I need to cut here while you lift the rear leg. Then the membrane remains where it is and helps to hold the meat later in the process.

Butcher Munch from Skagen is dishing out instructions. He is paying a visit to Danish Crown in Esbjerg, and passing on useful advice to another butcher, Poul Erik Lindsted.

I keep my ears open when it’s a master butcher who’s speaking. And then it’s good with the direct contact so we cover all the details, says Poul Erik Lindsted, who is part of the team that debones the 87 hams which are sent to Skagen every week.

Started from scratch
Jens Munch started experimenting with hams back in the mid-1990s. Today his Skagen hams are acknowledged as a Danish speciality.

We started off with nothing, and we hardly knew anything. So I went on a study trip to Italy to learn something about the craft. I travelled around and tasted and absorbed knowledge, recalls Jens Munch.

87 hams a week
In 2001, Jens Munch started buying whole hams from Danish Crown, and since 2007 he has bought them deboned. They are all carefully selected and marked with a large X. In the cold store they hang side by side with extra space around them to ensure optimum cooling.

The hams go through a long, 14-month process, and we have them in our hands as many as 25 times. We start with the world’s best meat, and possibly end up with one of the world’s best hams, says Jens Munch with a twinkle in his eye.