Olivers > nattered on
:

> We (hosts) serve to ourselves and to guests sweetened
> foods/sauces/condiments as part of ancient cultural memory, that we
> were of an affluence which allowed us to purchase sweeteners (in a
> time when sugars were vastly more expensive/harder to get than today).

And in the present day is a symbol of poverty, given that salt, sugar, and
fat are the hallmarks of the lower-class/prole diet.

> venues in which it is most often available. Unsugared hams are hard
> to find

But thank the Powers that Be that they still can be found. (Indeed, even
unsmoked--just cured and aged.)