That's a long title for a short post, but we had a lot of thoughts reading an article in last weekend's Wall St. Journal. The article was about the prized bellota ham, or jamón ibérico de bellota, finally becoming available in the U.S. (we've written about it before). Good news! But then it got us thinking about imported food...
There are some delicacies that are imported from far away countries that we get excited about. We write about them, we discuss them with you, we order them for special occasions. But we sometimes separate these items from our overall effort to eat locally and not have our food travel thousands of miles to reach us.
If you receive Sara Kate's weekly email, you read about her beautiful birthday meal of charcuterie on the beach. It inspired us to have a similar spread in Central Park last week, and when we went to Whole Foods to pick up some meat, we chose domestic cuts instead of imported ones. And they were good — although we'll admit we aren't fine-tuned cured meat experts.
So, this is our question: If you do love food and try to eat locally, do you read about things like bellota ham and think it's too good to pass up? Or too far for food to travel?
And we've written about La Quercia, an artisan producer of prosciutto and other meats in Iowa. But what other domestic cured meats have you found that you love? Fill us in.
Read the WSJ article on bellota ham:
High on the Hog
Related: When Will You Splurge for Expensive Ingredients?
(Images: Per Kristiansen for The Wall Street Journal; Formaggio Kitchen)
Copyright © 2008 Apartment Therapy
My family is from Spain so try as I might, I'm occasionally roped into buying imported meats and cheeses that I miss. Back in the day my family would sneak them into the US when they came to visit, but in recent years (mostly post 9/11) it's become impossible. I never realized as a kid how much money my poor parents spent to have a taste of home.
view Laura (murray hill)'s profile
I don't have nearly as good a reason as Laura (only studied in Spain, not indigenous!), and I haven't gotten so desperate that I've bought something and had it shipped. But I could see myself doing it if there really was NO alternative here. Marzipan from Toledo comes to mind. Mmmmm. I really gotta crack that recipe.
view Diana from Mpls's profile
Molinari, Fra'Mani, and Columbus are all excellent companies, all out of California.
Columbus has the largest selection, I think, followed by Fra'mani and then by Molinari.
http://www.columbussalame.com
http://www.framani.com/
http://www.molinarisalame.com/
view pomobabble's profile
We do have great cured meats in the United States. The art of making salumi here is becoming very popular. Mario Batali's father, Armandino, Chris Cosentino in SF and the folks in Iowa are very popular ambassadors of the craft.
My wife and I even received some vip treatment at Blue Hill in New York this past weekend and got to try the chef's selection of cured meats that he has been making with his heirloom pigs.
The serrano hams and prosciuttos from overseas are delicious and special in their own way. Having them shipped to the states doesn't seem, to me, like an irresponsible thing. It's very expensive and is still a very specialized import. What's exciting is that we are able to produce our own version of something so special in this country.
view art's profile
Here's a great book to introduce you to the subject and to get you started!
When you think about the ability to receive nourishment from sustainable raised meat for years after it has been butchered makes this a very smart craft to embrace.
http://www.amazon.com/Charcuterie-Craft-Salting-Smoking-Curing/dp/0393058298
view art's profile