Due to being very busy I have neglected my blog over the last few weeks. Anyway, amongst the many tours I have organised was one to the Sierra de Aracena at the end of last week. At the ham factory that we visited they were coating hams with a mixture of sun flower oil and lard (see photo below). The reason for doing this is to protect the hams from a mite. A large number of these mites can bore into a ham and make an enormous cavity which ends up with the ham being discarded with the subsequent finacnial loss. The oil and lard act as a barrier to the mite and are applied to the ham a number of times during the curing process.
