Hamming It Up
We were in Paris in October - W primarily for work, me ostensibly for a spot of les puces trawling in Saint Ouen. One afternoon, after a particularly brisk walk in the bracing cold, we returned to the hotel room and were greeted by the most surreal of sights.
There, propped up against the window sill, was an entire leg of jamón ibérico de bellota from that hallowed institution for hamlovers, Bellota-Bellota. For the hamlover, a visit to 18 rue Jean Nicot is akin to dying and going to cured piggy heaven. Inveterate hamlovers that we are, the vision of the leg jacketed in the signature blue-and-white zippered bag was swoon-inducing.
"Is this my early birthday present?" I asked tentatively as I planted an affectionate kiss on W's cheek.
"Nope; the concierge must have sent it up by mistake. Tell no one! We shall keep it!" replied W, half in jest.
Upon closer inspection of the attached card, it turned out to be an extravagantly generous gift from a good friend of W's. The card very simply and cheekily read "I laugh to imagine how you will bring it back...!!!" Thank you very much R, we have never had the pleasure of resolving a happier problem.
As we were departing for London early next morning, the only solution to that not-small conundrum was to buy extra luggage. Immediately. We legged it out of the hotel room pronto, practically sprinting, lest the shops close for the day on us, which they would do if we didn't hurry.
The ham made it home safe and sound in a new suitcase. The wonderful gift, however, was to remain untouched until Christmas, cocooned in its sleeper bag in a cool dark corner of the two-door refrigerator (all the shelves had to be removed from one side to accommodate the 7.75 kg behemoth).
You see, it dawned on me too late that quite aside from a new suitcase for carting the ham home, another essential bit of kit would be a ham stand, a jamonero, without which carving up the leg would be virtually impossible. To rectify this proverbial cart-before-horse scenario, the ham would have to wait for the ham stand; fortunately hams are good at waiting so long as they have a good resting spot.
Now, while I am as gleeful as the next kitchen gadget freak to have the perfect excuse for acquiring yet another new plaything, and I am not unresourceful when I want to locate something, this one proved more elusive to come by in this neck of the woods. After a fair bit of homework and asking around, my heart was set on the Jamotec J4P for various reasons, and a local importer of Spanish food products very kindly agreed to letting me place an indent order. To cut a long story short, the concurrent spate of Spanish airport troubles saw to it that my J4P never made it to me in time for the holiday season. Thankfully, the importer loaned me a spare jamonero they had (the one in these pictures) in the interim.
The trick to keeping the jamón in good nick if you won't be able to finish it in one sitting is to pare off only as much skin and fat as surrounds the area you plan to slice. The fat should also be set aside and used to blanket the exposed/cut surface before assiduous clingwrapping to prevent drying out.
4 Comments:
Ahhhhhh! Super jealous as I've always wanted to bring a leg back from Barcelona but our current limited kitchen space prevents us from doing it!
How long do you reckon the leg will keep if taken care of properly (with the fat slapped back on to prevent drying out...)?
What a wonderful gift! How long will it take for you to finish up the leg?
Beautiful ham, beautiful writing!
very nice way to present a ham. Their right! I think it's a nice gift to be given to anyone. Looks great and I think it will also taste great.
Post a Comment
<< Home