The recipe for this most economical of dishes was given to me by Louise Aymar of Mourjou, who, when she still raised a pig each year for family consumption, made the finest home-cured raw ham I have ever tasted. Lovingly manufactured from a mature pig of 250—300 kilos, it came in huge slices too long to fit on to a dinner plate, so each slice had to be cut up into sections. Even when thickly cut (in the Auvergnat tradition), it was as soft and as tender as Parma ham, and had a subtly aromat