Alburquerque, Spain – Spanish cuisine tickles the palate in a thousand ways: ugly but delicious creatures called goose barnacles; boiled octopus with a dash of olive oil and paprika; thick, mushy sausage made from pig’s blood.
Now, hard-core foodies are drooling over the prospect of something truly superlative from Spain, at least in price: a salt-cured ham costing about $2,100 per leg, or a cruel $160 per pound. It’s a price believed to make it the most expensive ham in the world.
Don’t grab your wallet just yet. And forget about asking for just a slice.
The 2006 Alba Quercus Reserve (as this pricey pork will be known) won’t be available until late 2008, and you must buy the whole ham.
Its mastermind, Manuel Maldonado, 44, is taking the art of the ham to new heights, pampering his pigs with a free- range lifestyle and top-quality diet of acorns before slaughtering them, then curing the meat for two years – twice as long as his competitors.
It’s that last step that Maldonado credits with creating a delicacy that justifies the price. “This is the best ham in the world because it comes from the best pig in the world.”
“It is the most important ham in Spain,” adds Pedro Soley, a Barcelona connoisseur who is among the lucky few lining up to buy one. Indeed, this is a limited edition piece: Maldonado will produce just 80 to 100 legs.
