Hello, dear readers of the blog about life with children!

Wikipedia says thatJamon(Spanish) jamón - ham) - Spanish national delicacy, dry-cured pork ham.

Laconic, isn't it? In fact, this definition will never convey the sensations that you experience when you put a transparent piece of Jamon Ibérico into your mouth. It's truly divine. Especially against the backdrop of our sausages and “delicacies”, which lie in huge quantities on the shelves. So, everything that is in Russia cannot be compared with Hamon.

New information from the store:

Shop owner: Willem van der Merwe
Contacts: [email protected], there is also a group on FaceBook
Delivery time: It all depends on the work of the Russian Post, sometimes it arrives in 10 days, sometimes 30-35 days.

Prices in the store are 2-3 times lower than in Russia, even taking into account delivery. By the way, delivery is not that expensive. The approximate cost per kilogram is as follows:

Economy| Priority | EMS
from 1 to 5 | 8 eur | 9.2 eur | 11.65 eur
from 5 to 10 | 5 eur | 5.74 eur | 7.1 eur
from 10 to 15| 4.4 eur | 5.1 eur | 6.2 eur
from 15 to 20 | 4.1 eur | 4.8 eur | 5.8 eur
from 20 to 25 | unavailable | 4.6 eur | 5.5 eur
from 25 to 30 | unavailable | 4.2 eur | 5.2 eur

By the way, when sending from Spain abroad, VAT tax is deducted; if you go to the site, you will see two prices, the one without tax will be correct, after registration there will only be one price left, so without tax. For information on how to register and get a discount in the store, see the bottom of the article. Attention!!! Coupon for 5% discount - Nikospart.

UPD. Parcels from Spain with jamon arrive normally even despite the sanctions. Here, for example, is the tracking of my last parcel:

CK051421603ES, see here: http://www.russianpost.ru/tracking20/

But my advice is, it’s better to use EMS delivery, where the likelihood of a package being returned is almost zero!

In the store you can buy:

Jamon.

Jamon is divided into two main types, Iberico jamon and Serrano jamon.

Jamon Serrano is a distinctive feature: a white pig, the jamon has a white hoof.

The most accessible Hamon is this leg (all leg names are clickable):

Jamon Serrano "Duroc" from Teruel.

Aging: 16 – 18 months

Weight: 7 – 7.5 kg

Costs only 63 euros for the whole leg! Moreover, this is not a seven-month-old Curado, this is an excellent aged Jamon. In Russia, prices for such prices start at 9,500 thousand, just google to see this.

You can also get a leg from another manufacturer.

Jamon Serrano Mariano Gomez ‘Añejo’

This Aged Ham is a unique product that is individually produced from the finest raw materials with the addition of very little salt. The entire production process takes place under careful control. Each ham undergoes the necessary aging in special cellars. This is the only way to guarantee the quality of Mariano Gomez Serrano ham.

This careful and slow production process ensures that each leg reaches an optimal level of aging, developing its characteristic flavor and aroma.

Quality guarantee: The entire process of ham production, from the moment the hams arrive at the Mariano Gomez production site until the finished ham is released, is accompanied by a tracking system. In this way, the quality of the product is guaranteed from the beginning to the end of production.

Variety: Ham leg without claw

Aging: 16 - 18 months
Weight: 7.5 - 8 kg

By the way, in order not to buy jamonier, you can take boneless meat, for example this: Price 85 euros.

Jamon Serrano "Reserva from Teruel.

Ham has a characteristic V-shape.

Aging: 14 – 16 months

Weight: 5 - 5.5 kg

Price 63 euros.

Or you can take 500 gram pieces of Jamon for testing. They cost only 8 euros.

For example these:

Jamon Serrano ‘Mature’ (piece) - Mariano Gómez (500 g)

Boneless ham, cut into pieces weighing ± 500 g. Each piece is individually vacuum packed.

Aging: 18 months

Weight: ±500g

Jamon Serrano is, of course, magnificent, but the most delicious Jamon is, of course, Iberico. Its cost is slightly higher, but the taste sensations are completely different.

Iberico - distinctive feature: black pig, ham has a black hoof

Recebo - made from pigs fed acorn forage

Bellota - made from pigs fed on a pure acorn diet

The cost of Jamon Iberico starts from 120 euros per leg and reaches truly unattainable values ​​(344 euros per leg, not weak, right?), although real gourmets will of course prefer the best.

You can start the tasting with small half-kilogram pieces, unless you want to impress your guests with the most gorgeous view of the leg on the jamonier.

Jamon Iberico Beyota DO Guijuelo (hand cut) - Victor Gomez (100 g)

Jamon Ibérico Beyota DO from Guijuelo (Salamanca) is produced with the traditional slowness that this very tasty meat with a sweet aroma deserves. The ripening of the Iberian jamon Beyota takes place in the cellars of the Sierra de Bejar, where the meat acquires a purplish-red color with thin stripes of fat that melts in the mouth.

Víctor Gómez produces exclusive and limited editions of high-quality Iberian jamon. All products are made according to old family recipes. Following traditions, as well as the use of modern equipment, allows us to achieve the unique taste and aroma characteristic of Iberian chamaon from Víctor Gómez.

Aging: +30 months

Price: 13.4 euros

If finances allow, then you can immediately take a set of slices to treat friends or for future use;) for example, this one:

Natural Ibérico Beyota jamon (whole, hand-cut) - 5 Jotas

Hand-cut leg of ham 5J ("Cinco Jotas") in an exclusive "5J" case. The perfect gift!

A set of packages of natural Iberico Beyota jamon

5 Jotas hand cut:

26 x 80 g packages of hand-cut jamon

1 bag of small jamon cubes

1 bag of jamon bones

Description brochure

Natural Iberico Beyota jamon “5 Jotas” is distinguished by its incomparable taste and rich bouquet of aromas with a trail and uniform color of meat with many shiny streaks of fat.

Unlike other online stores that purchase 5 Jotas ham from distributors, JamonShop.com purchases all 5 Jotas ham directly from the manufacturer (Sanchez Romero Carvajal, the Osborne Group). This allows us to set competitive prices and, more importantly, guarantee the freshness and quality of the products.

Slices are slices, but there is nothing better than a real leg of Jamon Iberico, the leg is a real art and philosophy of cooking!

And I suggest starting your acquaintance with Hamon with an excellent eight-kilogram leg from Victor Gomez.

Jamon Ibérico Sebo DO Guijuelo - Victor Gomez (8 – 8.5 kg)

Aging: +24 months

Weight 8-8.5 kilograms.

Cost 132 euros.

But now the main question is where in Moscow and Russia you can find real Spanish Jamon Iberico for 5800 rubles??? The answer is of course obvious! We must take it in Spain!

By the way, it is very important that if you buy a whole leg, be sure to buy a Hamonier stand, the Hamonier makes slicing very much easier, even moreover, without it you simply will not be able to cut the Ham correctly.

Here is the simplest and most functional jamonier:

Stand for jamon/jamonera “Huelva” (walnut color)

The stand for jamon/hamonera “Huelva” (Buarfe) is made of Chilean pine (walnut color) with black steel handles treated with epoxy resin and chrome-plated steel skewers.

It costs only 17.8 euros.

Registration and making a purchase in the Jamonshop store

To change the language, just select in the upper right menu the one in which it is easiest for you to perceive information, for example, Russian.

After we have added everything we liked to the cart, we go into the cart in order to be surprised at the resulting number.

We click on order confirmation, we are redirected to the PayPal website for payment, after payment we wait with peace of mind for our order to be sent. It usually takes a couple of days to prepare the parcel. Well, then all that remains is to track the path of the parcel from Spain to Russia. By the way, it is better not to send more than three legs in one parcel and do not forget about the monthly customs limits of 1000 euros and 31 kg.

About how to cut Hamon correctly!

This is the way to cut Hamon:

And this is the method for cutting Palettes:

Due to mutual sanctions between the West and Russia, deliveries of Jamon to Russia are prohibited, which only contributes to the popularity of Jamon and the development of its production in Russia.

Boris Akimov in the village of Knyazhevo, Pereslavl district, Yaroslavl region, began producing “Yaroslavsky Ham”: his own pigs, the product is aged for 8 months. According to reviews from those who tried it, the taste is even better than Spanish Jamon.

The village of Knyazhevo is located north of Lake Pleshcheevo, about 19 km. from my dacha - I will need to go to visit Boris.

Here is an interesting review of the product on Boris Akimov’s Facebook page:

Jamon is still something like “cognac” - a product strictly standardized by the Spaniards. And what I see in the photo would be more correct and honest to call “prosciutto.” I hope it's good)). Because I personally like good Balkan Prosciutto even more than Spanish serrano jamon, but we still won’t compare it with Iberica, because the original pig is not the same ;-).

Since I am going to grow in an eco-park, I decided to write down on this page the available information about Ham and the technology for producing Ham.

Here is information about Jamon from Wikipedia:

Serrano is a distinctive feature: a white pig, the jamon has a white hoof;
surado - aging 7 months;
reserva - aging 9 months;
bodega - aging 12 months;

Iberico is a distinctive feature: a black pig, the ham has a black hoof;
de cebo - made from pigs fed on forage and acorns;
bellota - made from pigs fed on a pure acorn diet.

Jamon is a common name for a product made from the hind legs of a pig, while the front legs are called pallets.

Preparation

The jamon is covered with a large amount of salt to speed up the dehydration process. The salting time depends on the weight of the leg and the climatic conditions of each area, but on average it is one day per kilogram of weight.

Depending on the weight of the ham and the climatic conditions of the geographic area, the drying process takes from 6 to 36 months. Drying usually begins in winter or early spring to take advantage of the slow and gradual increase in temperature until late summer.

In autumn, the jamon is moved to lower floors of the room, where it remains for 9-12 months at a temperature of 8-10 °C. Here the drying process begins: under the influence of microflora, the meat acquires its characteristic structure, taste and aroma.

Maturation

After drying, the product is sent to the cellars, where it is classified by weight and quality. Based on this classification, the time required for each “leg” to “ripen” is determined, after which they are left to “ripen”, still in a suspended state. At this stage, thanks to the microclimate of the cellars, the “legs” acquire their unique taste and aroma.

Try- this is the final check: with a thin, long needle (made from cow or horse bone), experts make two or three holes in the jamon to feel the aroma that indicates the completion of the drying stage.

Ham is consumed cut into very thin slices; cutting Jamon is a special art, which is performed by a trained specialist - a cortador, using a special tool.

The stand on which the Hamon is mounted for cutting is called the Hamonera. The place where Ham is served is called Hamoneria.

Slicing

For slicing Jamon, a Hamonera (Spanish: portajamones, soporte jamonero) is used - a special stand of appropriate length.

According to culinary specialists, the organoleptic properties of Hamon are directly affected by the quality of cutting, so Hamon must be cut manually using Hamonera and a special knife. Mechanical cutting of Jamon degrades its quality.

As a rule, stands are made of wood and have a length of 45-50 cm (may vary depending on the size of the pork ham) and a width of 15-20 cm.

The sharp screw on the Hamonera bracket is used to secure the leg with the hoof, and the other part is used to install the wide part of the Hamoner.

By loosening the screw on the ring, you can turn the Ham over to cut the meat from the opposite side.

The cutting occurs parallel to the leg attached to the Hamoner. At the same time, in order to avoid injuries, the Hamon must be tightly secured to the Hamoner without slipping, so that the leg is pressed against the stand in all directions and does not become loose.

When making an incision, the left hand is always above the operating hand with the knife (for a left-handed person the rule is the opposite).

Places of production

Jamon is produced throughout Spain with the exception of the coast. Like Spanish wines, there is Denominación de Origen- a quality mark guaranteeing that Ham was produced in a certain province in compliance with unchanged local standards (each province has its own).

Storage at home

At home, Hamon is kept in a cool, dry place (15-20°C). After cutting, consumption is allowed for five months, while the cut site is treated to prevent contact with air (covered with a cotton towel, lubricated with olive oil).

Here is additional information about Hamon and a description of the technology for producing Hamon at home:

Dry-cured delicacies are loved by everyone who does not shy away from meat. And, contrary to the opinion of the literary professor Preobrazhensky, they can still be useful.

However, the most delicious (and least harmful) products like Spanish Ham are so expensive that you can only convince yourself that they are full of cholesterol.

Or learn how to cook the same Hamon at home. We will consider the probability of successful implementation of this “hopeless enterprise”.

What it is

If we only mention the origin of the meat and the general features of the process, then this is the name of dry-cured pork.

For the whole world, only the ham of an animal fits the definition, although among the Spaniards, Jamon is made from the whole carcass. The second word specifies which part of it it is from.

It is unlikely that Jamon can be prepared at home, especially in a city apartment.

The first problem is the lack of suitable raw materials. Only the meat of Iberian animals, which are bred on the peninsula of the same name, is suitable for Jamon. Even worse, the pigs must be fed a strict diet that consists almost entirely of acorns.

Moreover, acorns are required from cork oak trees. The rest of the animals will not be a real delicacy - the taste of meat is not the same.

Based on this, Ham at home becomes available only to a cattle breeder who has imported the right breed of pigs, grown the “correct” oak trees and equipped the basement with special installations needed for drying.

Delicacy production technology

It is noteworthy that the Spaniards make no secret of the process of preparing this dish. They have been making Ham at home for centuries, not considering it a national treasure.

Industrial production of this delicacy has only recently begun. And it consists of the following stages.

1. Fat and simply “ugly” places are cut off from the ham; the leg itself is covered with a very large amount sea ​​salt and left for two weeks at a temperature not lower than zero and not higher than plus five.

2. The meat is washed, dried and hung. It is dried in different factories from six months to a year. Initial temperature +7; gradually it rises smoothly, according to a certain schedule.

3. Ripening: occurs with strictly observed temperature and humidity, over the course of several months (up to one and a half years).

4. Sample collection. A specialist, specially trained and knowledgeable in the nuances of Ham aroma, pierces the ham with a needle and sniffs.

As you can see, to prepare Jamon at home, you will need not only special pigs, but also devices that can maintain the physical characteristics of the air in the room at the required level.

Almost Hamon

However, you should not give up. If you like Jamon so much, a recipe at home will help you achieve the result as close as possible to the original. However, you still can’t do without a basement and an empty, ventilated room (pantry or shed).

You still won’t get a completely authentic Jamon, unless you go to Iberia and buy the right pig, but the taste differences will only be noticed by that very specialist taster. So…

A 4-kilogram ham is taken from a young pig, cleaned of all excess, placed in a free, large container and poured with a dozen kilograms of sea salt.

For at least four days (a day per kilo), the basin should stand in the dark and cool; occasionally it should be turned over to ensure even salting.

Then the future Jamon is cleaned of adhering salt at home, washed and hung there.

If possible, the temperature rises by a degree once a week. The delicacy must dry for at least six months.

Fast Hamon

Its advantage will be that few city dwellers will dry a whole leg, and even an uncut one, with bones. However, residents of big cities also love Ham!

The recipe at home for them will be as follows: buy a loin, rub it with a mixture of salt and sugar (proportion 2 to 1), put it in a flat container (a large bowl, for example), press it down with a weight and put it in the refrigerator for three days.

In the morning and evening, the preparation for Ham at home is turned over, and the liquid is filtered from it.

The meat is dried with napkins and rubbed with spices (at a minimum, the composition should include ground bay and pepper, garlic and coriander).

Then the pork is wrapped in gauze, tied tightly with twine and hung in the shade on the balcony. If the summer is hot, remove it for the day and hide it at the bottom of the refrigerator, and return it in the evening.

This Hamon becomes edible at home already on the fourth day.. However, the duration of drying has a positive effect on the taste, so it is better to wait at least 2-3 weeks.

Culture of use

During the cooking process, pork loses a lot of weight and moisture, so cutting it will require some effort.

In Spain, there is even a position of cortadora - a delicacy cutter (and this is always a strong man). However, Hamon at home is not so hard, so even a woman can handle it.

The main thing is to master cutting as thin as possible; this delicacy is not consumed in slices. And in order to prevent the cut edge from weathering, it is recommended to lubricate it with melted butter or fat.

To protect against insects, you can rub the Ham with red pepper.

When curing, Ham loses about a third of its initial weight.

The price of Spanish Jamon in Barcelona is 8 - 9 euros/kg. Serrano and 20 - 30 euros/kg. Iberics. The price of Kuban Jamon in Kuban is 999 rubles/kg, and the price of dried Goose is 2490 rubles/kg, that is, 2.5 times higher - draw your own conclusions...

Personally, I will try to master the production of both Yaroslavl Ham and dried Goose - and then I will determine what makes sense to produce for sale, and what mainly for myself.

Here are two photographs demonstrating the process of cutting Jamon:

It’s easy to make a special stand called Hamonera from wood with your own hands. To get the thinnest possible slice of Jamon, you need to use a special long narrow sharp knife and practice more often :-)) The main thing is not to gain so much weight that you have to change all your clothes!

I invite everyone to speak out in

I offer a selection of the best Russian products made to replace forbidden delicacies. How do you feel about Russian analogues of Western products prohibited by sanctions?

The idea for this post came to me yesterday. Brought me into the community pora_valit , where I had a small conversation with a friend mefed47 . He told me that oyster production, which had been considered lost forever for decades, had been re-established in Crimea. Oysters are fastidious creatures; they are very sensitive to their environment and love only clean and calm water.

And so, it turns out that very little was required to revive the oyster farm: stop dumping all sorts of rubbish into the Black Sea. I don’t think that the improvement in the environment is connected with the change in the status of Crimea. Most likely, the fact is that production has ceased to care about the environment and somehow comply with environmental standards. For example, I wrote a post about Tuapse, where only after the introduction of new hydrotreatment systems as part of modernization, the enterprises stopped polluting the sea. Can you imagine what it looked like 20 years ago? The consequences are still being eliminated by the new management, and only by 2014 the work is approaching the final stage.

There are also many production projects in Crimea and, apparently, things didn’t work out with oysters before because the shellfish were mercilessly filled with chemical waste.

Now an oyster farm has existed in the Crimean village of Katsiveli since 2005. It is located underwater on an area of ​​five hectares, three hundred meters from the shore. Only “beacon buoys” are visible on the surface. The harvest is harvested at a depth of five meters by scuba divers. This is half a million oysters and about 60-80 tons of mussels per year. Quite good results for just one farm, it will be even better in the future.

The loss of jamon caused a lot of resonance in society. I don’t know about anyone, but speaking for myself personally, I wouldn’t say that I ate it often, but that’s not the point. In Krasnodar there is a real “meat king” Takhir Kholikberdiev, who has always emphasized his love specifically for Kuban meat. The restaurateur made the delicacy at home in just 8 months and is now selling it.

But if you think about it, then To prepare jamon in Spanish you need just:

pork ham - 4-5 kg;

sea ​​salt - 3-5 times the weight of the ham;

Well, hands from the shoulders, of course.

More than the disappearance of jamon, people were made to suffer by the news about foreign cheese. Here I can understand everyone’s indignation: all Russian cheese tastes about the same and is only suitable for melting it into meat, French style, when visiting your grandmother. If you want an exquisite, subtle taste, then the choice from a Russian manufacturer tends to zero.

And they made blue cheese, including in the Kuban somewhere in the 30s of the 20th century. There are also more modern examples; the Kuban company “Kaloriya” three years ago began developing technology for making blue cheese like “Brie” and “Camembert”. But no matter how regional achievements were praised, the taste of the cheese was far from ideal.

But the monks of the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Valaam Monastery (area of ​​Lake Ladoga) will produce cheeses of brands that are subject to anti-sanctions. And I have the best expectations about this cheese: the monks took cheese-making courses in Italy and purchased equipment there. For example, Father Agapius, who runs the monastery farm, learned to make five types of cheese: mozzarella, caciotta, morlacco, smoked ricotta and white mold bianca cheese.

What examples of cooking forbidden delicacies in our country do you know?

Entrepreneur Dmitry Aksyonov - about the ideology of premium products and the positive effect of sanctions

We have been looking for a long time for an entrepreneur who would say these words: “I won’t lie, the sanctions have made a positive contribution to the development of my business. The exchange rate is also in our favor.” And so they found it. Dmitry Aksyonov, owner of the online store of meat delicacies “Vyalim Myaso”, told Biz360 about how “Russian jamon” was forged. In this story there was a place for a smokehouse, an iron casting factory, goods for handicrafts, Sportmaster, Yulmart and even the Gold Rush program on the Discovery channel.

Dmitry Aksenov, 32 years old, owner and director of the company "Let's dry the meat". Born in the town of Kolchugino, Vladimir region. Graduated from the Faculty of Mechanical Technology of Vladimir State University with a degree in Foundry Production of Ferrous and Non-Ferrous Metals. Before launching his own business, he worked in marketing, participated in the OZON, Sportmaster, and Yulmart projects. Married, daughter is two years old.

Crisis of my dreams

I come from a small town in the Vladimir region. We lived in our own house. My father always kept a large farm: cows, sheep, pigs, chickens. We dried the meat in the cellar. They smoked with hot smoke in a homemade smokehouse made from a 200-liter barrel, and with cold smoke in a bathhouse.

Smoking pigs with carcasses is an ancient method that my father inherited from his father, and he inherited from his. It happens in a bathhouse, the carcasses are hung from the ceiling, the chimney is closed, alder chips are placed in the stove, lit, and then the stove door is tightly closed and the wood chips begin to smolder. Smoking lasts from two to five days, depending on the weight of the carcass. Periodically you need to go into the bathhouse and add wood chips to the stove. The bathhouse then smells like smoked meats for a very long time.

I am a fan of meat, I believe that fangs are given to humans in order to tear pieces of meat. I sincerely don’t understand vegans, I’ll say more - I’m afraid of them. I love meat in any form. I love boiled beef with homemade horseradish, lamb shish kebab, beef stroganoff, jellied meat. I'm crazy about dry-cured sausages and salami. Well, and, of course, I really love dried meat, which I make myself.

I guess I always dreamed of living in my own home, far from the bustle of the city, like when I was a child, smoking sausage and drying meat. In any case, the first step has already been taken.

In 2014, after well-known events, Russia introduced sanctions against European products. There was a big uproar on the Internet - people were grieving that they would no longer be able to freely buy jamon and cheeses. I decided that since the market niche was empty, it meant that I could occupy it. Since I am not as strong in retail trade as I am in online commerce, I chose the appropriate distribution channel.

There is a feeling that the cheese market has turned out to be more active than the dried meat market - we constantly hear about small local productions. If you look in more detail, most local cheese dairies produce young cheeses because... It doesn’t take much time to develop the technology. Parmesan - with its ripening period of several years - no one undertakes to produce. It’s the same with meat: it’s very difficult to develop a technology when you have to wait several months for the results of an experiment.

Long road to meat

After school, I entered the regional university to study “Foundry production of ferrous and non-ferrous metals”. At the time of my admission, this was the highest paid specialty in our town. By the end of the training, the plant had half collapsed and wages had fallen. However, I don’t regret anything - it was not for nothing that the Soviet school of training engineers was considered one of the strongest in the world. The main thing is that the university taught me to think structurally and set priorities. The topic of my diploma is “Development of a plan for an iron casting workshop with a capacity of 10,000 tons of suitable products per year.” The first experience of creating your own enterprise, albeit on paper.

I was invited to the Kaliningrad region to work at an iron casting plant as a foundry shop technologist. I worked there for a year and a half, subordinate to 37 adult men, shop workers. This was my first experience of leading people - not always successful, but very useful. In 2007, I returned to Vladimir - mainly because of the low salary of an engineer. He got a job as a sales manager, selling help desk services. The experience of direct sales and communication with clients was also useful in my subsequent career.

In 2009 I moved to live in Moscow. Created and promoted electronic stores, participated in the launch of such projects as ozon.travel And sportmaster.ru. Was involved in Internet marketing: advertising, usability audit, search engine optimization, etc.

In 2010 I created a company "Aksyonov PRO", engaged in consulting in the field of e-commerce. This project still exists today. I handed it over to a team of young specialists and have a small percentage of their activities.

Internet marketing is a business with a low barrier to entry. A large number of companies have appeared that are doing this. I have moved to a higher level and am involved in project management for business development in general.

First store

I opened my first online store in Moscow. My wife gave me the idea of ​​selling handicrafts, and she also came up with the name Fadeno. The project lasted for more than a year. Since there was no start-up capital, I did everything myself. I received an order, went to the wholesaler, bought the goods and sent them to the customer.

At a certain point, I began to understand that for serious development the project needed money. I started looking for investments and got acquainted with the world of funds and business angels. It was then that I learned unit economics (calculating the economic indicators of a startup per client), financial planning and forecasting results.

Five proven tips from Dmitry Aksenov for beginners
regarding financial planning

Be sure to calculate the economics of one unit of production; it doesn’t matter whether it’s production or sales. You need to understand how much the price of this unit includes costs for raw materials, advertising, logistics, salaries, rent, loan payments, etc. This is the only way to see if your price is competitive in the market. If not, then your production is inefficient.

There are two types of business - for earning money from operating activities and for earning money from investments (selling a business). You need to clearly understand what kind of business you are building and plan your actions accordingly. Investments come in the hope of rapid growth, and earnings from business activities, as a rule, do not provide rapid growth. Competitors need to be divided according to the same principle: companies with large investment purses can work in the red for a long time, capturing the market. Trying to compete with them on price means ruining your business.

In business, like nowhere else, the rule “for one beaten, they give two unbeaten” works. It’s rare that someone manages to open a cool business on the first try. You need to gain experience and regard each attempt as a step towards the top.

No two companies are the same. You can’t look at your competitors and try to make everything a carbon copy, like theirs. They are already on the market, they have a brand, customer loyalty. If you don't offer something new, it's not worth starting.

Don’t be fooled by the low barrier to entry into business. The low threshold market is the most difficult because the competition here is very high. The threshold for entry refers not only to the start-up capital, but also to your competencies: if you do something better than others, go for it.

Having digested the information received, I realized that with a product such as handicraft goods - or, more precisely, its low margin - with an increase in turnover there will be no increase in profit. Related expenses will eat up all the revenue.

The majority of stores in this segment are very small retail outlets with a turnover of up to 200 thousand rubles per month. Major players have their own developed retail networks. The main turnover is made up of embroidery kits: the wholesale price is 1–2 thousand rubles, a markup of 50%, which is approximately equal to the costs of advertising and delivery.

Fadeno opened in 2012 and closed in 2014. I entered this business with virtually no investment, and left without profit. A zero return was submitted to the tax office. The project was closed. I had a good experience.

Moving to St. Petersburg

The next point on my life’s path was St. Petersburg, where I took a good position as marketing director in the company Topbrands. The company specialized in high fashion. Thanks to her, I understood what a product should be like for a premium buyer.

The premium segment is working with a sophisticated client. Unlike the mass market, you cannot compete here on price; the main tools are quality of service and a “beautiful story.” When purchasing a premium product, the client wants to first satisfy his emotional needs. For example, sausage should not just be tasty. Premium sausage is a guarantee of high quality, exclusiveness, service and limited edition. This is how the client feels chosen.

For example, if a client does not like the quality of the product, I guarantee a refund - we write about this on the website. This has never happened before. But I think it gives clients confidence.

From Topbrands I left at the height of the crisis and sanctions. The owners and I had different views on how to act and develop in difficult times. In general, it was a mutual decision.

Finally, about meat

So, in 2014, people realized that they were deprived of jamon and cheeses. Personally, the lack of European products did not affect me much. I quickly found a replacement for them. Russian producers make very tasty cheeses - I, for example, like them farm-cheese factory "Village". I decided to make meat products myself.

There is a feeling that the cheese market has turned out to be more active than the market for deli meats - here and there we hear about small local cheese factories. But look carefully: most of them produce young cheeses, since it doesn’t take much time to perfect the technology. Nobody is in a hurry to produce Parmesan, with its ripening period of several years. It’s the same with meat: it’s very difficult to develop technology when you have to wait several months for the result of an experiment.

After the introduction of sanctions, we have almost no dried meat “like in Europe”. In Russia, they traditionally dried venison, horse meat, and hunting products, rather than pork and beef.

Dried meat is a ready-to-eat product without heat treatment. Excess moisture is removed during the process of ripening meat in the fresh air. The ripening time depends on many factors; the process can take from one month to several years.

Now we produce several types of products with a so-called short aging period (from 30 days) - this is lump dry-cured meat. Unlike jamon and prosciutto, where the whole ham is used, we dry pieces weighing 2-3 kilograms. The reason is time: the drying period for a ham is a year.

Dried meat is a long-term storage product. I can’t reveal all the secrets, but thanks to the salting technology, it has a characteristic taste and does not spoil for a long time (4 months in a vacuum). The most important thing here is not to over-salt the meat. We do not use artificial ingredients: only natural salt and natural spices. The technology allows them to be absorbed into the product, retaining the required amount of moisture. Simply put, our meat is moderately salted, moderately soft, moderately tender and moderately dried.

Quality in this business is not just empty words. The end customer of our products is, first and foremost, a gourmet. A non-poor person who seeks variety in his diet.

Of course, we have competitors - this is the market. The winner will be the one who provides the maximum number of advantages: product quality, level of service. We set ourselves the goal of meeting the level of the best European manufacturers. They say: jamon. But jamon is a very broad concept. There are a huge number of jamon producers in Spain, and the quality of this meat varies greatly. The same applies to prosciutto in Italy.

Surveillance pipe

The “Valim Meat” project started in November 2014. I was creating an online store and at the same time writing a business concept. The name and logo are also my work. I had no comrades. I’ll say more - none of my friends believed in this idea at first: food production is associated with a large number of bureaucratic obstacles, and the demand for this type of product was questioned.

For food production in Russia you need:

Documents giving the right to engage in entrepreneurial activity (an individual entrepreneur is sufficient);

Declaration of conformity with the requirements of the technical regulations of the Customs Union (TR CU);

STO – organization standard: a document regulating the entire production cycle;

Veterinary certificates - for selling products in stores and restaurants;

Production certificate from Rospotrebnadzor.

Rumors about bureaucratic obstacles were approximately true. It is very difficult to collect the entire list of documents needed to start a meat shop, and it is especially difficult to cope with the greed of veterinarians.

Food production in Russia is controlled by several departments at once - the Ministry of Agriculture, Rospotrebnadzor, Veterinary Supervision. Each of them makes its own amendments to laws, issues clarifications and letters that can easily contradict each other. For example, the veterinary station is trying to impose its veterinarian on our staff, although according to the basic law we are not obliged to do this.

Enterprise economy

The initial capital of the enterprise was 800 thousand rubles from my personal savings. This money was used to rent the premises (40 thousand per month), prepare it to meet the requirements of Rospotrebnadzor (180 thousand rubles), purchase equipment (refrigerators, tables, shelving, packaging equipment - only 400 thousand rubles).

In the end, we still didn’t have enough money, so we worked with our first wholesale clients on an advance payment and pre-order basis: we received payment for a batch of goods, manufactured them, and only then shipped them.

I rented space for a workshop in the village of Enkolovo, Leningrad region. More precisely, in a former general store. There was even an idea to work in a traditional hut, but officials did not allow it. Enkolovo is well located: relatively far from busy highways and large industries, while only 34 km from St. Petersburg.

Up to 70% of the production cost comes from the cost of raw materials (meat loses 40% of its original weight during the cooking process). 30% is logistics, salaries and social payments, salt, spices, depreciation of equipment, taxes (we use the simplified tax system).

We deliver orders to wholesalers at our own expense. Retail buyers formally pay for EMS services of Russian Post - 300 rubles. In fact, the minimum cost of EMS delivery is 450 rubles from St. Petersburg to Moscow, and more expensive to other cities. These 300 rubles are more likely a confirmation of the seriousness of the buyer’s intentions. We will now introduce online payment and delivery will be free.

To understand: the cost of preparing a kilogram of dry-cured beef is about 1000 rubles, the retail price is 2200.

Retail prices for Vyalim Myaso products

Dried pork “Like Jamon” - 900 rubles per 0.5 kg.

Dried beef “Fillet Mignon” - 1200 rubles per 0.5 kg.

Dried pork ham - 2300 rubles per 0.5 kg.

Salchichon (dry-cured sausage) - 1300 rubles per 0.5 kg.

We sell about half a ton of finished products per month. Initially, when calculating the concept, I imagined the balance of sales: 40% - stores, 40% - HoReCa (restaurants, catering), 20% - retail. Today, orders from retail customers account for 10% of the total, the rest is B2B. The majority of sales (up to 90%) come from Kak Jamon pork jerky and Filet Mignon beef jerky. These are our main products, we promote them.

Products are sold to shops and restaurants 20-50% cheaper than the retail price. How accurate depends on many factors: terms of payment, volume of purchases, willingness to wait for an order for several weeks. In addition, dry-cured pork neck (Coppa) is today available only to wholesalers (900 rubles/kg).

We have not yet reached self-sufficiency; all profits are invested in development. We continue to purchase equipment - we need a more productive vacuum packer and slicing machine. The packaging needs to be updated. I really need my own transport - I’m just calculating the leasing costs for it.

Theoretically, we can produce 1.5–2 tons of products per month, but we don’t - there is no working capital for such production volumes.

Farmers without acorns

My meat suppliers are farms from the Vladimir and Voronezh regions. I met them a long time ago, even before I started doing this business. I don’t personally go to select products - I make a request for certain parts of the carcass, if the farmer is ready to supply the required volume, we take it.

At the same time, I am looking for new suppliers so as not to be dependent. There is an opinion that there is little good - environmentally friendly - meat in the Leningrad region. This is a question of psychology - something else always seems better, in other areas the air is cleaner and the grass is greener.

There is enough quality meat in Russia; another issue is that farms are not ready to provide a decent level of service. For example, I only need certain parts of carcasses, but farmers offer to take away whole carcasses, it’s more convenient for them.

Not all meat is suitable for drying. The moisture content should not be too high, otherwise the meat will dry out more. Grain-fed beef is better suited than beef raised on mixed feed. Pork carbonate must have certain proportions in terms of the thickness of the fat layer and meat. In our latitudes you won’t find pigs fed on acorns, so farmers achieve similar results using domestic raw materials - beets, apples, grain.

Sea salt is brought to us from Finland in 50 kg bags. Cost - 35 rubles. per kg. We use Russian-made spices. These are mainly paprika, dried garlic, ground black pepper, thyme, rosemary and juniper berries.

Factors of influence

A distinctive feature of our business is that the production cycle takes at least 30 days. This is the period required for the meat to mature. During periods of high demand - such as before the New Year - we ask customers to wait. The most loyal customers place an order in advance and receive good bonuses for this.

From experience in the premium segment, I realized that it is impossible to force a client to purchase additional options and make money on it. You cannot announce the price of a product and then say: “This is per kilogram of pork, which we will deliver in two weeks, provided that you pay for the order today.”

We set the maximum price for the product - and the client receives the best conditions. But if he wants it cheaper, then we can delay delivery for two weeks (10% discount), we can ask for an advance payment (another 10% discount), and so on.

I rethought many things in relationships with clients thanks to the advice of such a “whale of business” as Dmitry Kostygin (co-owner of Yulmart, Rive Gauche, Rainbow Smiles and other companies - editor's note). He periodically gives lectures for employees of his companies - we met at one of them. The main thesis is that a loyalty program should not be a one-sided instrument; it is, first of all, an agreement on the terms of cooperation. That is, the client should not receive a discount for simply being a client. It is necessary to agree with the client that he can receive special conditions of purchase only in response to certain actions on his part.

In addition, there is seasonality in our business - in the summer, clients move out of town, and, therefore, we need to negotiate with stores in their area. For example, there is a holiday village, and in it there is a farm produce store. In winter, there is no demand for our meat in this store; it appears with the arrival of the summer season. And vice versa, there is a store in a respectable area with which we cooperate - with the onset of the summer season, demand drops sharply as customers move out of town.

Thoughts about the future

At the very beginning I was inspired by the idea. I didn’t doubt for a second that as soon as I launched the site, trading would immediately begin. In addition to rose-colored glasses, there was incorrect planning: I simply didn’t have enough money for advertising and important little things like packaging design. There wasn’t enough money for the packaging itself either. Printing houses produce individual packaging only in large quantities, and this is expensive.

In the absence of a budget, we advertised only on Facebook - the effect of it remained unclear. We look for clients for B2B personally - we contact shops and restaurants, we offer our products. Alas, we cannot work with the largest clients yet, since we are not able to provide the required volumes of products.

The project needs to be developed, and I see two ways. The first is slow development without attracting third-party capital. The problem with this development is that we cannot start working with the largest wholesalers right now. The second is attracting investment and accelerated development, rapid market development, and access to retail chains. Naturally, the second method is preferable.

I repeat, the main difficulty is the production cycle. We cannot quickly meet growing demand. In order to always have large stocks of finished products, we do not have enough working capital. To reach a turnover capable of satisfying demand, we need investments in the region of 5 million rubles. In general, I am ready to give 40% of the business to potential partners.

...I am very motivated by the books of Isaac Adizes and the series of programs “Gold Rush” on the Discovery Channel. When you see how people work in Alaska, you understand that your problems are not such problems compared to the situation when the wheel of the only tractor fell off, and the nearest populated area is 500 kilometers away.

As for the assortment, this year we are going to expand the product line with traditional prosciutto and bresaola (ripening period is about a year). In addition, we are preparing to release a new type of product - it is still unnamed - salted in a red wine-based marinade. My long-term plans include building my own smokehouse.

I won’t lie, sanctions have made a positive contribution to business development. The exchange rate is also in our favor. Rather, competitors who carry the so-called “sanctions” depend on it. Russian meat is not getting much more expensive. But even if sanctions are lifted tomorrow and oil recovers its fall, our prices will still be much lower than in Europe. We will not diversify our business, but expand it, improving quality.

Kublog went to the Krasnodar Tabris supermarket to buy real Spanish jamon (cured pork ham). About what kind of jamon was found on the shelves of Tabris - photo report Boris Maltsev. A story about how the main Spanish delicacy is made Juana Carlos A.

In Russia, jamon is a fairly expensive product, and its consumption is not a tradition (we are increasingly specializing in lard). However, in Spain, jamon is one of the main characters of the national menu.

Juan Carlos Escudero told Kublog what to look for when buying jamon:

“A whole leg of ham is shrouded in fat. When you start slicing, this layer of fat must be removed.
If there are a lot of requests for cutting and it happens continuously, then everything is fine with the jamon. When no one cuts the jamon for 30 minutes, the fat that was cut off from above must be put back in place so that the jamon does not dry out. When the next client arrives, the fat is skimmed off and the fresh jamon is cut again.

It is imperative to cut off the fat that is located on the left and right sides of the ham, because it gives the jamon weight. But this is not jamon, but fat. The client is not allowed to weigh it.

In Tabris, where jamon is sold, it must also be covered with a “lid”. But all the jamon that I saw in Tabris was dried out. The customer who buys it is not eating real jamon, he is eating dry jamon. In addition, it is a very salty jamon, because when the meat dries out, it becomes saltier.
The next customer either must arrive 10 minutes after the first, or he will receive dry jamon. Conclusion: all Tabris customers buy dry and over-salted jamon.

In general, the hams themselves in Tabris are good, but very expensive. If we talk about the price, then this is one in six compared to the Spanish price, and maybe even more.

Boris Maltsev, who went to photograph the jamon at the Tabris supermarket in Krasnodar, spoke about how this happened:

“I visited two supermarkets: Tabris on Stavropolskaya-213 and Tabris on Stavropolskaya-222. The first of them indicates the price per 100 grams, the second - per kilogram.

In the store on Stavropolskaya-213 (formerly the Volna store), they refused to cut my jamon, they said, buy something that has already been cut before. I left.

In “Tabris”, which is located in the area of ​​the University, they kindly agreed to film it, but when I started taking photographs, a quite friendly security guard came and tried quite kindly to prohibit filming. But we kindly agreed not to bully.

The jamon had the fat cut off on the sides (that is, the excess was not weighed), but it was actually stored without film and was not covered with a special “lid” of fat. The meat on top is really dry and a different color than what's inside."

Continuation of the story of Juan Carlos Escudero - about how jamon was prepared in the old days and how it is done today:

“Jamon is a tradition that was born in Spanish villages and villages, where they practiced farming and grew something in the fields. In order to cope with hard work, people need energy food. That was her jamon.

The pig was raised for a year to a year and a half, then slaughtered. To prevent meat from going to waste, they looked for a way to preserve it.

In September-October the pig was salted. When winter began, the leg was hung out to dry. Before this, it was necessary to bleed this piece. Chorizo ​​and other dishes were made from the blood (when a pig is killed, nothing is wasted, everything is completely used).

And now winter has passed, spring begins, temperatures change. Let's say, in Teruel in winter it is very cold and dry, the temperature drops to -20 C. Accordingly, jamon is very well preserved during this period. Then spring begins, it becomes warmer, but the jamon has already lost a lot of water and dried out. Summer begins with intense heat. In order for the jamon to be preserved, it is coated with oil or fat, and it will be ready for consumption in October, when a new pig is slaughtered and the next batch is made.

This is what our grandmothers did.

Now the same thing is being done industrially. Depending on the weight of the leg of jamon, it is kept longer or shorter in salt, then it is transferred from one chamber to another, maintaining the temperature and humidity corresponding to a particular season.

The Chinese really like jamon. They copy us, but do not know the subtleties and technologies. They make it over-salted because temperature, humidity and holding time are very important.

The grandmothers knew this so well that if it was too cold in winter, they brought the jamon into the room. If it was too dry, cover it with a blanket to prevent excess moisture from evaporating.

There are two main types of ham - Serrano (white pig, ham has a white hoof) and the more expensive Ibérico ham (black pig, ham has a black hoof), also called “pata negra” - “black paw”.
Ibérico comes in recebo (pigs fed plant food and acorns) and beyota (pigs fed an exclusively acorn diet).

Jamon is also divided by location (like wine). For example, the famous Teruel jamon (which is not yet in Russia, but we will bring it) is also made from a white pig, but it is a mixture of two breeds - langrass and duroc. In the line of hams, it is in the middle between Serrano and Iberico. The difference is that it has a certain status according to its place of origin and the aging period is longer.”

Bon Appetit everyone!

Reference:
Juan Carlos Escudero Regidor is a Spanish marketer and entrepreneur, organizer of the first International seminar and salon-workshop “Spanish stars” (“Spanish stars”), which will be held in Krasnodar from November 4 to 10, 2013.

Juan Carlos is the owner and manager of the marketing company MacArt Publicidad S.L. (www.macart-publicidad.com), he now works in close collaboration with Diluvia S.L. (www.diluvia.es). Juan Carlos is also a co-owner of the company AZU NEVEX 2009 S.L., specializing in the sale of real estate, and a co-owner of the company EDE S.L., which exports Spanish delicacies.