Yesterday I got a chance to go tour the La Quercia ham processing plant. Because of timing, Shannon wasn't able to join me (over lapped with her work schedule), but I wasn't going to pass up this opportunity. I joined a group of people from the Cheese Shop of Des Moines. So we learned a few things about the process, heard a few stories, but I'll just highlight a few things that I found interesting.
It takes about 7 times as long to trim hams after they are finished, then it does to trim the legs before they start curing.
A few rooms have specially designed temperature control units. In the "salting rooms" (not pictured), have cool air that comes down from a passive cooling unit (no fans) then heat that comes up form closer to the floor, and is piped up to meet in the middle, which creates circulation and a consistent floor to ceiling temperature (again important for the consistency of the hams).
They try to keep the aging rooms consistent with the general seasons of the year. This is how the hams of old were cured.
They initially planned on 3 expansions in this location and are starting their 4th (or just finished their 4th).
The location is in a U shape, so you can start in shipping, go to the start and go through the seasons, then end back in shipping from the final processing room (good work design flow).
They don't have backup generators. The areas have plenty of mass in them to help maintain the temperature, and apparently generators are not common in the industry. While I can see the point, and generators a expensive as hell to maintain (I remember the announced visits of the generator techs (quarterly, I think) and the diesel fuel deliveries, etc, for computer backups at my office). I get it, but there's an amount of risk there.
After the tour, we headed back to the break room and had some Arugula, Chicory, Balsamic and tomato salad, Butter and Prosciutto sandwiches, and some beautiful La Quercia meat.
The general smells were milder than I thought they would be, but still delightful at all points of aging. They certainly made a rumble in my stomach. Probably didn't hurt that I really didn't have much to eat that morning.
I would like to go back sometime to see the work in process (leg and ham trimming, general movement, meat slicer in use, etc). Though most of the developed goodness is due to time. I'm also curious about the mechanics of it. Similar to the visit to the Story City Locker, where we saw them cutting up the meat, making some sausage, etc.
I really enjoyed myself, and this probably just for food or science nerds, and not really for someone that isn't that interested in where their food comes from.
