5 Unknown Hams from Spain

In her book Brindisa , Monika Linton, the founder of a food import company of the same name specialising in Spanish food, teaches you everything about Spanish cuisine. Including ham. Alongside the classic Serrano, she also highlights a few that are less well known. Each one comes from a different region of the country. We selected the five most interesting ones. 

Lomo embuchado
A pork loin (a tender cut of meat taken from the rib, with a strip of fat) sprinkled with salt, paprika and oregano, and then briefly dried over burning oak wood. This gives the ham a subtle, delicate smoky flavour. This tender ham really shouldn’t be missing from a tapas board, preferably sliced as thinly as possible.

Lomo doblado
A folded pork tenderloin on top of a slice of streaky bacon with salt, pepper and garlic. During the curing process, the two pieces of meat form a single sausage. A very thick one, and that is why it needs to hang for six months.

Morcón
Pork fat and meat, usually from the head and neck, coarsely chopped and then cured in a stomach or bladder. The result: a kind of chorizo. It is a true speciality in Extremadura, western Spain.

Cecina
Dry-cured beef from León, northern Spain. Tough or hard? Anything but! The dark-red meat is incredibly tender and slightly salty in flavour. Monika suggests: ‘I like to make a quick tapa with it and wrap strips of cecina around ligos agridulces, sweet-and-sour figs from a jar of mustard syrup.’

Salchichón 
A dry-cured pork sausage from Catalonia in which the meat takes centre stage. If you taste it in southwestern Spain, you will be eating one made from the meat of an Ibérico pig; a breed that eats only acorns. This gives the meat a distinctive, forest-like flavour. ‘The ingredients in the sausage further accentuate the meat without overpowering it’, Monika explains. Also delicious: the salchichón vela. Unlike regular salchichón, it matures for only a few weeks and is therefore fresh, juicy and wonderfully soft.

Title: Brindisa
Author: Monika Linron
Publisher: Fontaine Uitgevers
Price: €34,99