Woolworths_Taste_July_2017

TRAVEL
PHOTOGRAPH ART GRAY
in 24 hours.” Because the pigs are free
to roam, oil from the acorns works
its way through the animals’ bodies,
marbling the meat.
Pockets of dehesa are what’s left of a vast
Mediterranean forest that once stretched
across southwestern Spain and, along
with the pigs, they are home to fighting
bulls, Merino sheep, foxes, deer, wild
“NEARLY
EVERYWHERE YOU
LOOK THERE ARE
ODES TO PIGS:
STATUES OF PIGS,
POSTERS OF HAMS,
HAND-PAINTED HAM
SIGNS, PIG FRIDGE
MAGNETS AND
KEYRINGS”
boar and lynx, all of which contribute to
the maintenance of a unique ecosystem.
As long as there is a demand for jamón
Ibérico de bellota, the remaining dehesa will
be preserved because having terrain that
contains both holm oak and cork trees
is vital to the production of “acorn ham”:
the cork trees drop their acorns after the
holms do, extending the montanera for
the pigs. Wild mushrooms and aromatic
plants such as rosemary and thyme add to
the pigs’ balanced diet. At the end of the
montanera, once the pigs have more than
doubled their weight, they’re transported
to Guijuelo for slaughter, or what the
Spanish respectfully call el sacraficio.
GUIJUELO IS AT THE CROSSROADS
of medieval trade routes, a busy little
town with an industrial feel and curing
“warehouses” scattered around the
outskirts. Close to the centre is the head
office for Denominación de Origen Guijuelo,
the regulatory body that oversees quality
control of certified Ibérico products from
Guijuelo. It was here that veterinarian
Fermin Sanchez talked us through the
intricate certification and production
processes. When Spanish people buy jamón
and want the absolute top quality, they’ll
often ask for pata negra – with black feet
– because most Iberian pigs have black
hooves, which remain on the ham during
the curing process. At the Denominacion
de Origen Guijuelo, achieving a mark of
quality is not simple. Certified hams are
graded either black (the ultimate), red
or green, and these grades are determined
by stringent monitoring of breeding
practices, feeding strategies, the quality
of the dehesa and the curing process.
The village is 1 000 metres above sea
level and the winters up here are cold,
dry and windy. “This climate is perfect
for curing,” explained Antonio Gómez
Robles, whose family founded Patabrava,
Guijuelo’s first modern curing plant, in
1886. “Because of the climate, less salt
is needed and the hams can dry for longer
than other hams, allowing the flavour
to intensify.”
The details of the process are a closely
guarded secret but Antonio will say this:
the hams are salted for about one day for
every kilogram they weigh. They are then
washed and hung to cure for up to a year
in rooms that are ventilated naturally; after
that they’re stored in an underground cellar
for another two years. “We could fastforward
with force-fed pigs and artificial
chilling rooms, but the final product would
never live up to the quality of traditional
methods,” Antonio says.
At the end of a four- to five-year
process, you have a leg of ham that is
regarded as the finest in the world. Sliced
into pieces thinner than a page of this
magazine, served at room temperature to
bring out the full flavour of the oil, and
enjoyed with a glass of red wine, the sweet
melt-in-your-mouth nuttiness of jamón
Ibérico del ballota really is a taste of history.
So what is
jamón Serrano?
This is also a dry-cured Spanish
ham but it’s made from several
breeds of white pig, rather than
black. It has TSG (traditional
specialities guaranteed) status,
certifying that it has specific
characteristics that differentiate
it from all others in its category,
and that its raw materials,
composition or method of
production have been consistent
for a minimum of 30 years. You’ll
find jamón Serrano (mountain
ham) at selected Woolies stores.
(Woolworths sources 90% of its
food products from South Africa
and Africa and sources only
a small percentage of authentic
ingredients from other parts
of the world.)
VEGETARIAN
FARE IN ZURICH
“I’m not a fan of buffetstyle
anything – and
am these days more of
a flexitarian – but for Hiltl, I make
an exception. As a vegetarian
living in Zurich and speaking
barely a word of German, Hiltl
was a haven: endless fresh, tasty,
creative veggie options in an
expat-friendly environment,
thanks to its location in the heart
of the city’s banking district (also:
men in suits). The land of cheese
and chocolate is hardly known
for its gourmet food and like
most of its European neighbours,
is partial to a bit of meat (it
took me a while to get over the
fillets of horse right next to the
beef in the grocery store). So,
you might be surprised to learn
that Switzerland is home to the
world’s oldest fully vegetarian
restaurant – Hiltl has been
around since 1898 and even has
a veggie ‘butcher’. 119 years later,
there are several branches
and they’re always full. I think
I ate from the buffet every week
for almost 10 years. Which is
probably also why I didn’t get
rich earning Swiss francs – a plate
piled high can cost around 25–
30 CHF depending on weight,
which is, um, upward of R330.
Time to start saving for my next
visit!” – Lee-Anne Spurdens, TASTE
assistant editor; hiltl.ch
“HILTL WAS A
HAVEN: ENDLESS
FRESH, TASTY,
CREATIVE VEGGIE
OPTIONS IN AN
EXPAT–FRIENDLY
ENVIRONMENT”