One of the things that I most love from Spain’s culinary arsenal is jamón serrano.  One of the things I like least in life is not having all the answers.  Last week, it was time for these two things to come head to head at our house in an event that we dubbed jamón, jamón.  (It may not be the most inventive name, but the event itself didn’t suffer for it.)

Spain’s cured ham may just be the best in the world.  Wait - it is.  No doubt about it.  I’m not the only one who describes Italy’s prosciutto as a pale comparison.  That said, it’s also a world unto itself that can be quite imposing to even the most intrepid initiate.  (And I’m not really that intrepid.)  It was time to take the pig by the horns - oh come on, it had to be said - and get our bearings.  For that, we would need help.

Who could we ask?  Of course the only two vegetarians that we know were first on the list.  Why?  We like them, that’s why.  But seriously, they were the excuse to provide some much needed vegetable matter and helped us by contributing a delicious humus among other things.  They are both ‘expats’ like us and, well, like everyone else there.  For this exercise we thought it best to recruit ‘outside’ help.  The Spanish are rightfully proud of their ham and we needed the least biased opinions we could find.  Our opinionated friends would have to do.

There were eleven adults, two toddlers and one dog in attendance.  All were there to help evaluate the merits of the various jamóns that we had selected with the help of one of our favourite market vendours.  All except the toddlers, who shamelessly consumed without contributing any comments at all; the dog, who wasn’t allowed to sample even a morsel; and the vegetarians who were noticeably detached from the whole proceedings.  (Who invited them anyway?)

No one who knows me will be surprised to learn that I prepared tasting sheets for everyone and made them fill them out.  (I once prepared a powerpoint presentation for a wine party…)  We weren’t only there to have fun, after all, we were out to discover the secrets of jamón serrano.  More on the outcome of those notes later.

There were some interesting observations made about the ham, but almost more interesting was the difficulty that most of us had describing what we were tasting.  All of us were speaking English, though this was a second language for half, but fluency wasn’t the issue.  It was tough to suddenly have to distinguish such subtle difference of flavour and texture.  I, for one, kept leaning on my wine tasting vocabulary but without much meaningful success.  I mean, a ’round’ ham doesn’t convey much, does it? 

Despite the linguistic challenges, I think the event was a great success.  The right amount of challenge - and wine - is usually a lot of fun.  I don’t think this was any exception.  All the guests, includling the vegetarians, the toddlers and the dog, seemed to have a great time.  The sun was shining and we were able to make good use of our terrace in spite of the fact that it was mid-February.  (Will that winter warmth ever cease to charm me?)

Soon I’ll post the results of the acutal tasting, but for now I simply want to encourage everyone who can to run out and organize a ham tasting.  Or an olive tasting or a bread tasting or whatever most tickles your fancy.  Our experience was a great one and we’re looking forward to doing it again in the near future.  What better way to share an afternoon with friends to indulge in some delicious food and interesting debate?