Pigging out with the Pata Negras: a road trip to taste the world's most expensive ham
21.07.2023 - 08:35
/ roughguides.com
Heidi Fuller-love heads out on the trail of Spain's most exclusive Jamon.
Hanging ham hocks click heels like flamenco castanets in the wild Sierra wind as I pull into Finca Montefrio and park with the flourish of a bullfighter in a cape-flinging cloud of dust. At the heart of the Sierra de Aracena, a vast park which extends from the clifftop town of Zufre to Aroche near the Portuguese border, the ranch is ideally situated for raising the pata negra pigs used to produce jamón ibérico.
Ham’s equivalent of caviar, pata negra has been a Spanish staple since Roman times. I’m here on a three day road trip to find out how a pata negra pig’s humble hock can fetch up to €4,000.
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The beautiful Sierra de Aracena near Montefrio © Heidi Fuller-Love
It’s the montanera season, when the pigs forage for their supper in the scrub- and tree-studded pastures. Pot-bellied pata negra pigs – some the size of motorcars – snuffle dark snouts in the dirt or pirouette on charcoal hoofs seeking the acorns that give jamón ibérico its distinctive flavour. “Over the next three months we estimate that each pig will eat 1,000 pounds of acorns or more,” ranch owner Armando explains.
Serenaded by the wind in the surrounding oak trees, I sleep soundly. The next day I head for Jabugo, Spain’s legendary centre ofham production.
Ham hocks hanging in the window of a shop in Jabugo, the epicentre of pata negra ham. © Lux Blue/Shutterstock
Jabugo is crowded with ham producers, and there are shops everywhere selling those world-famous ham hocks. At Sánchez Romero Carvajal the region’s biggest ham factory, Manolo – the company’s maestro jamonero – meets me in a colonnaded courtyard, which dates back to 1879. He leads me to a vast, dimly lit room on the first floor. The rafters are strung with several thousand yellowed hocks of maturing meat, complete with dainty pointed hoofs.
This is where the hocks of jamón ibérico de bellota, one of the world’s most expensive hams, are hung for 24-30 months to dry, after being packed in sea salt. Using a splinter of bone, Manolo punctures one of the hams. The sweet, cheesy odour that fills the air tells him that this hock is ripe.
Jabugo is rated as one of the best places in the world for producing pata negra ham. I ask him why. “The air in Jabugo is cold; dry by day but humid at night. This is what gives exceptional flavour to our meat,” he says proudly.
Later at Las Bellotas, a rustic restaurant with a roaring fire near Jabugo’s main square, I sit at a wobbly wooden table and sip syrupy local acorn-infused licor de bellota (acorn liqueur) with a snack of Sánchez Romero Carvajal's 36-month-cured Cinco Jotas ham. The tender slivers of creamy meat with their rich nutty flavour leave me hungry