And then there's the question of whether the Virginia museum's really is the oldest. In 1993, Michael Feller, a butcher in Oxford, bought a ham at auction that was 101 years old. It looked "rather yukky" but was edible, although he wasn't going to cut into it . Today it hangs in the shop window, unnibbled at the ripe old age of 122. Food writer Jay Rayner is unmoved by the battle for the title of oldest ham. "I'd be suspicious of anyone getting excited about the former back end of a pig that's been hanging around for 112 years." Wine and spirits offer a better bet. He remembers drinking a "rather lovely" 1865 armagnac. It had aged well - "deep and toasty" - but the real attraction was not its flavour, he concedes. It was "that link with antiquity". Which perhaps explains the birthday party for a shrivelled up piece of pork.