 Today, we are going to visit an Iberian ham production house and find out why it is Hamon Eberiko de Beiyota, the most expensive ham in the world. What is it about the Spanish kiwok meat that makes it cost so much? Let's go into the ham factory of the Blasque's group to see how it is made. We will start off with the ham preparation. First, the leg is refrigerated for one night. Now, the excess and outer layer fat has solidified enough to be easily removed, leaving just about 2 cm of fat to protect the meat. This fat removal also enables proper curing. Now moving on to the sorting process. Sorting is one of the oldest forms of preserving meat in natural conditions without artificial preservatives. You can see how the legs are stacked on top of each other and then covered by Mediterranean sea salt. When considering how long a leg should age, the general guideline is one day per kilogram, which means that these legs over here are around 21 kg each, so they have to be aged for 21 days. After that, the leg gets washed and aged for about 90 days under humidity and temperature control. The humidity and temperature are raised gradually across the 90 days. Next comes the brushing process. A mixture of hot fat and oil is brushed onto the leg to create a barrier and prevent bacterial from penetrating the meat. Brushing is done a few times during the curing process. Here, you can see the legs are cured in rows. Natural molds in white or green shape begin to grow in this stage. Together with the fat and oil, the mold protects the legs from excessive dehydration. Moving on to the last stage. The ham is put 6 meters underground where temperature is regular here all year round to enable a slow and stable aging process. The highest quality of ham gets aged for up to 5 years. During this period, the ham loses about 30-40% of its initial weight. When it comes to wine lovers' favorite foods and favorite parents, is there anything better than red wine and preserved meat? So we have some Iberico Hamon from Blasquez here. And Blasquez is located in Spain. They have their own fields, their own pigs, their own slaughterhouse, their own cutting rooms and rooms for curing and production. And I'm really excited to compare some Iberican Hamon to a Croatian ham. They call it prosciutto here, but also in Italy, you call it prosciutto. So let's see how it looks like. So we have here today from the red label of the Hamon Iberico de Bellotto. If you're looking at Iberian ham, right, actually there are four categories. The black, the red, the green and the white. So let's forget about the white and the green ones because they are not acorn, they are not made from acorn fat pigs. But we are talking about the black and the red. These two tags, red and black, correspond to the bellota. So the black is supposedly the top label because the pig comes from both of the parents of the pig will be Iberian breed, whereas the red one is actually 50%. The mother is Iberian breed, whereas the father is the duro breed. However, both the black and the red are actually equally tasty because they are acorn fat, you know, free range pig, the sort of thing. Actually, right, you know, we speaking with a couple of people, some people actually prefer the red. The difference is that the white because Iberian pig is so muscular, it actually has a lot of muscles and very little fat. When you cut out the ham, it's actually just one streak of fat in the middle. Whereas the red label that we have today, right, you will see that the fat is more evenly distributed across the entire slice. People like to cut it, unlike steak, where you cut it against the grain, you are supposed to cut along the fat line and the muscle line so that you have a very even line over here. And cut it into small little pieces, like two cm, so that you can fit it into your mouth. Unlike prosciutto, right, you usually have this, like, chunky slice that you put inside your mouth. So, shall we give it a taste? So the black label is like a Bordeaux gradvine, and then the red label is like the second wine. You can't cry. Actually, I don't understand it. But still can be very good. Yeah, and sometimes the second label is actually more value, you know, that delivers more interesting flavours today, yeah. Let's taste and compare. So what do you want to compare first? Are we tasting? I think we should taste the prosciutto first, or the prosciutto. Okay. You have to work for your pleasure, so you can see a chunky piece. So you want to show there's a difference in how the layers look, right? Yeah. I put a very big slice. Pretty well done for a prosciutto, a little bit salty. It's not as dry and aged. It's like you get some great hormones or something great out of Italy, right? Or Portugal. That is a little bit like, I think typical prosciutto has this a little bit more like rubbery, snappy, saltiness for sure. Sometimes even smoky, but not this one, of course. And it's nice, it's quite cocky. Yeah, this prosciutto is actually, it's got the sweetness and everything, but it tastes more like, just like, it's in between lunch meat and like prosciutto. I'm not talking about quality, I'm talking about in flavor style, right? Yeah, the sucudo is tender and all that, it's just, you know, you chew it, and yeah, it's nice. Let's get into the real deal, let's compare it and see what it's like with a jamon, a beer called jamon di beiota, huh? Oh. Mama. It's so sweet and nutty. It's like wine that's from palette meat, palette and palette and... It's finished, too. Long finish. It's really nutty. All it needs is tannin now, right? For you to like it. Yeah, that's actually, you're right, you know, there's even this lift of acidity to it, but I think what's, the main flavors is the sweetness, the greasiness, the buttery, not greasy, but really buttery in the mouth, and it's not salty, it's really just a little bit salty. It's all about the flavors over here, it's really complex. So if you had to sum up for people, like the difference between, you know, a beer called jamon is the most expensive preserved meat in the world, versus, you know, normal type of pursuit, what do you think are the biggest differences? Completely different texture, complexity, and we're not going for saltiness here, we're really going for the flavors and the sweetness. One important thing that you should always know, I make the mistake to always live your jamon out for it to, you know, let the meat sweat, let the fat melt before you eat it, just so keep it out for like maybe one and a half hours or something. Come back to earth, dude. It's so nutty and it, it tastes like roasted chestnuts. Yeah right, it has this nutty, tartness to it. And like a maple syrup, a saltiness, a meaty, oh it's, it's fat on there. Complex, really good stuff, and it's gonna go perfect with a glass of red wine, so are we all for a beer called jamon? Forever. Cheers. Cheers. Hello, thanks for watching. Hey, you made it to the end. Make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel, click the bell so you know when new videos are out. If you like content like this, check out our Patreon page, where you get some behind the scenes exclusive content. Thanks for watching. Cheers. Cheers.