Welcome - sorry it is a little dusty! Cerdo Ibérico
Pictures taken when we visited a working Ibérico ranch for the first time. The owner Pedro Lancho is a perfectionist when it comes to raising animals. He and his son Jorge work together as a team. The result is a true delicacy - Encinar de Cabazón.
The native pig of the Iberian Peninsula is called the cerdo Ibérico and it has roamed the Peninsula for hundreds and hundreds of years. In earlier times, it was viewed as nothing special; it was just the normal Spanish pig. In more recent times, after the horrendous years of deprivation caused by the Civil War and World War II and its aftermath, Spaniards began to distinguish some of the hams from others by brand names such as Cinco Jotas, Pata Negra and Joselito. On the other hand, they might identify the jamón by the location where it was cured, such as the hams of the former Moorish fortress of Teruel, or the mile high village of Trevélez in the snow-capped Sierra Nevadas of Granada.
The cerdo ibérico comes from an ancient breed quite distinct from the pigs with which you and I are familiar. The sows bear small litters and the young pigs are raised for about two years before being slaughtered. The most highly prized pork comes from Ibérico pigs that feast on acorns from holm oak and cork trees (such as the kind that Ferdinand the Bull used to lounge under). The hams are hung to cure for up to four years, with the consequential loss of perhaps 40% of their weight. The result is a finely marbled ham called Jamón Ibérico de Bellota.
Don Harris
A Porcine Paradise
Welcome - sorry it is a little dusty! Cerdo Ibérico
Pictures taken when we visited a working Ibérico ranch for the first time. The owner Pedro Lancho is a perfectionist when it comes to raising animals. He and his son Jorge work together as a team. The result is a true delicacy - Encinar de Cabazón.
The native pig of the Iberian Peninsula is called the cerdo Ibérico and it has roamed the Peninsula for hundreds and hundreds of years. In earlier times, it was viewed as nothing special; it was just the normal Spanish pig. In more recent times, after the horrendous years of deprivation caused by the Civil War and World War II and its aftermath, Spaniards began to distinguish some of the hams from others by brand names such as Cinco Jotas, Pata Negra and Joselito. On the other hand, they might identify the jamón by the location where it was cured, such as the hams of the former Moorish fortress of Teruel, or the mile high village of Trevélez in the snow-capped Sierra Nevadas of Granada.
The cerdo ibérico comes from an ancient breed quite distinct from the pigs with which you and I are familiar. The sows bear small litters and the young pigs are raised for about two years before being slaughtered. The most highly prized pork comes from Ibérico pigs that feast on acorns from holm oak and cork trees (such as the kind that Ferdinand the Bull used to lounge under). The hams are hung to cure for up to four years, with the consequential loss of perhaps 40% of their weight. The result is a finely marbled ham called Jamón Ibérico de Bellota.
Don Harris
A Porcine Paradise