Herb Eckhouse and his wife Kathy are making people test their loyalty. Is it possible to have prosciutto not from Italy that is better than the original from Parma? Without having tried the prosciutto from Iowa, where Herb and Kathy have their cured meat business, I’d say sure. It’s a process and anyone can do it with the right knowledge and desire. The real question is whether food snobs will take kindly to being told they’re spending too much to import the authentic stuff.
Herb and his wife spent four years studying the art of making prosciutto according to an article in the New York Times. Heck, Jeffrey Steingarten has stated it’s the best prosciutto he’s tasted. Ever. This is the man who wrote a book titled The Man Who Ate Everything. That sounds like a serious claim to me, plus Steingarten knows his food quite well.
The couple call their company La Quercia, and their products are available at Whole Foods, and in the kitchens of many chefs across America. I can’t speak to the quality of the product, but in a time when so many food enthusiasts are touting the local market it would seem prudent to at least give an American prosciutto a chance. After all the U.S. is home to some of the best wine in the world, along with some very fine artisanal cheeses. NYC long ago took over as the food capital of the world, who’s to say that Iowa won’t become the new cured meat capital in the years to come?
