Posts Tagged ‘ pata negra

Is it correct to use the term “Pata Negra” ham?

Pata Negra Ham

As a matter of fact, the term Pata Negra is incorrect and it is forbidden to use it on labels, as it would be misleading. Pata Negra (which means “black hoof”) refers to the colour of Iberian pigs’ legs. Despite this, it is important to say that in nature it is possible to find Iberian pigs without black legs or, vice versa,  white pigs with black hoofs.

For these reasons, although we usually talk about Pata Negra Ham, we would rather use the term “Iberian ham”. Moreover, it is crucial to know if we are buying a Cebo, Recebo or Bellota. The finest Iberian ham is the bellota one (which means acorn). The animals are fed on acorns and grass (60% of their overall diet).

You can buy your Bellota Ham in our store. It is just a click away.

Translated by:

Angelo Nestore (dioniso@hotmail.es)

Tips to buy a Spanish iberian ham on internet

Comprar jamón ibérico en Internet

Is isn’t new that you can already purchase a Spanish iberian ham over Internet, but what do we must look to make a satisfactory purchase?

Firstly we must see if the shop where we will purchase the ham is reliable. There are many shops on the Internet that are now dedicated to sell Iberian ham, but do you that all are reliable?

My council is that you buy in shops that already have a certain age and  are known.

This does’nt means that you don’t have to buy in a new shop, but an older shop always gives more tranquility.

It is important that the shop has it’s contact information easily to vew. At least it’s telephone number, because the fastest way to contact a company is by telephone.

I would never buy in a shop that doesn’t shows a telephone number in it’s web.A phone number always give us some tranquility if we have to do any consultation about the purchase.

After, you have to see the product. To buy a good Iberian ham without testing it first is not easy  when you buy a ham in a conventional shop, we never test the ham we are going to buy, but one similar. In the  choice of the iberian ham it’s important to know some details about it, to know what we are going to buy.

 

If you are looking for the highest quality, we must always choose bellota products. This already gives us a certain guarantee about the product but it is not enough because  in the acorn products there can have many differences.
 
It’s  ideally to buy known brands. But this doesn’t means that all the hams will be good (but they have a guarantee). The best-known hams are Covap, Sanchez Romero 5J or Joselito among others.

There are different AOC , (Extremadura, Huelva, Guijuelo and the Pedroches) and we will choose the one we prefer. If we opted for a ham with AOC, we will pay more but we will have an added guarantee of the AOC.

A personal advice is that if you want to buy a good Bellota ham, don’t buy one with a very low price because a good ham will always have a high price (280€-500€).

The guarantee that the shop will give us, is very important because if you receive a product  in bad state, it depends of the guaranty that you can receive a new one.

Finally we must look at the forms of payment.
You can pay in most of the online shop with credit card or bank transfer.
But there also other ways to pay, like Paypal.
This one is the most secure way to pay becausel we don’t have to give our personal  and credit card information and it has also an insurance up to 500 € covering any problem with the purchase.

Different parts of a Spanish iberian ham

partes jamon iberico

To taste an Iberian ham is all a ritual process, where we must know some concepts and information to fully enjoy  this gourmet product.

In this post you will see the different parts of a spanish iberian ham:

Maza
: is the name that receives the part of the ham where you will find more  meat. We usually start to cut the ham by t
he maza. It’s where there is more  infiltration of fat in meat.

Contramaza : The opposite part of the maza is more closely and cured than maza and more consistently. It has less fat than maza. After having cut the Maza, we continue cutting the contramaza.

Babilla : is located below the maza and is delimited by the femur bones and coxal. It is the least juicy zone. If the ham will not consumed in a long time, we recommend starting by the badilla, so the taste and flavour of the ham won’t be lost.

Punta: It’s the opposite of the ham leg . It is tasty and has much fat.

Jarrete & Caña : parts of the ham, located before the ham hoof. There, the meat is hard and fibrous,it’s usually used to extract ham tacos.

The spanish ham

 

 

In this article we’ll try to explain the different kinds of Spanish hams that it exists and it’s description.

- You can find the dry or serrano ham, the most typical, from white pigs.
It can be from Trévelez, Teruel or another place. It’s normally dried for no more than a year.

- The Iberian ham, which comes from the Iberian pig breed.
It can come from Huelva (the most known is from Jabugo), Córdoba (Valle de los Pedroches), Extremadura and Salamanca (Guijuelo).

 In the Iberian ham you can also find three qualities, Iberian ham cebo, recebo and bellota.

The cebo Iberian ham is a ham that comes from pigs that were fed with grain and grass.

After, you will find the recebo Iberian ham, a ham from pigs that where fed with grains, grasses, and acorns during the time of “Montanera”, (time from October to the end of February).

And finally, you will find bellota ham, the best. It comes from Iberian pigs that where fed only with grass and acorns in the mountains during the “Montanera”. This ham needs  more drying months  because more acorns (Bellotas) ate the pig and more time it needs to dry.
You can find Bellota hams in our shop

Difference between a Jabugo ham and an Iberian ham

There is no difference between the Jabugo ham and the Iberian ham because  Jabugo’s ham is an iberian ham. They come from Iberian pigs with and without race mix.
What it happens is that the ham from Jabugo (Huelva) has obtained a lot of  fame and  there are people that think that it is a superior quality than Iberian ham.
This is wrong because Jabugo provides good Iberian hams and bad Iberian hams, so to talk about Jabugo’s ham does not means necessarily to talk about quality hams.

If we want to eat a good Jabugo’s ham, we first must to know if it’s a bellota ham (The highest iberian ham quality), which is the manufacturer and how it elaborates the hams. 

Receive your iberian ham hand cut

 

Get your ham hand cut by a professional .
At
Spanishtaste, you can buy a real Spanish pata negra ham and receive it already hand cut by a professional cutter.
You receive your ham cut into thin slices and vacuum bags 150gr-200gr. 
This is the easiest way to enjoy one of the best hams in the world without complications.
To receive it already cut, you simply have to choose “
receive the ham hand cut” when buying your ham. This service has a cost of 40 € but you can keep your ham for a long time without problem.

To appreciate his quality and flavor, you simply have to pass the packet under hot water for 10 seconds before opening. So ham will take the heat and get his real flavor.
You can also receive your ham boneless and prepared to pieces of one kilo  selecting “
receive your Iberian ham boneless.” 

 

How to choose a good spanish Pata negra ham

All you have to know to choose a good iberian Ham
1- The origin of the ham:

You will only find iberian hams from Huelva, Cordoba, Extremadura or Salamanca. If the ham isn’t from one of those places, it can’t be an iberian ham. 

2 - How the pigs were fed:

-The best hams were fact with pigs that always ate acorns in Spanish: “Bellotas”.
-Then, you can find hams which were fact with pigs that ate grazing ground and acorns, which are called Recebo.
Finally, you can find hams simply Serranos who come from pigs which only ate the grazing ground.


3 – Time that hams are dried with salt:

It is necessary that they where dried at least 28 months.

If you have any question, please contact us. You can send us an email to info@spanishtaste.com or call us : +34 617330425

Doubts about iberian Pata negra spanish ham

In this post I would like that people who have questions related to the Iberian ham, may expose them for professionals in the world of Iberian ham can answer them.
So you know, if you have doubts about terminology, Recebo, Cebo … about the method of preparation, questions about the Iberian pigs, or anything else about the Iberian ham, you can write in this post and we will try to resolve all your doubts.

 

Buy Spanish Pata Negra ham, Bellota quality from Jabugo “jamon iberico”

Spanishtaste is an online shop where you buy spanish Pata Negra ham with quality bellota directly from spain.
We have iberian hams from Huelva (Jabugo), Extremadura and Córdoba.
We only sell Bellota quality, only the best.
You can buy your ham in a full piece, boneless or hand cut by a professional.
Visit our shop of Iberian Pata Negra ham and buy your ham easily and with the warranty of spanishtaste.
You can also read and post your questions about the pata negra ham in our blog. Here we will try to help spanish ham lovers, to know more about it.