed like a very distant, almost sci-fi sounding year back in the optimism of the 1960s.

So Hormel decided to name their new ham Cure 81, abbreviating the year 1981 into a numerical code. The name was meant to give their ham an aura of space-age innovation and progress.

In the world of 1963, just 18 years after the end of World War Two, the year 1981 seemed impossibly far ahead Hormel hoped tying their new product to the futuristic-sounding year would make it appealing to modern consumers.

Choosing a Year Far in the Future

But why choose 1981 specifically? Hormel could have picked any year in the distant future A few factors seem to have made 1981 stand out

• It was far enough ahead to seem like “the future” from 1963’s perspective.

• The next decade years like 1970 or 1980 didn’t sound distinctive enough.

• 1981 likely had a nice ring to it for branding purposes.

• 1981 was also in the company’s 100th anniversary year, a milestone they hoped to still be celebrating.

So 1981 became Cure 81 – a name intended to spark images of space travel and technology that was still decades away in reality.

Of course, 1981 doesn’t sound very “futuristic” anymore in our current world! But the Cure 81 brand name has stuck around and become iconic, outliving its original association with the year.

A Revolutionary New Curing Process

It wasn’t just clever branding though. When Cure 81 launched, it also showcased a pioneering new curing process Hormel had developed:

• It used nitrites to stabilize color and add a distinctive flavor.

• The curing method involved tumbling the pork in a rotating drum to penetrate the meat.

• This new process resulted in more even curing across the whole ham.

• The 81 curing method helped modernize production and yielded very consistent, high-quality hams.

So the Cure 81 name reflected genuine innovation, not just marketing hype. Hormel’s research into curing technology yielded major improvements in ham production.

Becoming One of Hormel’s Flagship Products

From its high-tech beginnings, Cure 81 has become one of Hormel’s most ubiquitous products. Its black and gold label is now familiar in refrigerated aisles across America.

Some key stats on Cure 81 ham today:

• Around 115,000 tons are sold globally per year.

• It’s one of the top sliced ham brands in the US.

• The hams are still made in Hormel’s Arkansas plant using the original 81 curing process.

While 1981 sounded like the distant future in the 1960s, Cure 81 has certainly stood the test of time. The numbers in its name may have lost their futuristic connotations, but the ham’s quality has remained consistent for over 50 years.

So next time you make a sandwich with a few slices of Cure 81, you can appreciate the ingenuity behind its name. While 1981 has come and gone, Cure 81 continues to deliver that distinctive flavor and quality Hormel imagined for “the ham of the future”.