Hello, dear readers of the blog of a smart buyer! Today we will tast the Hamon Serrano brand “CASADEMONT”. They specially took this product in the package so that the manufacturer could be evaluated, since the rifled hamon, except by organoleptic indicators, cannot be evaluated. True, in this tasting we will show you obvious facts that indicate that it is better to purchase a hamon not in plastic packaging, but cut directly in a store from pork ham.
1. Product: Hamon Serrano “Casademont”
2. Manufacturer: Casademont, s. A., Ctra. Riudellots a Sant Marti de Llemana, Sant Gregori (Girona), Spain. Importer to Ukraine: LLC Latoritsa LTD, g. Donetsk, st. Putilovskaya Grove, 16a
3. Place of purchase: “Megamarket”, st. Getman, 6
4. Buying date: 03.05.2012
5. Product price: 32.76 UAH.
6. Composition: pork, salt, preservatives (E-250, E-252), antioxidant (E-301).
So we came to the point that shows the advantage of rifled hamon from a ham over the sealed Spanish pork meat brought. We thought that in the composition of Hamon, in addition to meat and spices, in principle, nothing would be. But everything turned out differently…
In order for the meat in the package does not deteriorate and preservatives are used. E-250 (sodium nitrite) and E-252 (potassium nitrate) are generallyxic toxic substances that (this is proved) provoke the occurrence of malignant tumors, in particular, can provoke intestinal cancer. In many countries, food supplements have long been prohibited, but in Ukraine and Russia (and in Spain, as we see) – permitted. Only because of these two components can you coolly reduce the assessment of this product.
But the antioxidant ascorbate sodium (E-301) is considered a harmless baking supplement. Like ascorbic acid, is a type of vitamin C. In meat products is used to form a stable color of the meat product.
We are practically sure that we will not meet the preservatives in the pig of the ham, so Hamon should still take a rifled leg directly from the pork.
7. Food value (in 100g): proteins – 31.0g; fats – 10.0g; Carbohydrates – 0.2 g
8. Energy value (calorie content) in 100g: 215kcal
9. Marking. Data on the manufacturer, importer, product composition, mass, storage conditions – it is easy to find on packaging. But the corresponding designation of DDEO, which is a state quality mark and means that in the production process the standards are not violated (we wrote about these standards in an article about Hamon), we did not find. But at the same time, on the package, we found a sign with the corresponding abbreviation, which states that the products are certified.
We do not know exactly all the nuances of the Hamon certification in Spain (maybe a packed product, unlike the pork ham, has its own certification features), but the fact that Spanish pork meat called “Hamon” must have appropriate marking DDEO (on the likeness of the signs of quality wine products), which discloses not only the region in which this meat was produced, but also acts as a guarantee of product quality, is definitely! On the packaging of this product, we did not find this marking.
With the date of production, the party number and the final date of consumption there are no problems. These data are applied by a marker for a package border and also visible quite clearly.
10. Net mass (on packaging): 80g
11. Gross mass in fact: 95g
12. The mass of packaging: 16g
The pure mass of the hamon is 79 grams. And if you take into account the error of the scales of 1 gram, then we can safely say that the manufacturer did not deceive us by weight.
13. Type and aroma. The appearance of the meat is very appetizing: dark-bearded color (even beetroot) with white sebaceous veins-mmm, probably delicious. 🙂 But the aroma of this product is a little “pumped up”. It feels like you sniff raw meat, while there is no fragrance of logs at all.
14. Taste. The meat is very soft, not hard as a shoe, practically melts in the mouth. This, perhaps, is pleasant impressions and ended. The taste of this Hamon is some kind of “soap”, although with salt the manufacturer clearly went too far. If you close your eyes, it seems that you eat herring, not pork meat. It’s a pity … the taste of Hamon directly from the ham that had been tried earlier, created much better impressions of this Spanish delicacy. The same – for an amateur!
Evaluate Hamon Serrano “Casademont”.
1. Marking – 9.
2. Composition (the presence of harmful and prohibited ingredients) – 4.
3. Mass compliance – 10.
4. View and aroma – 6.
5. Taste – 5.