Four grades of Iberian ham

伊比利亚火腿的分级

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Hi everyone and welcome back to our special segment, Global Village, 小酒馆·大世界.

Today we have a very special guest in our studio, Francisco Carrasco, the 4th generation of a renowned brand for Iberico ham.

我们今天特别请到Carrasco的第4代传人, Francisco Carrasco来和我们聊聊西班牙的饮食文化。

In the previous episode, we talked to Francisco about Spanish food culture and his family business of making Iberico ham, let’s continue with that topic.

Earlier on you obviously said you love food, you love cooking, enjoy all of these. But apart from a love of food, what brings you joy, what brings you happiness being part of the family business?

I work in the business that I love, that's very important. I love export business. Because when you are working, for example with China, I like to understand how’s the Chinese market, how they feel our business, how they translate the delight of the produce. Because in Spain sometimes we think that this business is so cunning, but it's not as cunning ... When we go out of Spain, they really understand how special is this produce.

Yeah, I think I get what you're saying. Because it is such a special part, and intrinsic part of your culture. It's only when it's going to other countries, then people appreciate it even more because it's very special.

It's not just in terms of selling, I learn about all the people, that’s the most important thing.

That's very nice to know that what goes into branching into the Chinese market. One thing though, when we were talking about Iberico ham, a lot of the times when I go to these wine bars or restaurants, you don't just see slices of Iberico ham, you actually see an entire leg of the Iberico ham on display. Is that very common in Spain to have an entire leg in the restaurant?

Yes, in some of the restaurants. I think it's changing that the idea of the restaurants hanging a lot of hams. It’s changing because that's a bit old. It's like a mirror that you have the restaurant when you put hams hanging, you are telling people that you're specialized in ham, that's why. It's when you go to a shell fish restaurant, then you can see the shell fish...

See the tanks.

Yeah, that’s it.

So it's like we are legit, we do sell legitimate, really authentic Iberico ham, interesting.

That's it.

What would you say are the best ways to enjoy the Iberico ham, because it is premium. But based on my experience, it's usually just you have it with a drink, maybe. And then you have it more like a snack when you're talking with your friends and you're drinking and then you have these very thin slices of Iberico ham.

For Iberico ham, I think there are different moments to eat. I really like sometimes in the morning for breakfast with a toast. You would spread some tomato and you put these slices on top and that's fantastic. You're eating just with coffee in the morning. Before lunch, you can eat it with a small.. which we called Picos, it’s a small bread. It doesn't have much flavor and small ones. You put it in your mouth with the ham; you can do with Sherry wine or a nice beer like IPA beer for example, that's nice. During lunch, these are the starter.

Also with red wines, I prefer really soft wines I don't like really strong wine, I like Spanish wines from Galicia and wines from Jura, in France, or wines from Bourgogne or some champagne or Cava sparkling, it's nice; or even you can have a sandwich at night, light sandwich with some ham, some vegetables on top. You can have a tomato. You cut the tomato, you put extra virgin oil with salt, that's it.

That sounds nice. It sounds very versatile, I never knew because when I think of Iberico ham, perhaps in the past my scenarios of eating it, is perhaps more like having a wine, having talk with my friend and having that as a snack, but you just giving me new ideas that I can actually eat it as part of my breakfast.

That's fantastic because the Iberico ham, it's a very healthy produce. Because you have the healthy fat, you have the protein. That's perfect.

Because it has so many layers that it has complexity in itself. So you don't really need a lot of like cooking. Like you said, with very simple...put it in between pieces of bread or put it on bread and use a little bit of extra virgin olive oil and that’s it, that is already a perfection.

Doesn’t need any other thing, it has to be nude for me, it's a nude produce, only finger food.

Ah, finger food.

You know when we try to get Iberico hams, you do see these labels. I think for people who don’t really know Iberico ham, it’s a little bit confusing, so you have green, you have black, you have white, you have red, could you tell us very briefly, what these are? Are they just like different grades?

That’s grades, all of the labels are grades for the final consumer. That I can explain. There are four different labels, that’s white, green, red, black.

The white one is Iberico pork but no acorn feeding, the green one is Iberico with no acorn feeding, but the difference between the white and green is the space to feed (pigs), the green (label means) more space, more life, so that’s the main difference.

Then we have the red and the black，they're Iberico bellota, bellota means acorn.

The red is 50% or 75 percentage of Iberico, the red one; and the black is 100% of Ibericao race.

So it's the purest of the pure.

I think sometimes, we can confuse the final consumer because people think that the best is the Black,

Because it’s pure.

But it depends...

I see.

It's like wise. For me, the brand is very important. Then the price, it's important because obviously, and the most important point to evaluate the quality is this feeding of the acorn? Many kilos of acorn means high quality; medium kilos of acorn means medium quality.

That’s the point because when you eat an Iberico ham, you put it in your mouth and it’s melting and sweet, and after 25 minutes, it’s feeling in your mouth but soft.

Some brands, they have higher point of salt. I don't like it. I like tender produce, I like tender meat, I like soft wines. I don't like the strong flavors.

In Carrasco, we have that idea of curing. Because we produced what we love. I produce the ham that I really like ...

I think that is something that's often related to family business because there's a lot more personal touch in it. It's not just making a business, making money. It's also that is generations of love, that sort of like the family recipe in it.

I think our only work in this business because we produce or we like, we sell to special people that they really want to enjoy our brand, with Carrasco, with a lot of other thing. We are really close, Company is really close with clients, we understand the business in terms of friendship and people that really know the difference between Carrasco and other companies, they want to be friends of the brand.

That's very nice to hear. I think we've talked a lot about the brands in the family business and also Iberico ham, and I want to end our talk with a little bit of extra thing about Spanish food. I'm sure you also do your own traveling. Obviously now it's difficult for people to travel, but before the pandemic you probably travel to different places. So when you are away from your hometown, away from Spain even, what is the food from home that you always miss?

Fish. I love fish. I used to eat a lot of fish and I like fish on grill.

Ah, Grilled fish.

I really miss the fish because ham, I can always put some slices in vacuum in my luggage.

So uou take your ham to travel. That's nice.

Always for business. When you have 2 or 4 vacuums of ham, when you don't have the right moment or you are traveling or whatever, you just have to go to a bakery buy some bread, some tomatoes. That's it. And you can eat a nice sandwich with a beer, even on the road or wherever. Always travel with ham.

Yeah, and I think a great thing about Iberico ham is like you said, it's nice to just enjoy by yourself, but it's also a nice thing to give as a gift if you meet what was friends or even clients. It's a nice gift because it is premium. It has that premium value to it.

Yeah, it's a gift. Now nobody gives a handful gift obviously but I used to for example, I go to see for lunch with friends at the houses. I took my nice Carrasco bag with some ham. They were really happy.

I can imagine.

That’s the best gift to present.

Okay, Thank you Francisco, I think we've certainly learned so much about Spanish food, especially Iberico ham. Thank you so much for being in the studio with us today. I simply can't wait to try some out.

Thank you very much.

I don't know how to say in Chinese，but I will try.非常感谢你。

Lovely. Thank you for the effort. I really appreciate this.

Have a nice day.