Expert Ham Sniffers in Spain Are Exhausted from Sniffing 800 Hams a Day

Authored by thrillist.com and submitted by ShundosAreCool

The Wall Street Journal has delivered the most delightful slice of news you're likely to see this week. Cinco Jotas, a 142-year old company in Spain, has a team of expert ham sniffers—and they are exhausted. The company specializes in traditional production methods of acorn-fed Iberian ham, and part of its quality-control methods is having trained workers smell the product before it can be sold.

The process is simple on its face: Poke the meat, take a sniff, determine if the meat is up to muster by seeking out specific scents that will indicate whether the ham meets the quality expectations of Cinco Jotas.

Obviously, it's a much more precise ordeal, especially because the whole evaluation is happening at warp speed. One sniffer (called a calador in Spanish) works year-round by himself, smelling around 200 hams a day. During the holiday season, however, he's sniffing 800 hams each day, alongside five seasonal sniffers. With each ham getting four sniffs, that is a total of 3,200 sniffs per day.

Manuel Vega Domínguez, who has been doing quality control since 1998, told WSJ that all this inhaling is putting him "at the limit of human possibility." Still, Domínguez is not dissuaded. If duty calls, he's willing to try and get some more hams in.

"I will find a way to sniff 801," he told WSJ. "Perhaps 802 is possible."

The company posted a video of the ham sniffing process to its Facebook page back in September. Watch below to get a behind-the-scenes look at what might be one of the most unique jobs in the world.

amazingbollweevil on December 23rd, 2021 at 02:06 UTC »

That's 100 hams every hour. That's more than one ham per minute. Stab the ham, inhale what comes out, make a note of some sort, and move on to the next ham. Do they have to sniff coffee beans occasionally?

HarryBotter1138 on December 23rd, 2021 at 00:52 UTC »

I like how he talks about min maxing his ham sniffing ""I will find a way to sniff 801," he told WSJ. "Perhaps 802 is possible."".

drafter69 on December 22nd, 2021 at 23:28 UTC »

Interesting career. I have never heard of a "ham sniffer" before