Spanish delicatessen products

If we had to do a list displaying every Spanish delicatessen product to fill a store or gourmet kitchen it will be a delicate and prolix task. It would be prolix because in Spain there are many products which can fit in delicatessen category. It also would be delicate due to the huge amount of Spanish delicatessen products we could forget any of them considered the most important by someone.

Delicatessen is a German Word that means delicate and its meaning has widened to include a gourmet store or a shop which sells gourmet products; that are original and representative products from a country or region, normally made by artisans and with exquisite taste. Therefore it is difficult to make a list of Spanish delicatessen products. There are so manyproducts made this way in Spain that would fit in this category. But when we want these delicatessen products reach top quality which will make them apart from the rest of delicatessen and be considered the stars of a top restaurant or a gourmet store, and even considering this we have to be very selective. To name a few examples Ibérico ham, extra virgin olive oil or aged Manchego cheese made from sheep milk are delicatessen products but to shine in a top restaurant or gourmet shop they should have its own character and personality.

Let me explain what I mean, there are people who are truly gourmet and know how to choose the most awesome and distinctive products based on their taste, aroma or their wonderful and unique production. These people whether real connoisseurs or just snobs consider truly exquisite products (delicatessen) meet all those characteristics: exquisite flavour, impressive aroma and a careful production made by truly gourmets.

Some examples of Spanish delicatessen:

Manchego cheese cured with rosemary or lard, torta de queso (from Casar de Cáceres, or Cañarejal, or Barros);  Roncal cheese; artisan Manchego cheese, cured or aged, tetilla cheese, Cabrales and Cebreiro cheese, Gamoneu cheese; cheese from La Serena. And many more cheese varieties.

Extra virgin olive oils like: D.O. Jaén hojiblanca, extra virgin olive oil made of picual or arbequina olives and many other Apellations d´origine like D.O. Segorbe or D.O. Navarra

Canned seafood, hand packaged in Galicia (like mussels, common cockles or seaweed) and Santoña anchovies.

Truffles and mushrooms from Soria: apple preserve with boletus, chanterelles or trumpets, pâté made of truffle and mushrooms.

Saffron D.O. La Mancha, paprika from La Vera, asparagus from Navarra, flower of salt from Mediterranean Sea and black garlics from La Mancha.

Candy and jams like artisan jams made in Catalonian Pyrenees Mountains, cheese chocolates from La Mancha, artisan sweets made in La Mancha, Basque Country or Cantabria, artisan turrones from Alicante.

Cold meats made from hunting like wild hog sausage or cured meat, pickled quail and partridge.

Wines from wine regions like: Rioja, Ribera del Duero, Penedés; Rueda; Rías Bailas, La Mancha.

Cold meats made of Ibérico pork like: acorn Ibérico dried loin, sausage or chorizo

And at this point we have to name the biggest star of the whole Ibérico universe: Ibérico ham or jamón ibérico. Any connoisseur or Ibérico foodie will agree that Ibérico ham is the best delicatessen of any Spanish fine food, no matter which type of Ibérico ham.

But a real gourmet is selective and only seeks the best products, perfection made food and that means to choose only acorn Ibérico ham or jamón ibérico puro de bellota, the best between the best delicatessens. Acorn Ibérico ham is the top of the finest gourmet foods.

Today is easier to become a top gourmet. Acorn Ibérico ham is available almost to anyone for any palate whatever selective and delicate it may seem.

It would be neither nice nor ethical to tip where you can find this top of the finest delicatessen. But I will give you a hint in an Internet controlled world; you only have to search with calm. It will not take you much time to find gourmet websites where you can purchase a really awesome delicatessen that will turn you in a real gourmet for a tiny amount of money and will add to the delicatessen term pure acorn Ibérico ham the literary quote the good if brief twice as good. Which can be applied to delicatessen, any gourmet knows that fine foods should be tasted in tiny quantities enjoying every piece of it. Eating too much of a delicatessen will make us lose our taste and smell, which allow us to feast our senses when eating a real delicatessen.