Joselito jamon
Joselito Iberico jamon, the world’s King of hams, holds special significance for Friend & Burrell. Now a trusted distributor for some years, Friend & Burrell helped introduce this superb jamon into Australia over a decade ago when meat exports were subjected to restrictive regulation.
Joselito is the business of the Gómez family (now 5th generation in the business) who’ve produced Iberico, acorn-fed pork products in Salamanca, Spain, south-west of the Iberian Peninsula, for over 150 years. Joselito prides itself on managing the entire life-cycle of their specialty breed pigs in a complete ecosystem connecting trees, pastures and vegetation with animal life, each “happy” pig being free to roam and live in its natural habitat in Mediterranean woodlands rich in grasses and flowers, holm oak and cork oak trees.
Every step in Joselito’s hand-processing involves the highest standards of traditional artisanal production – from breeding and animal husbandry to butchering, (minimal) salting and curing in natural drying areas, and then hanging in underground, natural bodegas to age under close attention of ham-master for between 36 and 120 months. These processes result in a ham rich in fat and complex in flavour. It is used in most two and three Michelin star restaurants around the world and revered by leading chefs including Joêl Robuchon in France, Seiji Yamamoto in Tokyo, and Ferrán Adriá, Elena Arzak and Andoni Luis Aduriz in Spain. Friend & Burrell supplies Joselito jamon to leading restaurants in Australia and to a few select retailers:
Bills Farm at Queen Victoria Markets
Cleo’s Deli at Prahran market
Stocked Food Stores in Hawksburn