the hand and the master

ham is a whole culture that goes beyond food ingest. therefore very few things  are taken as seriously here as ham.
the breed of the pigs and their raising and caring, the butchering and curing of the legs in the controlled storing unit; the seasoning and maturing.

after that there's the post production where the proper cutting is required. many a good portion of ham has been ruined by a too thick cut because the slices need to be paper thin in order to uplift its perfume and boost the flavor.

then comes the ritual part of the cutting. a hand gloved in a coat of mail of sorts is placed at the correct angle and commences  its dance, slowly sliding and shaving the surface.
this is a skill so there are specific courses in official academies where people train.
the yearly highlight are the much expected ham cutting tournaments which  take place in various regions in spain. it is  not only a great honor to win the medal; it can also translate in  job offers because good ham cutters are greatly sought after.

another part of the ritual is sampling and  buying.  every good jamoneria takes pride in their product and hands you out a sample before you buy. if it's slightly firm, sweet and with no saltiness you are ready to buy your ham.
but, mind you at the prices a good  iberico ham commands- around 90-150€ kilo of cut ham, whole piece is slightly less pricey - you definitely buy  a taste.
since there's huge difference in flavor between serrano which comes from white pigs and iberico as a result  you pay for that difference.

last but not least there's the social component of the ham culture.
given the social nature of spaniards perhaps the most important is sharing a good ham with friends.
for that special celebration people splurge, have a friend or two by the side and indulge in iberico accompanied by a good fino sherry -my favorite take- or a good red wine.
small pleasures in life; good talk, good friends, good ham.

pd. need i say i was in madrid? ^_^

neki desu
 

hiatus

will be back in two weeks. until then be good, be well.



neki desu

exploring boundaries out of the comfort zone

about a week ago conversing with Jean she asked how i warped. upon learning that i warped front to back she said that she had learned back to front and added that it was soo easy. she immediately offered to send me instructions which i gladly accepted.

i learned to warp with a book, the 70's all time hit in the weaving world, cay garrett's warping all by yourself.   i was glad on all counts i did. because of the nature of weavers here if i had waited for someone to help me i'd still be threading that first warp. then at school what was taught was the swedish method in which you had to roughly thread the reed, beam, do some sort of maneuver to transfer the cross and some other steps. i thought that highly inneficient and cumbersome. why do something that you'll have to undo later on and re do correctly? so i kept warping front to back until yesterday.

jean's instructions were to the point, no verbiage nor excessively adjectival, and followed through easily.

i took my time straightening wool kinks, but  in spite of that it went smoothly. i noticed her method is a mirror image of the garret's method and that gave me some sort of silly confidence. i did not feel like a maiden warper, rather a second marriage warper!








i rigged a raddle to the castle of the loom having seen that at cally booker's and it works very well. i could ask for the raddle teeth to be higher, but you get the drift.

the weather is conductive to blanket weaving and  i have a lap blanket project. the draft is in the last stages but must likely will end like this, a hybrid of m's and o's. pleased that i'm clearing  so much of my stash !
threading will have to wait 2 weeks  until i'm back from my hiatus. in the meantime i can ding with the tie up.









neki desu