Jamón Serrano

I grew up loving to eat ham. But it was nothing like the ham i eat in Spain. Jamón Serrano has to be one of the culinary success stories in the country. Many bars and shops in my part of Spain display the air cured legs of jamón by hanging them from the ceiling. Amazing to look at. Even nicer to taste.

The highest village in Spain, Trevélez, is one hour from my front door. This is considered to be the centre of jamón serrano production in Andalucia. And yet you will rarely see a pig there. These days the jamón that so dominates the shops of Trevélez is shipped in from elsewhere. It comes to Trevélez to dry out and mature. Tourists come to Trevélez, and the other distinctive villages of La Alpujarra, to taste the ham. Many buy a whole leg and take it home. Once upon a time I even took one on a plane!

The nicest jamón serrano I have tasted was in a bar in neighbouring Capileira. The bar owner, Jose, told me his mother produces it from her shop in the town of Lanjaron. A spa town famous for its drinking water and referred to as the "gateway to La Alpujarra." The province of Teruel also produces jamón serrano. The city of Teruel is the smallest provincial capital in Spain.

Like Trevélez, this is a place that experiences very cold weather in the winter and that is ideal for the maturing of the haunches of jamón. As in La Alpujarra, the fresh cold air is crucial to producing tasty ham. That and the coarse grain sea salt that is used. You'll see haunches of jamón serrano hanging (as photographed) for anything between one and two and a half years. That's how long the maturing process can take. The ham from Teruel is often darker in appearance than that produced in La Alpujarra, but each come from the white pig.

A recipe using jamón serrano is coming soon and later, in another blog entry, we'll look at the ham produced from the black pig in Extremadura, Iberian Ham. *thanks to Pat Firth for the photograph