I wanted to use this year's summer holiday to visit some of maître philippe's most important suppliers. One of them was the Mayté company, from the French Basque Country, from whom we source Bayonner ham, chorizo, and some salami specialties.
So one morning we drove into the Pyrenees. The mountains grew higher and more imposing, and mist hung stubbornly on the densely wooded slopes. Just after Saint-Jean-Pied-De-Port, a little town that was unexpectedly overrun with tourists – it is the last stop on French soil on the Way of St. James to Santiago de Compostela – we arrived in the much more tranquil village of Saint-Jean-Le-Vieux, where Mayté has its production facility and one of its shops.
We entered the shop, a very small shop of no more than 20 m². One side is taken up by a refrigerated display case, in which the cured meats are presented attractively and appetizingly, on the other side of the room are shelves with preserves and Weck jars.
Éric Mayté quickly came forward to greet us personally. He introduced us to his wife Sylvie, who takes care of the organizational part of the company. Immediately after, he proudly presented us with the newest addition to the family, their third child, a little daughter who was born a month ago.
Then he told us the story of the Mayté family, which is now run by him and his wife in its fifth generation. The company was founded in 1884, in this very house where it is still based. The first two generations were more butchers, produced a few Basque meat specialties, and otherwise lived off the travelers who stayed overnight in their house and ate in the small in-house restaurant. Éric led us next door, into a large room with a high ceiling and dark wooden beams. The room opens to the side through a huge wooden gate. Through this gate, horse carriages used to drive in, so that the travelers could safely disembark and go directly to the sleeping rooms above. Only a few years ago they carefully renovated this room, laid a beautiful tiled floor, and set up some old wooden cabinets to display their products. This room now serves as a reception and tasting room for visitors.
During World War II, business stagnated a bit, but afterwards, with the new methods of preservation (canning, etc.), completely new opportunities opened up for the company to distribute its products. They closed the guesthouse and restaurant and from then on focused on the production of ham and cured meats.
We enjoyed a VIP tour of the entire production facility. Éric showed us everything, from the delivery of goods to the cold rooms, in which large pieces of meat hang, to the production rooms. The meat for their products comes exclusively from the region, from four small towns right near Saint-Jean-Le-Vieux. Mayté buys the animals "sur pied", i.e., he goes to the breeder and selects the animals he wants to have. They are slaughtered by a selected butcher 6 km away. They receive many of the animals whole and butcher them themselves on site, only for the ham production do they buy individual forequarters. Otherwise, they try to fully utilize the whole animal as far as possible.
At Mayté, manual work is still highly valued and 100% practiced. Mayté proudly showed us his salami curing rooms, in which the raw sausages are stored for several days at relatively high temperatures and high humidity. Within these few days, the white Penicillium mold forms on the salami, which gives flavor, but above all also increases the shelf life of the product, as it prevents the formation of other (harmful) types of mold. After this process, the sausages are hung in classic cold rooms, where they dry and the mold formation is further promoted.
Now to the ham production: The Mayté family produces four different types of ham. The Jambon Ibaïona, the Jambon Terroir, the Jambon Sauveur, and the Bayonner ham, which can also be bought at maître philippe.
The Bayonner ham is, like all other hams, first rubbed by hand with a special reddish salt and spice mixture. Then it is stored in cold rooms, where the salt slowly melts and penetrates up to a certain depth into the hams. After a while, the ham is freed from the salt and hung in a special chamber. A fairly complex curing process begins, in which moisture is alternately removed or added, and the temperature in the chamber is increased or lowered accordingly. But the ham always maintains its core temperature of 3.5°C during all this time. In this way, the ham dries without drying out, and the salt penetrates from the outer layers of the ham to the absolute interior. When the salt has completely penetrated the ham, the ham is preserved enough that nothing else can happen. The ham is then wrapped in fine cloth bags to protect it from insects and dried in the open air at room temperature. Depending on the season, this takes 10 to 12 months.
In addition to ham and salami, the Maytés also produce chorizo, various pâtés, and preserves with typical dishes from the region. Éric is a trained chef and attended a state charcuterie school for three years. The recipes they cook by at home are all traditional recipes, which Éric tastes and adapts if necessary together with three chefs who work for him. There is a lively exchange of ideas in the company.
Éric Mayté took a lot of time for us. A friendly and relaxed atmosphere prevailed throughout the house. During our visit, the two older children came home and excitedly told their father about school. It was the first day of school after the holidays. Éric listened attentively to his children, while we tasted some products, and then he turned back to us and we continued the conversation. At the end of our visit, we jokingly threw out the question of which of his three children would one day take over the company. Éric laughed and said that we would see. But to run such a company, you would need a good portion of passion for the job!
After the visit to Mayté, we decided to look around a little further in the area and drove to some of the well-known typical Basque villages. The village of Espelette is world-famous for its pepper, the Piment d’Espelette, which is grown in the region and is an AOC product (Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée = protected designation of origin). In autumn, the facades of the pretty Basque houses turn completely red when long rows of pepper pods are hung on the walls to dry.
