'SHOTLIST Alburquerque - August 2007 1. Various Iberian pigs in the fields 2. Pig stys 3. Piglets 4. Maldonado ham factory owner Manuel Maldonado with pigs 5. Pigs 6. Various hams hanging in curing room 7. Maldonado in curing room 8. Wide of hams in curing room 9. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Manuel Maldonado, Ham Factory Owner: \"In a pure ham, the shin is very slim because the animals have very light and resistant bones. The piece of ham is long and profiled.\" 10. Wide of cutting room 11. Cutting of ham 12. Track up ham 13. Cutting of ham 14. Handlers cutting off pig fat 15. Various pig fat 16. Mid handler 17. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Manuel Maldonado, Ham Factory Owner: \"I think that pure Iberian ham fed on acorns is something unique there is nothing similar in the world. It has some very specific characteristics. To give you an idea, things can taste of ham but nothing quite tastes like this ham.\" 18. Maldonado cutting ham 19. Close ham being cut 20. Ingredients list of ham (reads Iberian ham and salt) 21. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Manuel Maldonado, Ham Factory Owner: \"It is a product that carries absolutely no additives or chemical product. It is a piece of meat that is salted with sea salt and nothing else. The actual pig itself has a great capacity to digest the oleic acid, that is found in the acorns it eats. This makes the ham heart healthy and useful in controlling cholesterol.\" Badajoz 22. Various waiter cuts ham in restaurant 23 Various waiter brings ham to table 24. People eating ham 32. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Voxpop (name not given): \"Ham like this fed on acorns is really good. And the hams from Extramadura are the best. There is the taste and texture it has, I don\'t think you will find anywhere else.\" 33. People eating ham 34. Pigs running on farm LEAD IN: Legs of Iberian ham hanging from restaurant ceilings are a common sight across Spain. Now Spanish foodies are drooling over the prospect of a new variety of their favourite nibble - a salt-cured ham costing about �1,500 ($2,100) per leg. That works out at �250 per kilo ($160 per pound), a price believed to make it the most expensive ham in the world. It won\'t be available until 2008 and forget about getting just a little taste - you buy the whole ham or nothing at all, but gastronomic web sites and blogs are abuzz with talk of the perfect pork snack. STORYLINE : For four generations the Maldonado family have been making ham from high-quality hogs in Spain\'s southwest Extremadura region. Their herds of black Iberian pigs are kept on a handful of acorn-rich farms in the surrounding meadowlands, walking up to 10 kilometers (6 miles) daily without any pig-herds to look after them. After the pigs are butchered, they are cured in high-grade sea salts and refrigerated at 4 degrees Celsius (39 Fahrenheit). The salt is wiped off after about 12 days. Over the course of the next three months, the temperature is gradually raised to 20 Celsius (68 Fahrenheit). The hams are then brought into one of Maldonado\'s two warehouse-size cellars where they cure for two years, hanging on a series of interconnected hooks from floor to ceiling, like curtains. Manuel Maldonado says that a mark of good ham is long slender legs, evidence of the pig\'s outdoor\'s lifestyle. Maldonado is taking this art to new heights, pampering his pigs with a free-range lifestyle and top-quality diet of acorns before slaughtering them, then curing the meat for two years. That\'s twice as long as competitors do. Maldonado says this last factor creates a delicacy that justifies the heavenly price. Maldonado says his product contains only natural ingredients, ham and sea salt. He hopes to do better this time and have it ready around Christmas 2008. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/b35c3701b0050ed48410d66003777a4a Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork'
Tags: Lifestyle , Spain , Business , Western Europe , AP Archive , 533000 , b35c3701b0050ed48410d66003777a4a , (HZ) Spain Ham
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