A Portuguese Shop in Newark Sells Some of the Country’s Most Luxurious Hams

On a recent weekday morning, Don Rodrigo Duarte and his wife, Maria Duarte, hopped into their car in Newark’s Ironbound, fastened their seatbelts, and departed from the familiar sounds of car horns. The destination? A vast, serene farm in Wantage Township, New Jersey, where they swap city chatter with the rustling of the most expensive and highly acclaimed purebred Iberico pigs from Portugal — Alentejanos.

The son of Portuguese pig farmers, Duarte, who emigrated from his homeland in 2002, is a trailblazer. He became one of the first people to raise and breed Iberico pigs from Portugal, specifically Alentejanos, in the U.S.

“We were the pioneers,” says the 44-year-old owner and butcher at Caseiro e Bom Gourmet House (70 Pacific Street, at Nichols Street) in Newark. “It’s a great feeling; but also, it’s a great responsibility.”

His shop has been open since 2006 in a neighborhood that since the 1920s has been a Portuguese enclave with shops, markets, and longtime restaurants established by those who settled in the neighborhood. Caseiro e Bom came about because Duarte, who worked with meats around Newark, missed the pork dishes of his homeland: Iberico presa or secretos; the pork blood-based sarrabulho; leitão da bairrada, roast suckling pig; and meats cured in a Portuguese style.

Cedric George, a frequent visitor to Duarte’s shop, is drawn primarily to the location and selection of organic products, which he considers a major selling point. He said he feels a sense of nostalgia in the store’s layout, and enjoys the camaraderie with the Portuguese community, even taking the time to learn the language.

“Everything here is new to me,” George said. “Since I’ve started coming here, I tend to sample all the different meats he puts out.”

At first, bringing in Iberico flavors from Portugal took a lot of work for Duarte, partly due to restrictions on Spanish and Portuguese ham that had been in place since 1976 following a European outbreak of African swine fever.

By 2017, Spanish Iberico pork had been cleared, but ham from Portugal had not. (José Andrés helped bring Spanish jamón to the U.S. around 15 years ago — which can be made from different breeds — working with producer Embutidos Fermín and fine foods importer Rogers Collection.)

Duarte’s workaround, with the green light from the U.S. and Portuguese governments, was to bring over pig semen from a lab in Alentejo to raise hybrid Iberico-Duroc pigs, Edible Jersey reported, caring for them in the same way they’re fed and raised in his homeland. His herd slowly changed as he transitioned to purebreds, bringing 10 Portuguese Alentejano pigs to the States that had to be quarantined for 120 days.

Sought after by food enthusiasts worldwide for their unique characteristics, Ibérico pigs are native to the Iberian Peninsula. Their flavors are slightly different from Spanish-raised pigs in terms of their diet and upbringing — and they’d capture the attention of any food connoisseur. But, Duarte says, it’s a five-year process to perfect the renowned rich and savory flavors, which help the ham sell for a whopping $499 per pound. (Other items like sausages and cured meats are less expensive.)

“It’s not easy; you can’t rush it,” Duarte, who started his butchering when he was eight years old, explains. “You have to put in love and passion.”

With two farms totaling 300 acres, he has plenty of land to go around, as, by his estimate, 2,700 pigs are set to roam the area this summer.

He points to the changes in agriculture and the effects of big business on raising animals. “Nowadays, people just infuse a lot of chemicals into food, and we don’t do any of that,” he says.

The hogs’ diet consists of a unique blend of wild acorns, grass, and natural herbs. It helps contribute to the distinctive marbling of the ham (“presunto” in Portuguese) and is essential to achieve the coveted sweet, nutty, and buttery flavor. Perfecting the taste and consistency is a process that spans from 16 to 24 months (compared to six to nine months for American hams). Duarte says that the timeline allows the hogs to humanely reach a weight between 380 and 400 pounds. Then, they head to processing.

“Before COVID-19, we had a huge setback because we didn’t have a place to slaughter our hogs,” Duarte says. In response, he purchased a processing facility nearby two years ago.

COVID affected the business in other ways. Inflation remains a major concern for small business owners, with 21 percent of owners reporting it as their single most important problem, according to the NFIB Small Business Optimism Index.

“Inflation is brutal,” Duarte says. “We try not to increase the prices because we live in a neighborhood of immigrants and it’s our duty to be fair with them as the community was fair with us when we first arrived.”

Back at the shop, Duarte explains the traditional Portuguese curing techniques, which include salting, resting, and using wine and natural ingredients from their farm. Then, the meats are hung in carefully controlled environments, spanning several years. Duarte points to one particular leg that has been aging since 2021.

Patrons witness the culmination of a five-year process as dozens of Alentejano legs dangle from hooks in the specialty market. Beneath them, an additional batch of nearly a hundred presunto, ranging from 16 to 18 pounds, undergoes that traditional aging process.

The smell of ham permeates every inch of Caseiro e Bom. In addition to the cured meats, others are available: Portuguese chorizo and blood sausage, along with lamb, goat, and rabbit. Duarte’s wife, Maria, who also emigrated from Portugal, says hundreds of locals and visitors stroll in weekly, heading straight to the back, ready to purchase the antibiotic-free, corn-free, and pasture-raised products, from cured selections to meat by the pound, sausages, and other products.

Duarte has expanded his reputation as the “King of Hams” across New Jersey and nationwide. His products have gained popularity at Portugalia Marketplace in Massachusetts, Central Market in Texas, and the Old Lisbon Restaurant in Miami, Florida. His products are also sold throughout Newark and featured in nearly ten establishments, including Portuguese restaurants like Sol-Mar, Allegro, and Primabel. He is also in negotiations to export meats to Japan.

As customers trickle in, drawn by this Newark legend, they surely cannot miss the sight of Duarte’s pink throne, a gift from a friend after Duarte was dubbed the “King of Hams.” Dangling right above the king’s throne is one of Duarte’s first cured and aged Alentejano hams, which reminds him of a decade of work and negotiations with the U.S. and Portuguese governments that led him to reach his goal of bringing these pigs to America.

“You give me a million dollars; I will not sell it to you,” he jokingly says. “No one believed in it. Everyone said it would never be possible to achieve this project.”