Can We Talk About Prosciutto?

best with melon or tomato bread    (pa amb tomaquet / pan con tomate)

this will be an appetizer at next year's WCZJ. ;)

Haven't tried the faux prosciutto yet. My SO is Italian-American and she is always making stuff with real prosciutto that looks good.   Might have to order this faux version and see if I can imitate the recipes:

https://www.baldorfood.com/product/vegetables/spmeatmpb1-sliced-plant-ba...

And its from Italy!

^^^^ ingredients > 

Water, Gluten From Wheat 34%, Durum Wheat Flour 8%, Sunflower Oil, Natural Flavorings, Flavoring Preparation (Soluble Extract From Rice, Natural Flavorings) Salt, Soft Wheat Flour, Pea Protein, White Pepper Powder, Garlic Powder. ;

Gluten ham, or G>Ham!  

Will fundraise for this and we can stage a taste test.. LOL...

honeydew melon and or cantaloupe slices pair well 

ken - pls avoid the veg proscuttio. real proscuttio is salted/cured, and hung in caves or curing chambers to age for at least a year...there are all kinds of complex chemical reactions happening that change the flavor and texture of the ham dramatically, and this cannot be replicated in veggie meat form. nothing wrong with eating veggie meat, but no matter what it says on the package its not going to be anything like proscuttio in the way that a veg turkey lunchmeat can pretty reasonably stand in for turkey.

depending on what you are using proscuttio for there are other ways to get a similar funky cured flavor - in a soup or stew type of dish, you can stew the rind of proper DOP parmesan cheese, or you can cure egg yolks in salt at room temp until they get hard, and grate that over various foods, if you eat eggs or dairy.

not sure if there would be any ways to approach these flavors with vegan ingredients. proper charcuterie might be one of the few things that cannot be replicated at all with vegan ingredients - seems like you can get "close enough" on most other things.

maybe you could do some kind of TVP inside of a vegan casing, and add some of the cultures/bacteria used to make vegan cheeses, and hang it up to cure? idk.

I can't see why a vegan/veggie would want to replicate the taste/texture of meat. 

I can go on for days with recipes using prosciutto but my rule of thumb is: if the recipe calls for bacon use prosciutto instead.

I love prosciutto. By itself with nothing is very pleasing to me, and with fruit it's pretty great.

And I'll throw in Speck as a lovely piece of meat, too. Plain, and grilled asparagus wrapped in Speck? Another yum.

too "meaty"

best place to get proscuttio for most folks will be the deli counter at whole foods - they have DOP di parma and san danielle at well stocked deli counters, and you can get it freshly sliced

so, so much incredible flavor and texture is lost when it is pre sliced and vac sealed.

there are only a few companies in the US that make good proscuttio and most of them are not available at deli counters - good US brands are la quercia, edward farms, and cremeneli. whole foods deli counter often has cremeneli coppa, which is amazing, but for the most part its a good bet to avoid all proscuttio produced in the USA and to only buy proscuttio di parma or san danielle with the official DOP insignia on it. freshly sliced DOP proscuttio is like another universe compared to standard presliced domestic proscuttio.

i prefer it straight up on its own, or on crusty bread with mt tam cheese and mild olive oil

Technically not prosciutto, but any Spaniard will tell you it's better, LOL: 

https://www.tienda.com/jamon/index.html

As usual, daylight gets to the point.

My experience with prosciutto is that I'm usually disappointed with it, so my take is generally that it sounds better than it actually is.

As in all things, I just need to get the quality product to know for sure.

I am so lucky that I have a superior meat market very near to my house. It's been in business since the 40s and I've been going there since 1974. They have 2 kinds of prosciutto from Italy, and a lot of other good meats. Many of them are Oregon grown and others chosen for their quality. And they are really nice folks. They also have cheeses in the deli section, wines and some condiments. Local eggs and even have a little produce. 

I'm really sorry that Whole Foods is the only place some people can find good meats and groceries. I don't like Jeff and don't buy anything from him.

A few really Great Italian Fancy Delis here in Jerseyland...

You can find many very nice import Specialty delicacies.

Even supermarket cuts of Prosciutto are decent enough.

> too "meaty"

One man's meat is another's too meaty. I like to take it on longer hikes because of its concentrated meatiness.<<<

You're certainly welcome to gather what I've been spilling over pandemic ... with the exception of two frozen pizzas with sausage, have been entirely vegetarian.  So any meat is too meaty at this point.

"Jerry: So, she didn't appreciate the erotic qualities of the salted cured meats?

George: She tolerated the strawberries and the chocolate sauce, but eh, it's not a meal, you know? Food and sex, those are my two passions. It's only natural to combine them."

My experience with prosciutto is that I'm usually disappointed with it, so my take is generally that it sounds better than it actually is.

While prosciutto is a major flavor improvement over most cured meats, Jamon Iberico de Belotta is so much more what I expect prosciutto to be, but it costs a small fortune.