Brindisa & euskal txerria ham
On a recent chorizo expedition I ventured to Brindisa in Exmouth Market, home of the finest cooking chorizo in the land in my limited, eating-meat-for-less-than-one-year experience. I love it, the texture is soft, moist and spongy and the flavour rich. I eat far too much of it, in salads, with eggs for brunches, in pastas, on it’s own, wherever really! They sell mini chorizo and larger ones. I usually go for the mini chorizo, they’re less intimidating and if I got one of the big packets I would just have to eat the lot. Not a good idea!
So, off I went to Brindisa. I really like Exmouth Market. It’s got that village-y feel that places like Marylebone and Primrose Hill have. Lots of gorgeous places to eat like Moro and the Ambassador (I have yet to try but I have heard such good things from reliable sources) and the food market is on at the weekends. I wandered in to Brindisa and had a look around. My eye was taken by the ham. Four legs of ham in the window ready to be sliced. I was feeling carnivorous. I asked for some information on the hams, what pigs were they from, where were they from, annoying questions that were patiently answered. Two grabbed my attention – the one that moro use and the euskal txerria ham. I decided on the euskal txerria one. The euskal txerria pig is a rare breed recently saved from extinction in the Basque region in 1997 when only a few sows were left. It seems a mad concept, save a breed from extinction to kill and eat it. I had never heard of it before so asked that they write it down on the packet so that I could do my research after.
The pigs diet is regulated in the two months before slaughter when they are fed on corn, broad beans and bran. There’s more information available on the slow food foundation website. Househoulds in Spain, like Ireland, used to raise a pig for slaughter, up until the 1900’s or so in Spain. To my great shame I don’t know when the practice stopped in Ireland. Alot of people are familiar with this via that image commonly seen in old stage-irish films of a half door with a pig peering out. Some people actually expect to see that when they come to Ireland too. At least they did when I grew up there in the 70’s/80’s, bus loads of elderly tourists used to deposit in the small town I grew up in and ask us kids about what we considered to be bizarre things like this. Of course we played up to it. Anyway, back to the pig! The euskal txerria pig would have been the breed commonly found in households in Spain. I must research the Irish equivalent, I wonder if we retained the breed as they have?
So, I had to have some. Just a little bit. I asked the price. £15 per 100g. Yikes! Just a little taste then. Cue the elderly eccentric gentleman walking past the shop pausing to view the legs of ham. And in he came.
elderly gentleman: How much is that ham, darling?
me: {argh!} mumble£15per100gmumble
elderly gentleman: sorry?
me: I think it’s £15 per 100g
elderly gentleman: surely you must be mistaken, that must be £15 per kilo!
me: I’m afraid not but you could always confirm with the guy behind the counter
elderly gentleman to the shop assistant(in disbelief): How much is that ham?
shop assistant: £15 per 100g
elderly gentleman: surely that’s per kilo!
shop assistant: I am afraid not, it’s a rare organic ham from Spain
elderly gentleman to me: well, darling, I hope that ham gives you the most enormous high!
me: chuckle, me too
So, did it? It was absolutely delicious but I fear my palette isn’t developed enough yet. After an 11 year abstinence I have only been eating meat since last November. I would recommend a trip to Brindisa to try their wares though. Particularly to Borough Market where you can get a great chorizo and rocket sandwich in the market, purchase in the shop or have tapas in their restaurant.
http://www.brindisa.com/
Brindisa stall at Covent Garden Night Market
Comments
Hi, looks great. I was in the Basque country in April and apparently all the men get together in cooking clubs regularly to try recipes and taste food. They have a real culture of pride in Basque food and apparently its the country with the highest number of michelin star chefs per head of population. we are just back from Crete where we had some really nice food – expecially the tztaziki (spelled correctly?). if its hot weather then loads of tzaziki is your only man.
BTW I remember a pig being slaughtered at home in the mid 80s. Even up toa few years ago we used send cows to the buthchers and have about 20kilo of steaks in the fridge.
I lived in the basque region in spain, and food IS such a priority there. I’m afriad I over-chorizo’d myself while living there, and I have trouble consuming it all the time now a days. However, I only partook in jamon serrano occasionally (3x per week = occasionally by spanish standards) and so I can still eat cured ham with the gusto it deserves.
Wish I could afford that ham!!
B
http://handtomouthkitchen.wordpress.com
Oh my. Look at that beautiful meat! I’ve never had this particular piggy, but I had an epiphany when I had Jamon Iberico de Belotta (from Jabugo) last year in Madrid. It was the most beaufitully marbled, thinly shaved and altogether decadent meat I had ever eaten and I was groaning in ecstasy. And it didn’t cost £15 per 100g! But even at that price it might have been worth it :P
Beautiful blog
Hi Jer, bet that meat tastes great! The Basque region is very high on my list of next places to gorge myself.
B – it’s very expensive but that lot in the photo cost £3.50 which isn’t too bad. I am jelaous of your time in Spain. I would love to spend more time there.
Jeanne – I know, I mentioned the price to a Spaniard and she was horrified! I must say it compared for me with much cheaper local meats we had in Spain, but my palette, I fear, is unrefined. We had the most amazing plate of Alpujarran ham in Granada at a fraction of the price but it’s local there.
Thanks Helda! That’s very kind.
I am lucky enough to live and work in the Basque Country and to have met personally the man who saved the Euskal Txerria breed of pig from extinction, Pello Urdapilleta — I have even visited his farm with a tour group from America (San Francisco Farmers Market) and had the, ehem, honour of having one of the little Euskal Txerria piglets deficate on my shoe!
Anyway, I am thrilled to find this article and to see that Brindisa is selling Euskal Txerria ham! I remember their stall at Borough market in London.
I would encourage you to develop your taste for good Iberian ham! Though Brindisa’s prices of £150/kg *are* a bit steep… Pello (judging by local prices) takes in about 15% of that. But the taste has been compared (and I agree) to the Rolls Royce and Bentley of Iberian hams, Pata Negra and Jabugo. The ham is moist and buttery melt-in-your-mouth stuff with a smooth, full flavour that really impresses the taste buds of any Iberian ham lover. This is without a doubt one of the world’s finest cured hams.
The hams have the very best taste because the pigs grow completely naturally. They have plenty of room to roam freely and eat acorns, grass and local plants, never the typical GMO soy from feeding towers, etc. All organic, only natural cereals, seeds and grasses. The farm is beautiful and spacious and Pello refuses to crowd the pigs in to increase his production by a factor of two, ten or twenty — the norm in industrial production for a farm his size. He has resisted numerous offers and pressure from industry, but sticks to his laid back, natural farming which is what he likes. And the result is worth tasting!
Anyone whose Spanish is up to snuff can visit the Euskal Txerria blog, written by a member of the Slow Food Convivium in the culinary capital of the Basque Country and Spain, Donostia-San Sebastián. :
http://euskal-txerria.blogspot.com/
(Yes, I’m also a member of this first Slow Food group in Spain, with a few Michelin-starred chefs on its membership roster, and we are devoted to Euskal Txerria and to Pello for the brilliant natural quality of these products!)
If you’re an Iberian ham fan, do drop into Brindisa for a special occasion and pick some up, I think you’ll be glad you did!
Hi Dave! I have acquired a taste for the fines of hams now ;-) Really, it was more a qujery on the price. It is very good that they stock it as you say. It’s so important that we support the small producers, especially those that are preserving heritage products. I am a big fan of Slow Food and think that they do wondrful work.
Thanks for all of the info! I really enjoyed reading that. My Spanish is poor unfortunately but I will take a look at the blog.