The smell of jamón ibérico in Spanish supermarkets is spell-binding and one of the biggest things we miss about the country. In Spain, jamón ibérico is a culinary artform as worthy of praise as its cheeses and wines with the Denominación de Origen rules applying to them – the way it’s cut being an exact science to factor in its preservation and flavour, making it in our humble opinion the best ham any country has ever produced.
In short, it’s cut downwards in thin slices with a long sharp knife, aiming to keep a little of the fat with the cut so as to include as much flavour as possible. The best jamón ibérico comes from black Iberian pigs near the border with Portugal, where they roam in oak forests eating acorns before slaughter and being cured for three years. Jamón from other breeds of pigs is known as jamón serrano (mountain ham), so named due to being cured in higher elevations in the mountains or sierras of Spain.
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