Spanish ham is called jamon and is a national delicacy. It is known worldwide. It is made of ham, which is salted, and dried under certain conditions.
Jamon does not contain harmful cholesterol and is a unique product. It contains oleic acid, which reduces the harmful cholesterol.
Compared with the Italian Parma ham, it contains less moisture and is more rigid.
Produced are two main types of ham - jamon Serrano - the name means mountain ham and Iberico ham, also known as the black ham.
Externally, both hams differ in their composition - Serrano ham is white and Iberico ham is black. Jamon is made for more than a millennium. Centuries ago, jamon Serrano was painted with black paint to sell it as the more expensive Iberico jamon.
It is produced by Iberian breed pigs fed with acorns, but various embodiments of the ham allow the feeding of pigs with additional plants - grass, olives, and feed.
Hamon Resevo Iberico is made from meat of pigs that feed on acorns and grass, and then get added feed. This does not allow simultaneous feeding of grass, acorns and feed.
Bodega ham is prepared from meat of pigs fed on natural pastures, their food is supplemented with fodder.
Jamon is a unique product that one gives to friends and relatives, it's a much anticipated gift on holidays. It goes on a Jamonera - special board on which it is cut.
Ham is served cut into thin slices or cubes. Jamon Serrano is prepared from meat on white pigs of the Landrace breed.
Jamon Iberico is made from the meat of a special breed of black pigs that live in the southern and southwestern Spain. After weaning, they are fed barley and corn, and then put to pasture to have grass and look for acorns.
Real jamon has characteristic white stripes of intramuscular fat. Therefore, the meat looks like marble.
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