Iberico Ham appears as a signature dish in 1 Spain cities. See each city's local variant and where to eat it.
Iberian ham (Jamon Iberico) · Barcelona
Jamon iberico de bellota is the canonical Spanish cured ham: black-hoof pigs fattened on Extremadura acorns, salt-cured and air-dried for 36+ months, sliced paper-thin at the bar.
The Iberian black-hoof pig has roamed the dehesa oak savannahs of southwest Spain since pre-Roman times. The canonical bellota grade requires three months of acorn-feeding (Sep-Feb), bringing the fat content high and the meat depth. Catalan bars serve Iberico cut by hand from a wooden jamonero stand; the muscle slices are 1mm thin. In Barcelona, Cerveseria Catalana, Sagardi and Casa Amalia all run the canonical 24 euro plate of hand-cut Iberico de bellota. The slicer is the trick: a long thin knife is run along the bone, the slice falling onto the plate fat-side up, served at room temperature with crusty bread.
Where to eat in Barcelona:
- Cerveseria Catalana
- Sagardi
- Cal Pep