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spanish pork article

post #1 of 16
1/14/10 at 12:53pm
Thread Starter 
this is going to be one of my future vacations

http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/01/17...7journeys.html
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post #2 of 16
1/14/10 at 1:19pm
Pork is really undergoing a renaissance these days. 10-15 years ago everyone avoided it, but now it seems to be the hot thing everywhere. NY Times had an article on guanciale just recently. I love Jamon, dunno if I've had the very finest stuff. Ate the hell out of it when I was in Spain a few years ago. I just had some iberico out at a restaurant the other day, and would love to get my hands on some here. I want to try curing my own at some point, though obviously the raw material will be different. I did hear that there is a massive surplus of the stuff in Spain right now, and it is available on the cheap. I was trying to figure out how to smuggle some in but I doubt the Feds would take too kindly to it if I were caught.
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post #3 of 16
1/14/10 at 1:21pm
Not only is pork coming back in style, commercially raised lean pork is becoming suspect. There are many folks wanting properly fatted, smaller hogs vs. the pork that has been bred to be huge and leaner.
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post #4 of 16
1/14/10 at 1:29pm
Douglas -- don't know where you heard that, but jamón is nowhere near cheap here. We pay 250€/kg in Paris and slightly less in Valencia. Even lomo is ridiculously expensive.
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post #5 of 16
1/14/10 at 4:31pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by holymadness View Post
Douglas -- don't know where you heard that, but jamón is nowhere near cheap here. We pay 250€/kg in Paris and slightly less in Valencia. Even lomo is ridiculously expensive.

I could well be wrong. I read it just recently, in passing, on the Wikipedia site as I was trying to learn the differences between some of the grades of jamon. It mentioned something about there being so much surplus after the Christmas season that the gov't was trying to intercede to make a market for it. But I can no longer find it - perhaps it was just a joke posting someone put up on Wiki and it was quickly pulled.

I am disappointed to hear it is as expensive as ever!
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post #6 of 16
1/14/10 at 4:42pm
Thread Starter 
there was a bit in the WSJ about the new security checks making it harder to smuggle pork in. pisses me off.
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post #7 of 16
1/14/10 at 5:51pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by globetrotter View Post
there was a bit in the WSJ about the new security checks making it harder to smuggle pork in. pisses me off.

Nah. If you hide it in your shoes or in your underpants you will get in no problem. Especially if you have your Dad call ahead to tell them to stop you.
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post #8 of 16
1/15/10 at 7:46am
Quote:
We had an important appointment 30 miles south, in Guijuelo, a small town of dowdy, low-rise buildings and old-fashioned ham shops. I had arranged to visit several ham producers on our pilgrimage, and this was a required stop: the headquarters of Joselito, considered the Dom Pérignon of hams.

I went to Guijuelo and stayed there the night when we were cycling the Via de la Plata. The town can be smelt from some distance away and the pungent jamon aroma only gets stronger as you go into town. We stayed in a hotel in the centre of town during fiesta so no sleep but like the writer we wanted to try the local pork. There is only one decent restaurant in Guijelo as far as I know and I assume this is where the pork barons, of which Joselito is only one, take their clients from the big supermarket chains etc. The jamon was great as expected but the pork was a big surprise so tender and tasty and not like any other pork I had ever tasted. A meal I will always remember.

We cycled on to Salamanca the next day and I am sure they could smell where we had come from in that beautiful university town as our clothes still carried the smell of jamon from Guijuelo.
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post #9 of 16
1/15/10 at 10:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Piobaire View Post
There are many folks wanting properly fatted, smaller hogs vs. the pork that has been bred to be huge and leaner.
edmorel?
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post #10 of 16
1/17/10 at 4:28pm
I´m lucky to live in Spain half the year, so I can get either Joselito or 5 Jotas around the corner. It´s expensive, but it´s the holy grail of food: amazing taste + good for you (will raise your good HDL cholesterol).
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post #11 of 16
1/20/10 at 10:57am
good article. i wish i would have visited the places mentioned in the article when i was in spain.
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post #12 of 16
1/21/10 at 9:56am
More on jamon: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandsty...co-spanish-ham Leon
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post #13 of 16
1/21/10 at 2:05pm
I absolutely love the stuff! I considered buying a leg and seeing how long it would last me. Sheesh, that stuff is expensive.

http://www.tienda.com/jamon/index.html
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post #14 of 16
1/22/10 at 11:16pm
Even our local Costco carries Jambon Iberico and Serrano. Pre-sliced, so not as good as what you get in Spain, but given the price, with a nice Manzanilla some almonds and olives, its not too shabby.
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post #15 of 16
1/23/10 at 3:40pm
I have done something similar to the trail mentioned in the article--well, I spent a week in western Spain eating pretty much pork products 3 times a day--and it was teh awesomeness.

Douglas, it's still pretty expensive, so I'm not sure what you found.

And I know two people, both Spaniards, who tried to smuggle some jamon iberico into the U.S.; one for his family living there and one for 'personal use' on his monthlong trip. Both were caught and asked to surrender their precious hams. It's those pesky dogs in customs.
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