2023 Author: Cody Thornton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-24 11:20
To the most expensive ham in the world, sold for the modest sum of 4,100 euros per thigh, only the Oscar was missing. Now he has got it. The investiture took place at the Biofach in Nuremberg (Germany), the leading organic fair in Europe.
To produce this masterpiece of butchery is Eduardo Donato, Catalan breeder established for years in the small town of Cortegana in Andalusia, a region rich in pastures dotted with oaks.
The Dehesa Maladua, this is the name of the ham made every year only in 80 numbered pieces, obtained from the meat of a pig breed unique in the world: the manchado de Jabugo, piebald pig declared endangered over 25 years ago and saved by Donato, whose 100 specimens graze free among streams, waterfalls and oak woods, fed only with a precise quantity of acorns (between 6 and 7 kilos a day so no more than two pigs are raised per hectare), grass, roots and without any chemical substance.
The main reason why the farm was abandoned has to do with the frequent lack of black plinth, now a trademark of Iberian jamon in the world.
Due to a slower growth of the Andalusian breed than the others (3 years to reach the ideal weight against 14/18 months) and above all a record duration of maturation - at least 6 years- 10 years pass from the birth of the pig to when the leg is sold.
It is clear that many breeders do not intend to wait long for the investments made to return.
But what does this very expensive ham look like? Thin thigh, dark color, compact and very bright meats, velvety fat, deep and lasting flavor enhanced by the right glass of wine.
Until now, the record for the most expensive ham in the world always belonged to an Iberian jamon made from pigs reared in Extremadura: seven kilos of black pork cost £ 1,800 in the Selfridges department store in London.