Animal magic
The ham produced by acorn-fed Iberian pigs hits every high for ham-lovers: it’s the most labour-intensive, most expensive and the tastiest ham in the world. Fiona Sims travelled to the Dehesa in Spain with chef José Pizarro to see where the revered pigs roam
e’ve come to see a man about a pig. Not any old pig – this one is big, with slender legs and a long snout, surprisingly little hair and black hooves. Have you guessed yet? It’s an Iberico pig, or pata negra, as they call it in Spain. I’m with London-based Spanish chef José
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Pizarro and we’re travelling in the Dehesa. We’re about an hour northwest of Seville on empty roads in a magical landscape of rolling hills, wild flower-filled meadows and encina trees (or holm oaks) as far as the eye can see. It’s a unique, Unesco-protected ecosystem
of prairie-like grazing land that once covered 90% of the country and now only remains in Salamanca, Extremadura, Andalucía, and just across the border in Portugal. And it’s thanks to the Dehesa that this region produces the best ham in the world. Or rather, it’s largely thanks to the acorns (bellota) produced in the Dehesa. “Go on, try one,” offers Pizarro, cracking the hard shell and prizing out the milky nut.
There are actually five different types of oak trees here, from the semi-naked Quercus Suber (cork oak) half-stripped of its bark for cork, to gall and kermes oaks, but it’s the Quercus Ilex, or holm oak, that Iberico pigs favour for its juicy, sweet acorns. “Hey, hey, hey, hey,” calls farmer Juan Carlos Dominguez, opening the gate as the pigs lum- ber over, nudging our trousers inquisitively. “The breed dates back to the cavemen,” he explains, gently tapping them away.
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Only 5% of the Iberian pig livestock in this area are 100% Iberian acorn-fed pigs – the rest are a faster-growing mixed-race pig, so bear that in mind when you are buying your next ham. Dominguez moves the pigs around every
day. They clock up some 14km, each scoffing around seven kilos of acorns, in addition to three kilos of grass – they’re the happiest pigs we’ve ever seen. “I can’t live without Jamón Ibérico,” declares Pizarro. Pizarro sells around 550 hams a year in his restaurants: José Tapas and Pizarro Restaurant on London’s Bermondsey High Street, which he opened in 2011, and his latest place, José Pizarro Broadgate, which opened last summer. He buys the ham from Cinco Jotas, the old- est outfit in town. Cinco Jotas pretty much put this ham on the map, opening the very first pure Iberian pig slaughterhouse in 1879 in the small town of Jabugo, where we travel to next. Many other producers followed – along with a rulebook of regulations and a pecking order of quality levels, with black label the best. Jabugo, of course, has since become synony- mous with Ibérico ham, and the town has become a magnet for ham lovers, who flock here by the coachload to cruise the ham bars and learn more about its labour-intensive production methods.
It takes, on average, six years to get this ham on the market: the pigs spend two years romp- ing through the Dehesa, then a further four to five years hanging out in the town’s cellars. Jabugo’s USP is a microclimate with just the
March 2016 | Best of Chef | 23
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