A few months ago in an attempt to solve the mystery behind why there are so many legs of ham everywhere in Spain and yet there are so few visible pigs, I revealed what may be a massive Jamón Conspiracy (see also, Parts II and III). And Last night while driving around in circles looking for parking with my friends Cobra and Berga, I discovered that there just might be a fourth explanation. Everytime I go into a bar or a supermarket, and I see severed, cured pig legs, I start doing the math. For every 4 legs (two paletillas and two jamones), you are missing one big pig. And as Cobra, Berga, and I were driving around, we kept passing small bars that were packed like sardines with legs of ham hanging everywhere. Then, it finally occurred to me why there were so many pig legs and yet no pigs in sight. If they didn’t cut off the legs and just left the entire pig, then there wouldn’t be any room in these tiny bars for all of the customers. Of course, that’s why they cut the legs off. They desperately need the space. It’s a resource issue. Just imagine going into a bar for tapas and it is full of huge Iberian pigs hanging from the ceiling. The only solution they could reasonably come up with was to discard everything but the front and hind legs. Sacrifice the bodies for greater leg room. Nevertheless, this doesn’t explain where the rest of the pig is hiding.
Grave Error 