Because Spanish ham is a raw leg of pork that is cured with sea salt at low temperatures, then sent to a storage cellar to be dehydrated, air-dried and matured. So it can be eaten directly.

The whole production process of Spanish ham is carried out in the cold storage, temperature and humidity control, the vast majority of operations by the computer automation control, very hygienic.

Spanish hams require lard or other additives to be smeared on the ham at the beginning of the fermentation process (or oiled by maceration) in order to prevent oxidation.

Spanish ham is made by curing and air-drying white pork shanks in general, and the more advanced mountain hams are aged for more than a year in the air-drying process, which is rich in flavor and quite tasty, and the raw hams in Spain are almost all seasoned with coarse salt only and are only naturally air-dried, with few smoked hams, which is very simple and natural. Because even hooves with bone curing, eating time must be cut by hand thin slices, everything down will soon become dry and lose flavor, so it must be called as you cut.

Types of Spanish ham:

1. Jamon Iberico {Iberian ham}.

It is made from black hoofed Iberian black hoofed pigs. This pig has darker fur and is produced in small quantities, about 100,000 per year, and is quite expensive. There are three types of Iberian Black Hoofed Pigs: the Jamon Cebo legal grain-fed, the Jamon Recebo field grain and acorn mix, and the Jamon Bellota field acorn-fed.

2. Jamon Serrano {Serrano Ham}.

It is made from mountain pigs with white hooves, which have white fur color. There are two types of white-hoofed pigs: Jamon Serrano Reserva, which is usually about 12 months old, and Jamon Serrano Gran Reserva, which is usually about 18 months old.

Reference: Baidu Encyclopedia-Spanish Ham