Ibérico (de Bellota) - Thoughts?

Epicurean Exploits - Food and Recipes
1

A good friend of mine is becoming a distributor for these wonderful pork products (that I will be trying soon apparently). Been doing some reading/research etc but was curious what you guys thought?

Do you ever see it at restaurants/grocery?

What the hell… a picture:

2

Had it; loved it; want it. The sweetest, nuttiest, silkiest meat you could ever taste.

Iberico was just recently allowed entrance to the country. It retails for around $100/lb here in NY.

That is all.

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$200/lb for the Bellota like I saw at Central Market yesterday? [emot-pwn.gif]

4

One of my drinking buddies who grew up in Barcelona (now based in Manila) imports and distributes Spanish jamónes and chorizos, among which is Bellota de Jabugo - superb stuff, as Jorge described, the best ham I’ve ever had. Very expensive, but it’s so fatty that one shouldn’t eat it everyday anyway.

5

Great stuff. Mike brought one back to Frankfurt after going to the Basque region in France - those were the good old days. Took us some time to go through it all, and we were having some everyday as a kind of “superstarter”. The only nitpick is that it’s great on its own, but so fat and flavorful that we never managed to use it with anything else… and also pretty hard to find a wine to match this, it tends to overpower everything.

6

Gimme gimme gimme gimme!

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Correct-a-mundo. “Regular” Iberico is $100. Bellota & Jabugo creep up there to the $200 level.

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When I was at the Madrid airport flying home, they had a whole leg like the one in that picture, all vacuum-wrapped and ready to go. I was tempted to bring it back, since as long as it’s vacuum-wrapped, you can bring stuff like that into the US (according to the written law, but local Customs interpretations might vary). In the end I just hid my kilo of vacuum-wrapped pre-sliced Iberico in the bag and waltzed through. [blush2.gif]

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Incredible piece of pig. We routinely get it at Central Market…even with the serious price creep since last year. A quarter pound goes a long way. Will definitely have a pound of it for Flannery Fest II.

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[notworthy.gif]

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What’s the saying…early bird gets the worm?

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I’ll be there Thursday. Early enough? :wink:

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I think so. Manlin doesn’t show up until Friday.

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how about a leg?

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Why not 2?

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ha, i mean one that i bring in not Bill [gheyfight.gif]

would you like me to look into it? we would need a stand for the leg… or is there already too much going on?

17

Why the hell not? Manlin knows how to slice the critter as he has one on deck all the time. I have my Shun carving knife that is like a razor.

18

A stand is really useful for those. Re: knifes if you have a ham knife, or as 2nd choice whatever you use to peel salmon skin. And as 3rd choice, well, just any knife will do :wink:

BTW today is really the day to go to images.google.com and enjoy the April’s Fool.