Porkies ham it up for week-long celebration

Australian Ham Week is on again (21–28 October) aimed at showcasing the finest home-grown hams from all over the nation.

Although fresh pork can not be imported into Australia, processed pork can. In fact nearly $10 million worth ($9.1m) of imported pork arrives in Australia every week meaning some 65–70 per cent of the smallgoods consumed in Australia is made from imported pork.

According to Australian Pork Limited consumer research shows that 95 per cent of Australians prefer to buy Australian grown food and the bright pink PorkMark label that appears on Australian made ham is helping diffuse any confusion on the products origin.

To mark the significance of Australian Ham Week the Australian PorkMark Ham Awards for Excellence went in search of Australia’s best ham for 2012. This year 146 entries were received from ham producers using 100 per cent Australian pork.

The competition was open to all butchers and smallgoods processors that make their ham from Australian grown pork, and were awarded in two categories: Traditional Bone-In Leg (all bone-in ham has to use 100 per cent Australian pork by law) and Boneless; and judged against key criteria which included appearance, texture, aroma and most importantly taste.

The Australian PorkMark Ham Awards for Excellence winners include:

Overall winner
John Bartlett, Wattle City Meats, Maryborough Vic

Traditional bone-in ham
1.   John Bartlett, Wattle City Meats, Maryborough Vic
2.   Andrew Vou rvahakis, Andrew’s Choice Smokehouse, Laverton Nth Vic
3.   Cameron Fenson, Meatways Butchery, Kambah ACT

Boneless ham
1.   Andrew Vou rvahakis, Andrew’s Choice Smokehouse, Laverton Nth Vic
2.   John Bartlett, Wattle City Meats, Maryborough Vic
3.   Richard Deignan, Black Forest Smokehouse, Marrickville NSW

Source: Foodservice, 22 October 2012