Perry Soulos and Arrow Wines

Bringing Jamón & Proscuitto Genius to My Home 

Prosciutto Butts, Heirloom Tomotoes, & 2008 Zaca Mesa Syrah

A while ago, CYNTHIA came over to surprise me with three different types of prosciutto from ARROW WINES. Cynthia is great that way, she calls on a Monday and says, “I’ve got three prosciutto butts. Are you home from work yet?”

Well, when you purchase three prosciutto butts, you really have to share, right?   Who am I to turn down a culinary opportunity? So I offered to make her my heirloom tomato salad and open a Zaca Mesa 2008 Syrah.

I found out the prosciutto details from PERRY SOULOS at Arrow Wines. What I really needed was more of Cynthia’s amazing photography to grace this blog post…but beggars can’t be…well, I did make the tomato salad, right?!

Yeah, so like I was sayin’, spoke with Perry Soulos, cheese and deli manager, and he gave me the low-down on what Cynthia had brought into my humble home.

A Little Slice of Surryano

First up: SURRYANO ham–fed with Virginia peanuts, this Virginia born, bred, slaughtered, and aged pork “prosciutto” was absolutely the finest I’ve had that’s made in the states. Besides, being local, it takes a special place in my heart. Reading more detail online, I found that, “Chefs from New York to San Francisco are giving Surryano Ham attention, using it instead of expensive Prosciutto, Serrano, & Westphalian imports when their culinary creations call for lean, dry-cured ham. Surryano Hams are produced only from rare heritage breed hogs, 100% pasture-raised, smoked for a full 7 days over smoldering hickory embers, and aged 400 days.” It’s a terrific local product; nice to get an incredible food product and not have to import it from France or Spain or Italy.

Next up: Jamón Segovia—from Sello de Oro. This jamón is exclusively imported by D’Artagnan out of New Jersey from Mangalica pigs being raised in Hungary. They are readied for slaughter in Spain, then aged for a minimum of 3-4 years. The fat content goes up as the side of pork ages. It then begins to dry out over time, and with so much fat, you cannot sell it. It has to get to a certain percentage of moisture before it can be called “prosciutto” from Spain. What makes this pig so special is thatTHEY LOOK LIKE SHEEP and have an extraordinarily high fat content that turns out to be just some genetic part of the breed. Perry alleges that bY EATING THEM, WE ARE ACTUALLY SAVING THEM. It’s a strange folly, but even the New York Timesmore or less concurs.

The Mangalica Sheep Pig

Olli, the makers of our last “prosciutto” of the night, makes the third selection Cynthia brought over. Raised in Richmond, Va. from BEV EGGLESTON-supplied the pigs (You may know Bev from Michael Pollan’s book THE OMNIVORE’S DILEMMA), Olli prosciutto also gave us paroxysms of salivating delight. We were burbling with gushing praise. Unfortunately, when all you are eating is a few thin slices of prosciutto, some tomatoes, and a bottle of wine, well, our assessments could have gotten a bit off course.

One way or the other, combined with the Syrah, we were completely sated before heading off for dinner at MERIDIAN PINT.

Perry and I  got into an even longer conversation about pata negra aka Bellota–something that Cynthia hadn’t gotten her hands on. BELLOTA is a cured pork that is really one of a kind.  I’ve really only seen high quality versions in Philadelphia’s Little Italy and DI BRUNO’S and Dean & Deluca and Balducci’s. Perry was telling me that it’s from a giant 300-400 lb feral pig that is all black.

A Future Pata Negra Grazing

These lovely creatures run amok in some parts of the states, because Columbus brought them over with him. Perry says that they make truly the finest cured pork product in the world. The first time I had some, I was working for Reading Is Fundamental at FESTIBA in McAllen, South Texas. I remember the guy at the counter at FELDMAN’S down by the Renaissance telling me the story about how such a small town with very few high income folks could afford to carry such expensive leg of cured meat.  He said that the drug lords from Mexico (just over the border) send their purveyors in to purchase entire legs (These are HUGE pieces of meat) for their ‘parties.” The lords have pretty exquisite taste, yet they purchase from Feldman’s like they’re picking up Oscar Meyer wiener’s for the Labor Day Bar-B-Que!

So, I suppose as far-fetched as it sounds, eat prosciutto, save a pig.  If nothing else, make your Monday’s special by a simple sampler. Prosciutto butts are actually really cheap, even at Dean and Deluca.  Become friends with your butcher. They are not just hard workers, they’re connoisseurs.

- See more at: http://www.alunchboxblog.com/perry-soulos-proscuitto-genius/?preview=true&preview_id=950&preview_nonce=e51b8ec4ce#sthash.oAyiFkpx.dpuf