Is this Sydney's most expensive ham?
It's a race to the bottom for supermarkets ahead of Christmas, slashing hams to a miniscule $6 per kilogram ahead of the weekend, but at the other end of the scales, high end hams, commanding up to $39 per kilogram, are in scarce supply.
Bundarra Berkshires, a boutique free-range paddock-to-plate farm in the Riverina region, only has a small handful of their triple smoked hams left available for pick up, priced at $39 per kilogram, making them one of the most expensive hams on the market.
Co-owner Lauren Mathers explains that the pigs are ethically raised and processed on the property, farmed to Demeter biodynamic principles, fed organic grains, and processed without preservatives or additives.
"We handcraft our hams to home-made recipes, and triple smoke them over red gum [from locally grown trees], and use celery powder in place of nitrate," she says.
"We only use our own pigs and grow everything ourselves. You can't grow a pig for $6 a kilogram, so it really frightens me when I see ham for that much. You need to think about the water content, the amount of preservatives that have gone into it, and the quality of life that the pig has had."
Vic's Meat Market, in both Sydney and Melbourne, is also raising the ham stakes.
Rare breed Kurobuta Berkshire hams from Byron Bay are selling for $290 each ($29.50 per kilogram), and scored an impressive equal third place in the Good Food Christmas ham taste test.
So what's the fuss? Critic Michael Harden described the ham has having a "prosciutto-like attractiveness", with a powerful smoky aroma and lovely classic shape. The butcher says that a large nine to 10 kilogram ham that will feed up to 18 people, so your ham-fest will work out to around $16 a head.
At Feather and Stone, a free-range, antibiotic-free ham raised by one of the butcher's seven New South Wales-based growers, costs $264.60 for an eight to 8.9kg specimen, while the pastured pork leg ham sells for $28.75 per kilogram. During the Good Food ham taste test, the judges described it as "a salty, smoky and broody ham".
Haverick Meats CEO Peter Andrews says that cheap hams are plumped up with saline solution, which can account to as much as 30 percent of their weight.
"We brine our hams, which increases their weight by abount eight per cent, but that decreases again during the triple smoking," Andrews says.
"With cheap hams, you put in an artificial salt solution into the leg, and it starts to change the flavour profile and how the ham performs. It doesn't have a nice, firm texture when you carve, and it's just going to be dry and not as tasty."
It may sound contradictory, but the excess water weight makes a ham become dry in the fridge, whereas a naturally-processed ham, with a higher fat content, will last for several weeks.
Andrews' advice is to opt for a whole leg, rather than a half leg, and look for a nice plump shape with a good fat cover on top.