GUINNESS RECORD IN CUTTING THE LONGEST SLICED HAM

Nico Jimenez, a sausage maker and the best ham cutter in Spain, has broken out his own record at the Hattori Nutrition College in Tokyo cutting a slice of Iberian ham of 13 meters and 35 centimeters in length, from a single piece of meat (3 cm longer than the current record).

It took him an hour and a half to cut the long slice, in a seminar that he was giving to students of the Japanese school on the 23rd of September, about the history of how Iberico ham is made and after that he was teaching them about how to slice the ham. First all the students practised it, but then it was the turn of Nico who with a ham leg resting on a swivel of his own design, he gradually cut the ham in a thin sheet with a knife in his right hand while holding the reel with the left hand, which was broken when it exceeded two kilos.

Nico Jimenez has 20 years of experience in developping this particular skill. And apparently, in the past has come to cut slices even longer (reaching 20 meters in length) at a recent charity event in which he participated in Pamplona last October.

No wonder Iberico ham is now called the 3rd most popular delicacy next to caviar and foie gras. It takes over 50 months starting from when the black Iberian pig is born till the ham is cured and delivered to the table.

And by the way and out of curiosity, in spite of cutting more than 1000 hams every year, Nico says he loves ham and the first thing he eats for breakfast is a tapa de jamón (a ham tapa), every single day.

And now after writing this tasty post and watching the photos I have to tell you that I am just starving and I am going to my fridge to get some ham with a little glass of wine, because I need to tell you that cured ham is my favourite food, I love it too (the same as Nico)! So please, will you excuse me? I am afraid I have to leave just now!