{"id":920,"date":"2019-04-25T09:19:48","date_gmt":"2019-04-25T08:19:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/laestrelladeljamon.es\/blog\/?p=920"},"modified":"2019-06-19T12:06:19","modified_gmt":"2019-06-19T11:06:19","slug":"key-points-for-ham-tasting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/laestrelladeljamon.es\/blog\/en\/key-points-for-ham-tasting\/","title":{"rendered":"Key points for ham tasting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hands up who\u2019s never eaten ham? Now who\u2019s never separated and distinguished between the different flavours, fragrances and textures of each part of the ham?
\n<\/p>\n

When we talk about ham, we\u2019re talking about the complete back leg of the pig. However, this is a complex set of muscles and adipose tissues (as well as bones, tendons, glands or blood vessels, of course) with different morphology and structure, that presents a whole range of profiles during curing, in terms of flavour, fragrance or texture<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

It might be more difficult to distinguish so many nuances in other deli products as opposed to ham. In deli meats for example, the way they are made, using uniform minced meat with fat and spices, evens out the flavour through the piece. Ham is a minimally processed product that keeps the morphology of the raw material completely intact. This means that, when eating it, we find some muscles have acted differently to the salt dehydration.<\/p>\n

We could really distinguish a great many parts of the leg, but it\u2019s most usual to separate it into four clearly differentiated zones: cushion, knuckle, tip and shank<\/strong>. To really enjoy them, we just need to find out more about them and enjoy them as we work our way through our ham. However, to be able to buy them and really compare their differences, there\u2019s nothing better than a tasting session.<\/p>\n

Beyond instrumental measurements that can give us laboratory references for aspects such as texture or the volatile compounds responsible for the fragrance, we all have our own built-in complex physical-chemical laboratory, experienced through our senses.\u00a0Sight, touch, smell and taste all come into play in sensory analysis of ham<\/strong>, although I\u2019m sure some would include hearing, claiming that a slice of ham was crying out to be eaten. Our senses are going to give us all the data we need for our tasting session.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Tasting session organized by DifEvents<\/a> with La estrella del jam\u00f3n<\/a> and Panes Diego Vega<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Types of tasting session<\/strong><\/h4>\n

There are three types of tasting session: hedonic, discriminatory and descriptive.<\/p>\n

A hedonic or preferential tasting<\/strong> is where you simply accept or reject a product. Its result is entirely subjective, as it is intimately linked to the taster\u2019s preferences and likings, and they, in turn, are affected by personal experiences or even mood. This is a tasting session within everyone\u2019s grasp, making it the perfect tool to evaluate acceptance for a new product or to present one or several items, proposing different pairings between them. In our sector, this type of joint tasting session usually involves pairing ham with drinks such as wine or beer, simply to find the perfect pairing for each person.<\/p>\n

A discriminatory tasting<\/strong> seeks similarities or differences between different products It is widely used when changes to a product\u2019s formulation are launched on the market, thereby measuring the public\u2019s degree of acceptance. The taster is presented with different samples so that, depending on the methodology used, they can group them or separate them according to their similarities. This type of tasting session uses people with different profiles that define the consumer\u2019s heterogeneity.<\/p>\n

The descriptive tasting<\/strong> sessions are the most useful to learn to appreciate the different nuances in a ham as we mentioned at the start. However, they are also the trickiest to perform as they really seek the most objective result possible, and so panel members have to be trained beforehand.<\/p>\n

Scoring<\/strong><\/h4>\n

A descriptive tasting session comprises different phases for which, as mentioned, participants have to be trained. If we wish to score the intensity of the red colour of the lean meat or the salt content, we need to set a common criterion among the panel members on what is considered to be an optimum colour and an appropriately salty flavour.<\/p>\n

First comes the visual phase<\/strong>. This evaluates aspects such as the colour and the shine of the fat and the lean meat or the infiltration (the famous fat marbling).<\/p>\n

In the olfactory phase<\/strong>, we simply seek an initial approximation, if there is a pleasant fragrance or nor before it enters the mouth although specific nuances might have already perceived, which might be positive (floral odour, nutty, etc.) or negative (sexual odour or fertilizer).<\/p>\n

Touch<\/strong> evaluates aspects such as the fluidity and consistency of the fat or adhesion on contact with your hand. In the mouth, touch helps us to determine the chewability of the slice, observing in turn if is fibrous or mushy.<\/p>\n

In the taste phase<\/strong>, we evaluate both the taste and the flavour. The former refers to the five specific tastes that can be detected by the sense of taste, located on the tongue: salty (very important for a ham), sweet, bitter, acid and umami. The latter refers to the sensations obtained by combining taste and smell. When we talk about flavour, we are talking about concepts such as cured or rancid.<\/p>\n

After unifying search criteria for the different parameters, panellists should score each sample that should be as similar as possible so as not to distort the final score.<\/p>\n

Although performing this type of tasting accurately requires painstaking training, it can nevertheless be said that if the target result is not clearly professional, this can be a very enriching experience. With a few basic notions, anyone can enjoy a ham tasting session and discover first-hand the organoleptic differences in the same piece of ham that turn it into a real gastro-gem.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hands up who\u2019s never eaten ham? Now who\u2019s never separated and distinguished between the different flavours, fragrances and textures of each part of the ham?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":921,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[161],"tags":[313],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/laestrelladeljamon.es\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/laestrelladeljamon.es\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/laestrelladeljamon.es\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laestrelladeljamon.es\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laestrelladeljamon.es\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=920"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/laestrelladeljamon.es\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":925,"href":"https:\/\/laestrelladeljamon.es\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920\/revisions\/925"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laestrelladeljamon.es\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/laestrelladeljamon.es\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laestrelladeljamon.es\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laestrelladeljamon.es\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}