The black Iberian Pig lives primarily in the central and southwestern regions of the Iberian peninsula. Walking the southern Camino de Santiago, named ‘Via de la Plata’ between Sevilla in the southern province of Andalucia to Santiago de Compostella in the northwestern province of Galicia, you cross the heartland of the Spanish Jamón country.

Extremadura is the ‘secret’ province no one knows about. Towns like Caceres, Badajoz and Merida are mostly off the beaten tourist track for the Spanish traveller, but this is where the Iberian pigs roam freely on hectares upon hectares of oak forests, minding their own business and gorging themselves on ‘bellotas’, which are the acorns that drop from the oak trees. This staple diet is what makes a unique ham that tastes like nothing else in the world. Yes, the prosciutto that comes from the Parma region in Italy is beautiful and big, but these smaller Jamóns are something completely different and very special.

Spanish jamóns are generally divided into 3 quality categories:

• Jamón País – Ham of the country
• Jamón Serrano – Ham from the sierra or mountain range
• Jamón Ibérico – Ham from the Iberian pig, fed with acorns only

Regardless of the category, it then depends on which area the ham comes from, secondly which’ finca’ or farm/grower and lastly how long it has been dried or air-cured.

So, in principle a good Jamón País can be better than a not so good Jamón Serrano, depending on the finca or curing time. As an analogy – a clean-skin wine might surprise you and taste better than an estate wine with a label, but generally speaking, a Jamón País is the lowest quality and a Jamón Serrano is the better quality.

When talking about Ibéricos, then you start talking ‘Jotas’ or J’s. ‘Cinco Jotas’ or ‘5 J’s’, which is the top quality, is simply out-of-this-world. The top quality is established by an expert panel of professional Jamón tasters or testers, people who dedicate their time going around the different fincas tasting Jamóns (best job in the world?).  The top quality can cost you even in Spain up to and more than 250 Euros/kg while some Jamóns don’t even get to the markets, they are bought by people directly from the finca.

Lastly, there are shops that are completely dedicated to selling Jamóns. Not butcher shops – they literally only sell Jamón. And there are also bars that specialize in Jamóns as well. This is how deep the Spanish culture goes – it completely embraces Jamón, almost like a religion (or soccer).

Lastly – in Spain the top quality Jamóns are kept bone-in and sliced paper-thin by hand by expert slicers, mounted horizontally on special stands or brackets. This is not possible here in Australia as quarantine regulation doesn’t allow Jamóns to be imported with the bone in.

At Tinto we use two different Jamóns, which we buy from our Spanish importer. A Jamón Serrano cured for 12 months and a Jamón Ibérico, which is cured 18 months. Jamón País is used for cooking and because of the lower prices generally does not get exported [at least not to Australia], hence we have to use a Serrano to make our croquetas, which is more expensive, but we have no other choice. It does result in a better croqueta though!

The Ibérico, however, is savoured and only sliced on our fly-wheel slicer. It is more than 3 times as expensive as the Serrano and as a result, is weight ‘to the gram’ on a calibrated market scale when served on our charcuterie board.

So, hopefully this information is mouthwatering enough to encourage you to come for a visit and try our ‘Jamón Ibérico with Pan con Tomate’, together with a Manzanilla dry sherry from the south of Spain.

Enjoy – Qué aproveche!!