Greetings from Madrid, the city of ham.
I’m in Spain for less than three days, as long as I stay in any place these days, but a breakneck speed at which to travel across oceans and navigate new cities in unfamiliar languages.
As consolation for my jetlag, there is ham. Lots of ham.
Walking around the city with colleagues Rebecca and David today, we stumbled on the “Museo de Jamón”, just west of the Puerta del Sol. As it is not everyday that I encounter a museum dedicated to the wonders of pork, I insisted that we stop and shoot a few pictures.
The entrance to the Museo.
Some of the exhibits of the Museo.
The Museo featured walls covered with beautifully salted and dried hams, available for anything from 7 euro to 65 euro per kilo, depending on quality, an amazingly well-stocked meat counter, and an entire ham-focused tapas bar. As David is a misguided vegetarian, we did not stop for lunch, but I plan to stop for a bacon nightcap later this week.
As we walked around town, three things became clear: - There was more than one store in the Museo de Jamón chain - The residents of Madrid really like pork - They like it so much that there’s a spanish word for a ham shop: Jamoneria.
Stopping at the “Palacio de Jamón”, having ditched my healthy companions (a veggie and a runner…), I picked up three “chiquitos de jamón”, miniature ham sandwiches. At seventy euro cents each, they’re a delicious Madrid bargain.
The ham is heavily salted, crispy but pliant, with a lovely translucence that must come from salting, the absence of cooking, and thin slicing. There’s a distinctly “piggy” taste to the meat I’m not used to either from American ham or from Italian hams. It’s wonderfully devoid of the sweetness and softness that makes American ham so boring.
Can’t wait to see what sorts of pork Madrid offers me for breakfast.
Interesting stroy i never new that Spain was big into ham in any way . I am in North Carolina and the big thing here is pork shoulder. It is slow smoked for6 hours or so and then chopped. I wonder if theres any where else on the globe where pork shoulder has a following?
Glad to see you’re approaching this trip with gusto.
Interesting thing about jamón serrano (“serrano” from the sierra, which besides meaning “saw” as in what cuts wood, also means mountains, from the saw-tooth profile (Sierra Madre, etc.) – thus country or mountain style ham) Anyway, in the Inquisition, people took to eating jamón serrano as a way of demonstrating that they were Christians. Jews would eat it as a way of making the authorities think they WERE Christians, thus staving off persecution. Ultimately, everyone ate it and forgot why.
Ha, we have a picture of our 8 year old son standing in front of the Museo del Jamon. He loves bacon, as well.
Ethan, the first time I was in Madrid, the existence of the “Museo de Jamon” chain really knocked my socks off. It pains me that my country seems to prefer mass-commodification of liquified caffeine and bad pastries to that of cured and salty room-temperature-solid fat. Fortunately capitalism provides, even if it sometimes refuses to edify, and there is plenty of excellent bacon to be had around and about — just not on every single street-corner.
Fritz, ooh ah aaaah oh oh aaah ah. Pulled pork barbecue. Mmmm. As a North Carolinian in exile, I fully intend to post here on the joys of pork shoulder just as soon as the weather gets warm enough to fire up the smoker. (Actually, we’ve done a couple of shoulders this winter, starting them in the smoker and finishing them in the oven, but that’s cheating.) I must quarrel, though: six hours is not nearly enough. Twelve is a good start.
Have you seen the Spanish movie, Jamon Jamon? It’s pretty bizarre. Features a very young Penelope Cruz as well as Javier Bardem. In the reviews I’ve seen, Spanish reviewers thought it was hilarious and American reviewers universally found it disturbing. Clearly a cultural thing.
if you think jamon serrano is good, wait til you have a slice of jamon Jabugo, the absolute ultimate in (non-crispy) processed pork products. Certainly better than any prosciutto out of Parma or San Daniele.