Iberian Jamón & Paleta

The eight official varieties

Four qualities, two cuts

The hind leg gives the jamón, the front leg the paleta. Each comes in four qualities: Ibérico de Cebo, Ibérico de Cebo de Campo, Ibérico de Bellota and 100 % Ibérico de Bellota. Four times two: eight varieties, and that is the whole range Spanish law recognises.

What Spanish law says

Since 2014 a national standard has governed Iberian ham, shoulder and lomo. It sets two criteria: the pig's percentage of Iberian breed, and what it was fed during the fattening phase. It also reserves the name pata negra for the 100 % Ibérico de Bellota alone. Anything sold under that name without the black label has not earned it.

Reading the coloured label

Every piece carries a label sealed to the trotter. White for Ibérico de Cebo, green for Cebo de Campo, red for Bellota, black for 100 % Ibérico de Bellota. It is the one marker that cannot be argued with: it is fixed at the abattoir, not by the seller.

Our producers

We work with two family houses rather than one large producer. What decided us: consistency, because a ham bought in October has to taste the same as one bought in March, and always speaking to the same person. These are small outfits that have done this work for generations and stand for the same values we do.

Cárnicas Pozas — Baños de Montemayor, Extremadura

The house sits in the Ambroz valley, in northern Extremadura. Their pigs come from an Iberian mother crossed with a Duroc father, which gives the 50 % Iberian breed, and are raised on the region's fincas.

They supply our Cebo, Cebo de Campo and Bellota jamones and paletas, and all our charcuterie: chorizo, salchichón, lomo, morcón, longaniza, panceta and coppa.

Juan Pedro Domecq — province of Huelva

Established in 1978 in the Sierra de Huelva, one of the reference areas for purebred Iberian pigs. Their animals are 100 % Iberian and spend the montanera free in the dehesa.

This is where we get the 100 % Ibérico de Bellota Pata Negra: 42 months' curing for the ham, 24 months for the paleta.

Not sure which quality to choose? Our guide to the four qualities, from Cebo to Pata Negra.