After the salting, washing and settling processes, the hams are ready to enter the drying facility. As we mentioned in previous entries, ham is traditionally made after slaughtering the pig during the winter. When spring arrives, the temperature starts to rise gradually without any excessively sudden changes. The ham meat is still vulnerable to damage […]
Tag: To elaborate the ham
Salting the ham
An oft-repeated phrase regarding the time it takes to salt a ham goes along the lines of “one day of salt per kilo”. As a consequence, according to this popular saying, a fresh ham weighing 13 kg would need to spend 13 days buried in salt. We’re going to try and explain what salting a […]
OPENING WINDOWS
We’ve been hiding behind thick fog for many days. That’s what you get in winter in Zaragoza, where we cure our Añejo Ham. It’s a continental climate which means extreme cold and heat. As a taxi driver once told me, “Zaragoza has got 3 seasons: winter, summer and football”.
A GREAT ACCOMPLICE
Every day, mid afternoon, I begin my rounds of the natural drying areas or ’round the factory’ as I always heard my father refer to it. It’s more than an obligation, it’s practically a ritual. This a route takes me from the reception and salting chambers to the natural drying areas, monitoring each and every […]