Jambon sec des Ardennes

Appearance & taste

The raw ham and the topside ham are sufficiently dry and firm, but must not feel hard or look swollen. The fat is white and firm and smells pleasant. After the minimum duration, a bone-in ham weighs at least 5.5 kg, a large topside piece (topside and silverside) at least 3 kg and a topside at least 800 g.

During maturing the pieces develop a fruity scent and the characteristic taste of dried meat. They do not smell of smoke but subtly of fruity melon, and taste slightly salty; the aroma of the fat is very light and not rancid. Because they are firm, they are easy to cut into thin slices. The texture is even, moderately elastic and firm but not crunchy, slightly juicy and soft.

The ham is sold whole with or without the bone, boned and without the rind, in boned portions or in slices, packed or unpacked, pressed or unpressed. The topside is available whole, halved or in slices. The label states the name, the EU PGI logo and the maturing period.

Production

Hams from breeding boars and breeding sows are not permitted, and the fresh meat must not have been frozen. After trimming without rind and trotter, a fresh ham weighs more than 9.5 kg; its upper layer of fat is at least 10 mm thick, white and firm, and the meat is evenly coloured, neither too pale nor too dark. Fresh topsides weigh more than 1.2 kg, large topside pieces more than 4 kg; the large topside pieces keep part of the rind and are boned before salting.

The pieces are dry-salted with a curing salt that contains spices, flavourings and sugar. The hams are coated by hand with lard, leaving a “window” free; this way they dry slowly without forming a crust. Delivery, trimming, salting, drying, boning and pressing take place in the department of Ardennes. When a ham is boned, the bones are removed without cutting it open, the rind is closed again and it is then vacuum-packed or packed in a protective atmosphere.

Origin & history

The north of the department belongs to the Ardennes, a wooded slate upland up to 505 m high; in the south the flatter chalk landscape of Champagne begins, and in between lie the Thiérache and the Argonne. The climate lies between continental and oceanic, with up to 1,200 mm of rain in the Ardennes and up to 120 days of fog a year. Fog forms at night in the many valleys, and temperatures vary greatly over the course of the day. According to the specification, the humidity, wind and temperatures ensure that the ham dries and matures slowly and gradually.

In the 19th century families fattened one or two pigs for their own needs or for local trade. Around 1911 Jules Lefranc described how the pieces were layered in the cellar with pepper, spices and grey salt and, after a month and a half, desalted and hung up. Salting was done in the cold months, drying in the kitchen and maturing in the attic; today refrigeration and controlled humidity create these conditions all year round. As early as 1866 Gustave Heuze named the Ardennes among the departments with the most highly regarded French hams. At the end of the 19th century the ham was on the menus of banquets, for example in 1898 at the inauguration of the Raucourt railway. A product for local sale gradually became one distributed by the wholesale trade.