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 XDS
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 Re: Jamón Ibérico / Jamón Serrano  [Re: Simisu]
#13074720 - 08/19/10 04:34 PM (12 years, 7 months ago) |
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pata negra is amazing. i travelled through adalucia and this stuff would just melt in your mouth. the fat was the best bit, tasted of acorns. we visited the ham centre of the world, the highest inhabited town in europe, a place called Trevélez. It was just a town of ham shops 
Bresaola, or just a carpaccio of beef with lemon juice is good for cow lovers.
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Nibin
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Re: Jamón Ibérico / Jamón Serrano [Re: soochi] 1
#13152859 - 09/05/10 09:29 PM (12 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
soochi said:
Nice to see someone else who apprciates this delicacy to the point of obsession such as myself. I for one don't even mess around with serrano as I find it pedestrian (sorry) even the best serrano cannot compare to Cinco Jotas Iberico Bellota (which will be exported to the US starting next year!!!)
Iberico Bellota ham (there is just regular iberico) is nothing like prosciutto or any other dry cured ham in terms of flavor. Bellota hams must age for a minimum of 2 years with higher end hams going upwards of 5!
You can buy Fermin Iberico Bellota at Wegmans, and everytime I do the clerk behind the counter always, always asks: "The $120 a pound ham?
As a person lucky enough to have been brought up in Spain I though it might be helpful to go into detail a bit on the different vocabulary surrounding the different kinds of Jamón in Spain (not particularly for the above poster, just in general for anyone that is interested)
First of all, it is important that while the word Jamón does just mean "ham" in Spanish, when the word is used on its own it nearly always mean the salted and air cured variety.
For example, if you wanted a ham sandwich in Spain and asked for a bocadillo de jamón chances are, especially the further south you go, that it will be with this kind of ham. If you wanted a boiled ham sandwich you would have to ask for "jamón dulce" or "jamón de york".
Jamón can be divided into two big groups: Jamón Serrano and Jamón Ibérico, depending on whether the pig was a white pig (of any breed or mix of breed as you would find in most commercial farms worldwide) or a cerdo ibérico (iberico pig) which is a special, protected breed of pigs. Ibérico ham can ONLY be made from pigs that are have at least one pure bred parent while Serrano ham can come from pure white or in the case of some of the better hams from smaller producers, a cross of white and black pig in various proportions. There is also a denomination called Ibérico puro which implies the pig was a pure bred, 100% and certified black Ibérico pig.
The reason pure bred iberico pigs are not used to make all hams, despite the fact that the end product is better, is that these pigs are smaller and need a lot more food to fatten up, making the production of hams more expensive, so a certain amount of mixing is allowed but only up to point. A white pig will always outperform the black by a big margin, so to stop naughty farmers from labeling a 1% black 99% white pig as Iberico, this rule was created.
There is also a political/marketing reason. To maintain the exclusivity of the iberico product (of prepared iberico products such as ham or chorizo, this does not apply to fresh meat) there are also strict guidelines to the diet an iberico pig must follow. So you could not feed an iberico breed pig exclusively on pellet feed and then sell the ham as iberico. So as farmers would not gain the market advantages of an iberico labled product on a pig fed with cheap feed even if it is of the correct breed they don't bother and stick with white pig breeds for cheaper products. For fresh meat this rule does not apply as strictly.
Okay, so back to jamón:
Jamón Serrano: These hams come from white pigs which can be fed on whatever the farmer wants for its whole lifetime (as long as it is legal). It is classified only on the amount of time spent air curing once it has been made. The longer the curing the better the product but the more expensive, as there is more labour involved and storing the ham for longer times is more expensive. The legally accepted categories are: Bodega: 9 to 12 month curing Reserva: 12 to 15 month curing Gran Reserva: Over 15 month curing. and should be clearly indicated on the label around the "ankle". Jamón Serrano is the cheaper of the two kinds of ham by far and can be quite good. The only real trick to selecting a good Jamón Serrano is by trying them. Stay away from the bodega hams as even thinly sliced they are quite chewy and don't have that unique melt-in-your-mouth property. But with a bit of luck you can find some extremely acceptable Reserva hams and some amazing Gran Reserva hams but the results vary greatly from brand to brand so you really have to try before you buy. Jamón IbéricoAs mentioned Jamón Ibérico comes from a specific breed of pig. It also must follow a strict diet in which the only allowed ingredients are: feed based on cereals and/or pulses, grass and acorns. All pigs are reared on feed until they reach adult size and are then fattened on different kinds of feed until slaughtering time. Classification of the product is as follows depending on how they were fattened: de Cebo: Pig kept indoors and fed exclusively on feed. de Cebo de Campo: Pig kept outdoors in a field but penned in and fed by the farmer on feed plus grass it might eat up outside. A sort of "free range" pig. de Recebo: Pigs allowed to really roam free unpenned in the wild feeding on acorns and whatever else it finds. The pig is bulked up at the end of its foraging time by a short period of being fed feed by the farmer. de Bellota: Once pigs are set to roam free and forage, feeding exclusively on acorns and whatever they find, they are never fed again by the farmer, not even to fatten them up before killing. These are the ONLY universal certified quality marking that exist on Jamón ibérico. They don't bother with setting a curing time certification as the product is expensive enough that producers make sure they cure the product long enough to do it justice. While all Iberico hams are good, you will probably find better Gran Reserva Serrano Hams than many Iberico de cebo hams and at a cheaper price. Anything that is either Jamón Iberico de recebo or de bellota is going to be of excellent quality and pricey. All the other names associated with jamón are marketing mumbo-jumbo at best and an attempt to outright con you at worst. For example: Pata negra (black hoof): Because many iberico pigs have black hooves many people thing that if the label says pata negra it is iberico ham. But not all iberico pigs have black hooves and some white pigs do, so unless it says IBERICO on the label it is NOT iberico even if the ham as a black hoof or the label says pata negra on it. 5J: This is in fact a specific, very well known, brand of ham by Sánchez Romero Carvajal. The full name of the ham is "Jamón Ibérico Puro de Bellota 5J" and yes, it is an outstanding ham but it is the fact that it is an acorn fed, 100% pure bred pig(Jamón Ibérico Puro de Bellota) that makes it so good, not the 5Js which mean nothing. If you see a product just labeled 5J or even 4 or 3 Js without it saying if it is Iberico and how it was fed then this ham is trying to take advantage that many people thing that the J's are equivalent to a star rating or similar, when in fact it is just a registered trademark. There are many other terms as these used in the world of Jamón which can be equally misleading. The only exception to this rule are de Denominaciones de Origen or D.O.s. A D.O. is a certification that indicates that this product has been made in a specific area and following a specific, traditional method. There are many D.O.s of Jamón and while the fact that a ham has no D.O. does not mean it will be less good than one that has, a D.O. assures a minimum level of quality (and more expense, being a member of a D.O. is not free). The rules vary from D.O. to D.O. and can be more or less strict. They cover many different aspects such as minimum time of curing, amount of salt, appearance, etc. There are also D.O.s for Jamón Serrano. But even so, the golden rule to know if it is the real deal to check the label on the ankle. It should say either Jamón Serrano (followed by bodega, reserva or gran reserva) or Jamón Ibérico (followed by de cebo, de cebo de campo, de recebo or de bellota). I hope this was informative and didn't bore you all too much.
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geokills
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 Re: Jamón Ibérico / Jamón Serrano [Re: Nibin]
#13154620 - 09/06/10 10:58 AM (12 years, 6 months ago) |
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Thank you Nibin!  That was TOTALLY awesome!! 
And "pedestrian" or not, I'll happily gobble up any dry cured Spanish ham (even the shitty ones if it's all I can find - though I won't be as quick to boast about it  ).
Here's a shot of my current block, which only has a few ounces left at this point. 
 
Planning to kill it today as an appetizer / tapa prior to our Labor Day BBQ with my lovely lady, grandma and an Estonian friend who is visiting for a few weeks.
Here's how I like to serve it if I'm feelin' fancy... with genuine home grown heirloom tomatoes and creamy mozzarella or mascarpone and avocado.
Note that even though this is "only" serrano, the fat is definitely glistening and melty! 
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XDS
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Re: Jamón Ibérico / Jamón Serrano [Re: geokills]
#13154750 - 09/06/10 11:27 AM (12 years, 6 months ago) |
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i am drooling looking at that picture. 
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 Chespirito
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Re: Jamón Ibérico / Jamón Serrano [Re: Nibin]
#13154982 - 09/06/10 12:37 PM (12 years, 6 months ago) |
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Damn that was a great post. Im going to go on a mission to locate some ham in this city (DC)
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Nibin
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Re: Jamón Ibérico / Jamón Serrano [Re: geokills] 1
#13155791 - 09/06/10 03:57 PM (12 years, 6 months ago) |
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I'll tell you what, geokills. I have eaten extremely expensive hams of over 300€ a kg which must be about 175$ per pound. That is price in Spain, god knows how much they would charge in the U.S.
And to be honest with you, for many things I actually prefer a good quality, honest, serrano ham or a less expensive iberico. I admit, the top quality iberico de bellota is incredible, but it really is a kind of ham that should not be mixed with much, at most a good bread rubbed with tomato and a drizzle of olive oil maybe a bit of cured cheese on the side and a glass of good wine.
A good serrano ham, on the other hand, lends itself better to be used as a cooking ingredient or to be combined with other ingredients as it is not as expensive and as delicate in flavour. For example I would never dream of using top grade ham with melon, but a good ham, sliced thinly over slices of cold, ripe, sweet melon is a great summer dish.
Also, over here it is common to get trimmings at the Deli of even the less expensive bellotas or mostly recebo hams. A great recipe:
-A couple of handfuls of diced iberico trimmings (or good serrano). They should be diced as you would small lardons of bacon, say the thickness of a pencil and 3/4 to 1 inch long.
- Fresh Artichokes
- Dry sherry (or dry white wine if you don't have sherry)
Fry the trimmings in a very hot flat wide pan with a good drizzle of olive oil for a few seconds (just so it starts to turn slightly golden and the fat melts releasing the flavour)
Add the artichokes trimmed and cut into eights. 3-4 big artichokes will do a ration and depending on how much ham you want you can certainly do 4 people on the two handfuls of hamm trimmings. Add salt and a good amount of freshly ground black pepper. Stir the artichokes about until the outside begins to caramelize. You want to see a few black bits but not too many.
Pour in a good couple of glugs of the wine or sherry. You want the whole bottom of the pan covered to a depth of a couple of millimeters with liquid. Give a quick stir to deglaze the pan and cover with a perforated lid or leave the lid on a slant.
Walk away and forget about it, leaving it on a medium to high heat. You want to be hearing a constant loud sizzling noise. It takes longer than you think to cook. The artichokes should be cooked (start checking after ten minutes) until meltingly tender and then uncover the pan to let most of the remainding liquid evaporates. You want them to be moist and glazed in the thickened ham tasting juices but not have a load of liquid in the pan.
Serve as a generous tapa or a side dish .
You can also use french runner beans (i.e. the round ones, not the flat ones). A couple of handfuls tipped and tailed per person. Start cooking as above but when it gets to the point of adding the wine add only a glug to deglaze the pan and stir until it dries up and coats the beans. They should be slightly crunchy but cooked (as the italians call it, al dente), not soft like the artichokes.
Hope you try and enjoy.
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XDS
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Re: Jamón Ibérico / Jamón Serrano [Re: Nibin]
#13155905 - 09/06/10 04:21 PM (12 years, 6 months ago) |
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the beef in spain is amazing too, i remember having the best steak of my life in northern spain just with a deep fried chilis on the side. their sidra up north is better than any other cider i have drunk as well.
i had some very dark ham they called pata negra (which you have pointed out is just a marketing name), cut quite thick. the texture was almost like raw meat with a very thick layer of fat on top which just melted into your mouth with the flavour of acorns right through it. just eating it on its own with some wine seemed the best way. I want to go back...
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Nibin
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Re: Jamón Ibérico / Jamón Serrano [Re: XDS]
#13156037 - 09/06/10 04:39 PM (12 years, 6 months ago) |
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Yeah, the beef up in Asturias/Navarra/Basque country is incredible. And the cider as you say, is good.
It is at its best from January to April/May when the Cider houses open and serve the new cider. They all also serve great food and in some you can still bring your own meat to be cooked on the big fire.
A great experience but you have to get to know a few locals to discover the places as many of the best are in the middle of a field somewhere or in tiny streets in town.
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Nibin
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Re: Jamón Ibérico / Jamón Serrano [Re: Nibin]
#13284721 - 10/03/10 03:20 PM (12 years, 5 months ago) |
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Did anyone try the recipe in the end?
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geokills
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 Re: Jamón Ibérico / Jamón Serrano [Re: Nibin]
#13287878 - 10/04/10 08:19 AM (12 years, 5 months ago) |
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Not yet, though I surely will once I have re-stocked this delectable ham!
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geokills
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 Re: Jamón Ibérico / Jamón Serrano [Re: geokills]
#17846185 - 02/22/13 08:36 AM (10 years, 1 month ago) |
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Just wanted to bump this thread with some fresh food porn...
Seriously, if you have yet to try this stuff, and you like salty savory, seek it out and get on it! 
For shame, I still need to try Nibin's recipe, and I'm once again out of jamon! 
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Sell Your Soul
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Re: Jamón Ibérico / Jamón Serrano [Re: geokills]
#17846198 - 02/22/13 08:39 AM (10 years, 1 month ago) |
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Avacados and bacon?
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geokills
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Good god man, it pains me to even think about equating such a lovingly curated and carefully aged pork product as the jamon herein explained, with an often mass produced and mistreated food product (delicious though it may be) such as bacon. Both the production as well as the flavor and texture profiles are very different.
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Re: Jamón Ibérico / Jamón Serrano [Re: geokills]
#17846282 - 02/22/13 09:04 AM (10 years, 1 month ago) |
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Prisoner#1
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Re: Jamón Ibérico / Jamón Serrano [Re: geokills] 1
#17847671 - 02/22/13 02:50 PM (10 years, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
geokills said:
I'm once again out of jamon!
my neighbor is raising pigs in the woods, loads of acorns in the diet, he
handed me a 30lb ham that I'm currently curing and drying in the same manner
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geokills
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Re: Jamón Ibérico / Jamón Serrano [Re: Prisoner#1]
#17854041 - 02/23/13 06:37 PM (10 years, 1 month ago) |
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That is awesome Pris, how long is the age? 
Take some pictures and post your method when you're all done!
And if you'd be willing to spare a sample... 
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Re: Jamón Ibérico / Jamón Serrano [Re: geokills] 1
#17854382 - 02/23/13 07:41 PM (10 years, 1 month ago) |
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@ $135.25lb.. Do they really need to add the extra .25?
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Prisoner#1
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Re: Jamón Ibérico / Jamón Serrano [Re: geokills]
#17857541 - 02/24/13 12:19 PM (10 years, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
geokills said:
That is awesome Pris, how long is the age?
Take some pictures and post your method when you're all done!
And if you'd be willing to spare a sample...
so far I'm about 2 months in after 10 days of brining and smoked it for a week
at about 150F just to get some flavor, I'm in the drying process now
there may or may not be pics of the finished product, I have about 4 memory
cards for my camera and I'm yet to locate any of them
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geokills
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Re: Jamón Ibérico / Jamón Serrano [Re: geokills] 2
#28170507 - 02/03/23 09:17 AM (1 month, 19 days ago) |
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How about a li'l 15 year old thread pump? ¡Qué bueno! 
Big ups to Nibin's post above just oozing with juicy ham detail. 
Little late on the update here, been very busy gorging myself with pork. Nevertheless, wanted to drop in here to talk about scoring a whole serrano leg at Costco, which carries them seasonally starting in December by Noel, imported from Spain and fully salt cured (no nitrates/nitrites), minimum 14 lbs (this one pictured below is 17 lbs - I knew it was a good one when I picked up the box by the handle and it broke), including a stand and knife, for a ridiculous $99!
I've gone back in January in years prior when they had overstock, and scored the whole shabang for a ludicrously cheap $25. Even Costco's full price is a steal though, as you'd be hard pressed to find a leg like this for less than $300 elsewhere in the States. Costco also occasionally carries 3oz sheets of sliced iberico de bellota that they offer for around $15, which is a hell of a good deal as the best price I've found elsewhere is ~$120/lb.
I also saw this year, for the first time, a cured iberico lomo (loin piece). Didn't buy it as I already had one at home, but I'll be keepin' my eye out for the restock.
Tienda.com still has some very good Spanish products if you can't find them locally, and if you get on their email list, you can routinely score 20% discounts (although they make you pay 2 day shipping on all perishables, which ends up at like $50+ for shipping alone).
Now... on with the pork porn!
 
 
 
Always groovy on a fresh crunchy outside/chewy inside baguette... Here's how I like it:
- Slice and grill the baguette with butter and/or olive oil into a crostini
- Scrape a garlic clove against the bread which gets some epic spicy garlic flavor on there
- Scrape a tomato against the bread to add a little acid and flavor juice
- Lay on the thinly sliced jamon and stuff face to ecstasy!
*Optional, smash some avocado on the bread too.. but honestly, just bread, butter and jamon is epic.
The other arrangements are great too, but bread, butter, jamon... it's all any man should need in this life. 
 
 
A nice red wine on the side never hurts! 
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Simisu
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Re: Jamón Ibérico / Jamón Serrano [Re: geokills]
#28172962 - 02/05/23 03:38 AM (1 month, 18 days ago) |
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wow, i can't imagine a whole Pata de Jamon so cheep!
Living in barcelona i get to eat jamon pretty regularly although i rarely buy any, and when i do it's like the trimmings they pack to make use of the whole thing... it's actually what i like the best as previously mentioned in this thread.
This past Christmas was the first time i got to cut into a whole pata de jamon... my roomates boyfriend got gifted one at work and we cut some for christmas eve... but we didn't have a propper knife or the contraption that's used to fix it to place so you can cut it. it was a whole messy affair lol.
being the perfectionist that i am it made me very unhappy to do it that way, but i got to eat some tasty bits and have a story to tell so 
actually just the other day i bought a pack of these trimmings as a treat but i forgot it at work, i hope i closed it good enough so it doesn't oxidise too much...
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