How much is worth Ibérico Ham ?

Ibérico ham has become a myth among connoisseurs, object of desire for foodies, and a big topic for experts and fans; it is an archetypal product in the best gastronomy stores of all over the world. A product turned into a luxury for its quality, unique flavour and scarcity.

If you think ibérico ham is expensive, allow us to explain the whole process so you will see the intrinsic value.

Acorn ibérico ham is a product that needs 3 years of aging to cure, carefully handled even pampered by professionals.All this time and processes make a good part of the final price, but the most important part is the price of the Iberian pig itself which goes up and down depending on the acorn availability to feed them on the wild, if the season is dry few acorns means less pigs roaming and prices go up.

When you purchase ibérico ham you are acquiring more than a product you are buying a tradition, an art of making things like centuries ago.

All these factors weigh on the price of ibérico ham, if you find a very low priced ibérico ham do not trust it, whether it is not the real thing or its origin and quality are dubious or probably the pigs were not fed acorns. You should reject any offer for an ibérico ham that is for example less 200 €, that price means whether the ham is very tiny, or the pigs were not fed acorns or even worse it is not a real ibérico ham.

Acorn ibérico ham quality depends on aspects such as the breeding of the pig, it has to be Iberian breed and it has to be raised on its habitat, the dehesa (a big pasture extension full of holm oak trees producing acorns which is the basic foodstuff for pigs), the piglets will be fed in the initial months with fodder and later they will spent their life roaming free and feasting on acorns and herbs.

Under ibérico ham name many products are sold which actually they are not, and consumers are the real victims due to their lack of knowledge of what ibérico means.

All the ham commonly known as “patanegra” or black paw it is not acorn ibérico ham, as a matter of fact hams from Hungary have black paws and they are not ibéricos. So before buying make sure after the “patanegra” branding you are buying an authentic acorn ibérico ham.

Please remember serrano ham made of White pigs is not IBÉRICO HAM

The real acorn ibérico ham has to meet certain conditions to bear the name iberico ham:

It has to be sourced from an Iberian pig which is a breed indigenous from some regions of Spain, mainly Extremadura, due to the fact the pig roams wild and feeds on acorns.

The acorn feeding is extremely important to produce a characteristic ibérico ham. Acorn is the fruit of holm oaks a millennium tree that only grows in some Spanish regions and needs a century to mature. Extremadura possesses the biggest holm oak woods in the world.

Among ibérico ham you will find two qualities, acorn ibérico ham and fodder ibérico ham. The main difference between both is the pig feeding as acorns are more expensive than fodder, so the price differences between these two qualities are very big, acorn ibérico ham can cost twice as fodder.

Sometimes you can find a third kind of ibérico ham between acorn and fodder, called jamón ibérico de cebo de campo, which can be translated as fodder-acorn-fodder ibérico ham.

Regrettably there are cases of companies selling fodder ibérico ham as acorn ibérico ham which is actually a fraud.

Fodder ibérico ham means the ham is from an Iberian breed pig, raised all its life on fodder. This pig will not be fed with acorns and the time used to cure it is less than the average for ibérico ham. Even so fodder ibérico ham quality is superior to any “black paw” ham not made of Iberian pig or any Serrano or white ham.

The fodder-acorn-fodder ibérico ham as its name suggests derives from a pig raised on fodder, fed with acorns later and fed with fodder before slaughtering. This type of ham once it is analyzed does not show traces of acorn feeding but the curing time is the same as an acorn ibérico ham.

Now you have the whole information, you can judge by yourself what type of ham you are buying and the quality you are getting but we can assure you that the acorn ibérico ham flavour has no competitors and it is priceless.