Perhaps no creature offers more pleasure per pound than the lowly pig, which culture has chopped, processed, cured, cooked and coddled for millenia. American bacon stands as a nearly unrivaled pleasure for me and many others. The fatty, tough rib cut can be turned into a substance of nearly poetic proportions thanks to Southerners. Armed (?) with just a pork shoulder, a few spices and some water, the most inept home cook can create the most tender and sublime dishes as if by magic.
Yet perhaps no culture has done so much with such a humble ingredient than the Italians and Spanish, who have created one of the finest hams ever made "simply" by throwing a whole hog leg into a vat of salt and letting it sit and fester for month after month. The Italians call the result Prosciutto di Parma, the Spaniards' version is called Iberian Serrano ham (jamón); both reveal a silky/salty/chewy sexiness when sliced thin.
Predictably, the quest for these high-end hams has led to the elevation of even finer grades -- now, a producer in Spain has created the ultimate: a $160-per-pound artisinal Iberian ham called the 2006 Alba Quercus Reserve. "It is the most important ham in Spain," the AP quotes Pedro Soley, a Barcelona connoisseur. Here are a few tempting outtakes from the story:
The price of a whole leg? Just $2,100. You can order yours at www.ibergour.com.>> The ham's mastermind, Manuel Maldonado, 44, comes from a long line of ham producers in a country that's nuts about the stuff. In bars and restaurants, legs of ham hanging from the wall are as common as TV sets.
But Maldonado is taking the art of the ham to new heights, pampering his pigs with a free-range lifestyle and top-quality diet of acorns before slaughtering them, then curing the meat for two years — twice as long as his competitors.
After the pigs are butchered, they are cured in high-grade sea salts and refrigerated at 39 degrees. The salt is wiped off after about 12 days. Over the course of the next three months, the temperature is gradually raised to 68 degrees.
The hams then are brought into one of Maldonado's two warehouse-size cellars where they cure for two years.<<
2 comments:
I lived in Spain and tasted some of the best Jamon Serrano. We had a celebration at work over there and they brought in one of the best Jamon's at the time. People went crazy. But as much as I liked it, I actually like Lomo Iberica even more.
Probablemente el mejor jamon del mundo sea un buen sanjamon.
Artesano, de los mejores cerdos ibericos los mejores jamones.www.sanjamon.com
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