• Adam Liaw's very Aussie Christmas ham recipe

The winner of this year's Good Food ham taste test is not the city's most expensive porker per kilo.

Toorak butcher Peter Bouchier's premium offering came up trumps, its rare-breed Berkshire pork priced at $39.90 per kilo, with a full 6kg ham costing $239.40.

Supernormal, Ricky and Pinky, Cutler and Co. and Cumulus Inc. restaurateur Andrew McConnell's boutique Smith Street butchery took out the taste test title. Meatsmith butcher Troy Wheeler said they had fielded more than 2000 order requests, and prepared more than 1000 hams, with a typical ham weighing around 6kg and retailing at $34 per kilogram ($204). "It took us by surprise," Wheeler said.

Gary's Quality Meats at Prahran Market purchased an entire farm's worth of pork to meet demand for their hams, with full legs weighing up to 8kg at $29.90 per kilo, or $239.20.

Wangaratta's Gamze Smokehouse produced 800 full legs of free-range ham this season, retailing at $39 per kilo. An estimated 1200-1400 half-legs were distributed to stockists (each priced at around $136.50).

But what's the difference between budget and boutique?

It's a race to the bottom for supermarkets ahead of Christmas, slashing hams to a miniscule $6 per kilogram ahead of the weekend, but at the other end of the scales, high end hams, commanding up to $39 per kilogram, are in scarce supply.

Bundarra Berkshires, a boutique free-range paddock-to-plate farm in the Riverina region, only has a small handful of their triple smoked hams left available for pick up, priced at $39 per kilogram, making them one of the most expensive hams on the market.

Co-owner Lauren Mathers explains that the pigs are ethically raised and processed on the property, farmed to Demeter biodynamic principles, fed organic grains, and processed without preservatives or additives.

"We handcraft our hams to home-made recipes, and triple smoke them over red gum [from locally grown trees], and use celery powder in place of nitrate," she says.

"We only use our own pigs and grow everything ourselves. You can't grow a pig for $6 a kilogram, so it really frightens me when I see ham for that much. You need to think about the water content, the amount of preservatives that have gone into it, and the quality of life that the pig has had."

A small number of Bundarra Berkshires' hams will be available at the Slow Food Melbourne Farmers Markets at Abbotsford Convent this Saturday.

Vic's Meat Market, in both Sydney and Melbourne, is also raising the ham stakes.

Rare breed Kurobuta Berkshire hams from Byron Bay are selling for $290 each ($29.50 per kilogram), and scored an impressive equal third place in our taste test.

So what's the fuss? Taster Michael Harden described the ham has having a "prosciutto-like attractiveness", with a powerful smoky aroma and lovely classic shape. The butcher says that a large nine to 10 kilogram ham will feed up to 18 people, so your ham-fest will work out to around $16 a head.

Haverick Meats CEO Peter Andrews says cheap hams are plumped up with saline solution, which can account to as much as 30 per cent of their weight. 

"We brine our hams, which increases their weight by about eight percent, but that decreases again during the triple smoking," Andrews says. 

"With cheap hams, you put in an artificial salt solution into the leg, and it starts to change the flavour profile and how the ham performs. It doesn't have a nice, firm texture when you carve, and it's just going to be dry and not as tasty." 

It may sound contradictory, but the excess water weight makes a ham become dry in the fridge, whereas a naturally-processed ham, with a higher fat content, will last for several weeks. 

Andrews' advice is to opt for a whole leg, rather than a half leg, and look for a nice plump shape with a good fat cover on top.