In Search of the Holy Grail of Meats

Jamon Iberico de Bellota, otherwise known as acorn-finished Iberian ham, is the Holy Grail of meats. It should be on everyone's "Meat Life List", something you must try before you end your existence here on this planet.  It is rare to see true acorn-finished jamon iberico in this country, so it may require a special detour to it's birthplace in Spain. Food writer and gastronomic explorer Simon Majumdar recently stated that jamon iberico is "arguably the greatest item of food in the world".  I would wholeheartedly agree.  We recently had the pleasure to make a 'research' trip to Spain in order to understand how we might be able to integrate some of their growing practices and traditional butchery/curing into our own repertoire.  Indeed, we would love to add more value to every pig we raise and elevate our fine meat to higher culinary levels.  Hams around these parts of California are typically covered with pink salt (sodium nitrite) for one week, smoked, and then vacuum sealed in plastic.  Hardly a fitting tribute to the hard work the pig put into growing their nice fat legs, nor all the work that we put into raising that pig on pasture and organic grains.  There are likely so many legal hurdles that we would never be able to produce something akin to jamon iberico, but we can dream right?  Plus we needed a vacation.  When asked on the customs form whether this trip was for "business" or "pleasure", we marked both...

The following photos, some taken by me on our latest vacation and the good ones taken by professional photographer/pig farmer Michael Wray who hosted us at his lovely B & B, document the process of growing the Iberian pig to the final mouth-watering product.  They may be graphic for you, but alas, if you eat meat you should be able to stomach it.  If you can't, please consider going vegetarian.

Iberian sows doing what they do best- looking for acorns.  Seeing pigs like this brought tears to our eyes.  Whereas you almost never see pigs out on pasture in the U.S., this was the norm in the province of Extremadura, Spain.

A group of fattening Iberian pigs, out on the dehesa.  The dehesa is the vast oak savanna that covers much of Western Spain.  The more reddish toned pigs seen above are half Duroc, which is allowed for jamon iberico as long as it is no more than 50% of the genetics.  The production of jamon iberico is tightly controlled.

 

Acorns from the Holm Oak, the predominant oak dotting the dehesa.  This is what fattens the black-footed pigs.  Pig candy....

At a family pig matanza (slaughter), the pig is first killed with a bolt gun, bled (which was all collected to make blood sausage-morcilla), and then scalded with a blowtorch.  The hair of the pureblood Iberian pig comes off easily since there is so little of it.

The pig carcass is deftly cut up by a bunch of skilled butchers.

 Pig parts are salted with coarse sea salt and hung to begin drying.

A leg is trimmed up to begin it's long journey into a ham.

At a commercial curing facility, the narrow black-footed hams are fully cured in 2-4 years and will be sold whole to restaurants for carving or cut up for export and retail sales.

A small shop cuts thin slices of the ham by hand and then vacuum seals them for sale to other European nations.

 

The small size of these packages made them perfect for smuggling in our suitcase hidden amongst a bag of dirty running clothes. Wait, I didn't say that.  No, of course we did not bring any meat back from Spain.  It' all gone anyways, no you can't have any...

Comments

[Rebecca T. of Honestmeat]

Walter- we are progressing on raising the type of pigs that will lead to better pork and have the right fat to meat ratio for air curing. However, we don't own our land or home or anything really, so we are a long way off from vertically integrating or even building our own curing room. The only farmers around here who own anything either were blessed with family land/wealth or personal wealth earned from a previous life in high tech or something like that. We are trying to do this via our own hard work and we continue to see land prices increase due to grapes, strawberries, or rural "ranchettes" that are destroying the viability of agriculture. Enough of my rant- I will save that for another post! Thanks for reading!

[Walter Jeffries]

You photos look delectable. Prosciutto is one of our goals someday, after we finish building our butcher shop. Eventually we plan to have the pigs bred, born, raised, slaughtered, butchered, prosciuttoed all on our farm and then delivered directly to our customers. Vertical integration, a family farm and slow growth makes it work.

[Walter Jeffries]

Progress?

[Kristin]

I'm surprised how red the meat looks after so long! We live near Benton Country Hams....makers of premium Prosciutto and, of course, country ham. It's all good. I want to learn to make it myself with our own hogs one day. Thanks for the lovely photos!

[Jennifer S]

Gorgeous photos, and great stuff. Will you be trying to dry any yourselves?

[Laurel]

Gorgeous! There are actually a few American companies trying to do right by the pigs' and farmers' labor these days. La Quercia in Iowa even does acorn-fed pigs on a subscription basis (and non-acorn-fed artisan cured meats). There's also Fra' Mani in northern California, though they don't make the big, long-cured pieces like prosciutto.

[Ladyberd]

OMG! I love Jamon Iberico. I went to Spain last fall and we ate it ervy chance we got... your post took me back!

[karl]

beautiful..

[Jeremy]

Janna and I are looking forward to whatever you are able to concoct :)