Famously Good, Home-Made Ham
Andrea Burgener visits a porcine paradise in downtown Joburg and finds a Spanish perfectionist
- Article Published from Business Day: 2011/02/11 08:01:59AM
TO MANY, a pig’s hind leg might not seem the most romantic of objects, much less one that’s been sitting around more than a year, but spend some time with master meat curer Roberto sa Gimenez and soon the enormous, fat-covered Serrano-style hams that are his most famous creations - Jamon Serrano in his native Spanish - become positively alluring.
And that’s before you’ve even tasted them, and been seduced by their depth, intensity and unctuous mouth-feel. Fama, the name of his curing warehouse and retail outlet in Joburg’s downtown Bertrams, means famous in Spanish, and what Gimenez creates there certainly deserves to be.
To say that Gimenez is passionate about what he does - making perfect traditional pork charcuterie in the Spanish and Italian styles, as did his father and grandfather - is as much of an understatement as saying his meats are "good".
As one of the few true charcutiers in SA, and the only one creating top-class Spanish meats, his excitement about his work and the long tradition he’s continuing is deliciously infectious. After speaking to him you feel that charcuterie is among the noblest professions, half convinced that you, too, should start some traditional home meat-curing.
Though Gimenez is a zealot about continuing the traditional European salt-curing methods, the way he goes about things is not quite the same as his forefathers: the name serrano, meaning "from the hills" or "highlanders", refers to a time when the hams were hung in dry, cool, often windy mountainous areas.
For most modern production beyond small home industry, relying on external conditions is not viable, and so technology is used to create artificially perfect curing conditions. However - and Gimenez is at pains to stress this - in good quality modern curing, while technology might assist, the basic tenets do not change. All that his ham needs is salt, cool dry air, and lots of time - between 12 and 18 months. No additives or chemicals to speed things up or alter colour or taste are used.
Spanish charcuterie is in the style of the Mediterranean basin, where the dryer climate has always allowed simple salt curing. (German, Austrian and some of the more n orthern French curing involves smoking as well, to protect against the higher humidity.)
Serrano undergoes the same process as an Italian prosciu tto crudo - salted then air-dried, nothing
else. But small variables in the process make for a quite different product: serrano is noticeably firmer,
as it has a lower moisture content and higher salt content. The experience is surprisingly singular, given
the similarity in ingredients and process, and it’s definitely not a case of serrano simply being the
Spanish version of Parma.
The meat for Fama’s products is obviously selected with care, but Gimenez says that for the volumes he wants to produce, he can’t consider using pork raised within the strictures of organic production. Nor are the idyllic situations of the acorn fed, forest-dwelling happy pigs of some top European producers an option, including the pigs that are bred for Spain’s most esteemed (and super-pricey) ham, Iberica.
So Gimenez aims for pigs raised on as natural a diet as possible, living as naturally as possible. Importantly, he looks for pigs with good fat on them. A generous layer of fat on the outside means that intramuscular fat will be higher, and it’s the fat that delivers the flavour and the addictive mouth-feel.
Apart from the famous hams, there are a few other splendid cured pork goods on offer. Best of all perhaps, are his different salami varieties; these too are salt-cured with a good mould rind and that indescribable sweet-salt, pungent foot thing going on, which lovers of smelly cheese will adore.
This is to the average supermarket salami what a well- aged Parmesan is to a packet of the weird pregrated powder stuff. There’s a complexity and intensity here that cannot be reproduced by any tricks that food technology might have up its sleeve.
Other wondrous items are his assorted chourizos, plus, on the classically Italian front, great pancetta and coppa. Most excitingly, Gimenez plans to introduce raw pork sausages (made on order only) - salchicias frescas - in three different styles. These are the sort of unctuous sausage you might slowstew with lentils and tomatoes.
Though many South Africans are fond of cured meats, we don’t see charcuturie as part of our bread and butter, so to speak; not in the way that Europeans do. But Europeans have always understood and loved what may seem obvious about charcuterie: the work’s been done for you, but it’s in no way instant or processed in the cheap and nasty sense. Armed with these magic bullets, you need do very little to produce delicious and awfully chic snacks.
Good cured meats need very little interference - it’s more about serving suggestions than recipes. One of Gimenez’s favourite ways with Serrano is a traditional snack ideal for casual home entertaining.
Jamon y Tomate con Pan
Take a good, robust rustic bread and toast lightly.
Rub a very ripe tomato over each slice so that the flesh becomes a coarse spread on the bread.
Lay on thin shavings of Serrano ham, drizzle with olive oil and eat immediately.
Ham loves anything juicy and sweet as a foil to its dryish, salty character. The classic fresh figs partnership is mind-blowing, of course, and so are many other fruits, among them guavas (yes, really), grapes and peaches. Serve the fruit on separate plates so their moisture doesn’t discolour the rose-pink slices of ham.
For Fama’s salami, I think an unadorned slice thrown into the mouth, with perhaps a beer as accompaniment, is as good as it gets. Also wonderful is salami topped with some mild, fresh cheese such as proper fior de latte mozzarella.
Though storing charcuterie in the fridge is not ideal, few of us have year-round cold, dry storage spaces, so the fridge it must be. Keep it well covered and never (never!) slice until just before using. It’s essential to let the product come to room temperature before eating to get the best flavour and mouthfeel — though, to be honest, many greedy pickings straight from the fridge have been pretty damn good too!
All his ham needs is salt, cool dry air, and lots of time - between 12 and 18 months. No additives or chemicals
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