“That’s great,” I said. Then I mentioned how much ham we had eaten.
“What does it matter?” said Romero de la Ossa, dismissing me with a wave of his hand. “You're in the Spanish, if not the world, capital of ham, and when it's this good, you can't stop. You eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
He was right. Confusing cured Spanish ham (pronounced “hahm-ohn”) with the packaged sliced ham you find at your local supermarket would be like comparing a fast food burger to a wagyu steak, or a Pabst Blue Ribbon to a Czech bottle of Pilsner Urquell . . Even Italian prosciutto isn't in the same league.
Jamón Ibérico de bellota is a whole different beast. For about three months a year, Iberian pigs graze on acorns (or bellotas in Spanish), giving the ham a rich taste that some Spaniards have compared to a drug.
Jabugo is synonymous with the highest quality ham in Spain – and, some would say, the world. I came here because my Spanish friends would whisper irreverently when someone said the phrase “jamón de Jabugo.” I felt like I had discovered a culinary secret: the best cured ham on the planet comes from a village of around 2,200 inhabitants nestled in the mountains of southern Spain.
Pasture tours and ham museums
Is there pig tourism? There are some in Jabugo.
The city is so ham-centric that the main square is called Plaza del Jamón, and there is a series of bronze sculptures depicting ham cutters. There are also museums dedicated to Spanish ham in Jabugo and Aracena.
Jabugo has a handful of ham producers. The most famous is Cinco Jotas. The company offers several services so visitors can literally get their hands dirty and dazzle their palates. I signed up for the full experience, including a tour of oak-dotted pastures to spend time with the pigs, a tour of 19th-century ham curing cellars, a lesson on how to carve ham like a pro and, of course, of course, a tasting.
All of this gave me a much better idea of the time and effort it takes to develop an unprecedented product and why it is so expensive. A leg of black label Iberian ham in a can costs up to $1,700. Acorns are rich in fatty acids and nutrients. You could say they are a porcine superfood.
Spain has a handful of major ham-producing regions, including Salamanca, Extremadura, Los Pedroches Valley and Jabugo. But not all Iberian hams are equal.
In 2014, the Spanish government created a color-coded system to inform consumers of the pork's percentage of Iberian ancestry. A white label, for example, means the pig breed is at least 50 percent Iberian; it eats mainly forage (a random mixture of grains, hay and vegetables); and is not at large.
On the other end is a black label, which means the pig is 100% Iberian (or pata negra), feeds on acorns from November to February and lives free range. There are also dozens of strict regulations regarding weight, size and the amount of free-range space pigs must have, among other factors. Only 6 percent of Iberian ham produced in Spain gets a black designation.
Iberian pigs have fewer offspring than other breeds, produce less meat and take longer to mature. For these reasons, many ham producers in Spain cross them. Cinco Jotas only uses 100% Iberian pigs, making it one of the few ham producing companies in Spain to obtain the Black Label designation.
What makes Jabugo ham so special
In the southwest of Spain, ham has been prepared for a very long time. Even the Romans recognized the region as being particularly interesting for curing pork.
In 77 AD, the Roman writer Pliny the Elder wrote about Iberian pigs“There is no animal that offers greater variety to the epicurean palate; all the others have their particular flavor, but the flesh of pork has nearly fifty different flavors. During Christopher Columbus' second voyage in 1493, his ships they were said to be loaded with Iberian pigs during their crossing of the Atlantic.
Until the end of the 19th century, ham production in Jabugo was small-scale, limited to a few small family-owned slaughterhouses. It was only when a ham-obsessed businessman, Rafael Sánchez Romero, recognized the growing demand for Jabugo's high-quality ham that the product began to spread to cities like Seville and beyond. of the. He started Cinco Jotas in 1879.
In 1994, Jabugo ham was granted DOP status – Denominación de Origen Protegida (literally “Protected Designation of Origin”) – a European Union certification that guarantees that a certain product comes from a specific geographical area. The area in question here extends beyond Jabugo to 30 other surrounding villages where the ham produced is officially “jabugo jamón”.
“One of the most important factors in shaping the taste of Jabugo ham is the microclimate here,” said José Antonio Pavón, general director of DOP Jabugo, the organization that maintains Jabugo's DOP status. “We get 1,000 liters of rain here, which is much more than in any other ham-producing region in Spain.”
To add to that, something called the Foehn effect — a meteorological term for what happens when there are hot, dry conditions on one side of a mountain and cold, wet conditions on the other, resulting in an extreme temperature change — is caused by wind of the Atlantic Ocean which hits the high altitudes. mountains in Jabugo.
“In summer, the daytime temperature can reach 105 degrees, and at night it can drop to 65 degrees,” said Maria Castro Bermúdez Coronel, communications director of Cinco Jotas. “It affects that taste, compared to other ham-producing regions, in that the hot weather creates a strong flavor in the meat.”
Pigs are slaughtered – or “sacrificed” as the Spanish prefer to say – at around 22 months of age. Then the back legs (called “ham”) and the front legs (called “paleta” or shoulder) rest in the salt for a few weeks (one day per kilogram).
Then they spend time in the drying process, hanging in a temperature-controlled room before being transferred to a windowless cellar for a few years. The entire process can take up to five years before a leg of ham is ready to be sliced and enjoyed.
How to get your hands on Iberian ham
Look around your local supermarket – or any supermarket in the United States – and you probably won't find acorn-fed Iberian ham.
It is not particularly difficult to find serrano ham, the most produced ham in Spain, which is good but lacks the “wow” factor compared to black brand abellota Iberian ham. If you want it, you have to go to a specialty food store, buy it online or, like me, come to the source.
Antonio Cabrera, commercial director of Covap, a ham producer in the Los Pedroches Valley near Cordoba, and grandson of the company's co-founder, said: “Italian culinary culture is so rooted in the United States, in Particularly on the East Coast, many people have a cultural attachment to prosciutto.
The importation of Jamón Ibérico was approved only by the United States government. in 2005, and its emergence in the United States – particularly the black label variety – has grown at a Mediterranean pace. “We have some catching up to do,” he said.
If you're in Spain and want to bring back black label Ibérico de bellota ham (or other pork products, Spanish or not), you might want to think twice: it's illegal.
However, there are many ways to buy it online: you can go directly to the source at Cinco Jotas or visit the websites of Spanish food websites aimed at the American market, including The shop, Campo Grande Or Despaña.
For a 3-ounce package of Black Label sliced Ibérico de Bellota ham, expect to pay around $40. If you want to splurge and get your own leg, prices vary depending on weight and whether it's the front leg or the heavier back leg.
