If you though that prosciutto could not be rented, you were wrong.
It is of perfect shape, weight, with a nice matte crust, rounded exactly how it should be. The colours are all shades of dark brown and ashen, obtained by smoking in the best possible conditions, reports Poslovni.hr on September 2, 2016.
“This prosciutto ham goes only to chosen customers. Right now, in addition to a few in my tavern here, there are only about a hundred pieces hanging from the ceilings of various Croatian restaurants. I choose locations very carefully, I admit, because this is a special product prepared from the best ingredients, a combination of quality wood and carefully selected building materials”, says Siniša Tudor, the owner of the Nono tavern on the island of Krk.
Tudor is a modern inventor who wanted to find a solution for a problem they can plague real prosciutto hams. Therefore, he made an artificial ham replica. He is a man who loves the real version of this delicacy, and even more enjoys cutting it in front of guests in his tavern. However, the problem with real prosciutto hams which often hang from the ceilings is that they eventually begin to oxidize, lose weight, and attract flies. Since he is a perfectionist, he decided to try an experiment.
“This ham is completely inedible, as I said, since it is built of wood and various building materials. It is prepared in a silicone mould. It was designed to look absolutely real, since the artificial prosciutto ham must be the same as the real one. If the real ham weights 6.3 kilograms, then its wooden version must be the same. We first fill the mould, than we let it dry and colour it with industrial colours. And then it goes to a smoking facility since it must have the same perfect scent. From start to finish of the process, from making a mould to the time when it is ready to be hoisted in a tavern, about three months have to pass. There is no connoisseur who could spot the difference. People realize it is not a real ham only when they touch it”, says Tudor.
His customers are owners of restaurants and taverns who like to have prosciutto hams hoisted from the ceilings, but do not like all the problems that real hams can bring. He does not sell his artificial prosciutto hams, but only rents them, for just 10 kuna a month, plus the VAT of course.
