Which festive ham brings home the bacon?
It’s the must-have delicacy this Christmas, and it only comes in one size – large! As supermarkets sell affordable legs of Spanish jamon...
First it was the £10 bottle of champagne. then the £5 lobster. Now it’s the £25 leg of jamon. supermarkets are always looking for eye-catching luxury products with which to lure shoppers at Christmas, their most important period of trading.
And this year, shops have alighted on legs of spanish ham, sold with special presentation stands and even fancy carving knives.
Once an expensive delicacy costing as much as £900, and sold only by top-end spanish delicatessens, they’re now as little as £25 from Asda or Lidl.
‘i’m not surprised they are popular,’ says rachel McCormack, a leading spanish food writer. ‘they are fun. Having a leg of ham in the kitchen that you can slice little bits off is better than having cold roast potatoes in the fridge.’
Which makes them the perfect centrepiece for a Boxing Day buffet and beyond. (it’s safe to leave your ham standing covered in a cool, dry environment, although some may prefer to cover it with a clean tea towel it can ‘breathe’ through, rather than cling film.)
No wonder shops are reporting strong sales. After all, the cheapest works out at 87p per 100g — less than half the price of the cheapest pre-sliced spanish ham you can find on the shelf.
And low prices do not necessarily mean low quality.
All those on sale this Christmas are serrano ham, carrying the traditional speciality Guaranteed label, one of the certification schemes run by the EU that similarly protects mozzarella cheese and Gloucester Old spot pork.
(it does not guarantee the pork itself is spanish, however — merely that it has been cured in spain, using traditional methods of salt and air to evaporate water and intensify flavour, before being matured for at least seven months.)
serrano is generally considered the second division of spanish ham, below top-notch iberico, which is from pigs that are at least 75 per cent black iberian pig, a rare breed also known as pata
negra, or black-foot pig. ‘the quality with serrano depends on the pig and how it has been cured,’ says Jose Pizarro, a top spanish chef who runs a number of restaurants and tapas bars in London. ‘serrano is really good. But iberico is completely different: it has eaten acorns and been treated like a king.’
THE less fancy serrano, however, still represents great value for money, considering its shelflife. the packaging of the ones we tested suggest they’ll last from 21 days to three months once open.
But what do they taste like? Can budget ones really be delicious?
Nieves Barragan Mohacho, a spanish chef who has held a Michelin star and runs the sabor restaurant in London, says that people shouldn’t be snobbish.
‘Not everyone can afford £300 for a leg of iberico. My mother in spain buys serrano,’ she adds. ‘it doesn’t mean it’s poor quality — it’s just different.
‘And slicing a piece off a leg is so much nicer than the serrano pre-sliced ham, which i always think tastes of plastic.’
Here, the Mail tries six leading serrano hams on the market this Christmas to discover which brings home the bacon — and which fails to cut the mustard . . .
Deluxe Jamon Serrano, Lidl
Price: £24.99 — 97p per 100g Stand included: Yes (self-assembly).
Knife included: No. Weight on package: 2.2kg Actual weight: 2.57kg Verdict: Oh, dear. this is very poor. Lidl’s deli meats are often top grade. But this isn’t. it’s a pretty dismal slab of pork stuck in a small, badly designed stand.
the jamon itself is covered in a slime of dark yellow fat that coats my hands so thickly i could embark on a cross-Channel swim.
it smears every slice you cut, contaminating each mouthful. tastes rancid. 1/5
Boneless Jamon Serrano, Asda
Price: £25 — 87p per 100g Stand included: Yes (self-assembly).
Knife included: No. Weight on package:
Minimum 2kg
Actual weight: 2.89kg Verdict: Despite the absurdly cheap price, Asda has made an effort with the packaging: it comes in a box with a carry handle, has a leaflet with clear instructions, and the boneless leg inside is wrapped in a smart presentation cloth.
the actual ham, aged for seven months, is a bit dry and very salty. Yes, this is a serrano ham from pigs raised in the Catalonia countryside, and it will look great on a Christmas buffet. But though it is the cheapest on a per-gram basis, i’m still not convinced that it’s among the tastiest. 2½/5
Easy Entertaining Spanish Serrano Ham, Tesco
Price: £30 — 93p per 100g. Stand included: Yes (self-assembly).
Knife included: No.
Weight on package: Min 2kg Actual weight: 3.23kg Verdict: My hopes weren’t high with this boneless ham. First, it had been matured for seven months, the minimum allowed under the European traditional speciality Guaranteed label for serrano ham. More significantly, it had lost only 35 per cent of its weight during the curing process, a relatively low amount.
But surprise! Fabulous quality, with a lovely, almost sweet flavour and, thanks to the generous amount of fat, it almost melts in the mouth. Everyone who tried it was astonished it was from tesco. in terms of value for money, this is a knockout. i’d gladly pay twice the price for it. 4½/5
Monroyo Serrano Ham Kit, Brindisa
Price: £145 — £1.95 per 100g. Stand included: Yes (ready assembled!).
Knife included: Yes.
Weight on package: Min 7kg Actual weight: 7.45kg Verdict: Few companies have a greater claim to introducing British consumers to high-quality spanish ingredients than Brindisa
(brindisa.com), which has supplied restaurants and supermarkets since the 1980s.
this is its ‘entry-level’ jamon leg (it also offers others that cost up to £650).
But is the £145 price tag worth it? Well, the stand is very welldesigned and already assembled; the knife is superlatively sharp (my blood-spattered finger can attest to that); and you get a 30page instruction manual and DVD on how best to carve the meat.
Crucially, the leg is the real deal from pigs reared in the teruel region of Aragon, producing a darker, richer ham than standard serrano. the meat has a decent savoury depth — not the almost truffly flavour you get with iberico, but tasty all the same. 4/5
M&S Collection Serrano Ham Joint without bone
Price: £40 — £1.46 per 100g. Stand included: Yes (self-assembly).
Knife included: Yes.
Weight on package: Min 2kg Actual weight: 2.74kg Verdict: A boneless leg, this comes in an elegant carrying box with clear instructions on how to put up the stand and carve the meat. the knife is an excellent addition.
the ham is a notch above standard serrano quality; it is
‘Consorcio Serrano’, guaranteeing that the meat itself is spanish (rather than just being cured in spain) and is matured for at least 12 months.
the ham itself is fine, if a bit salty and lacks the necessary fat to give it real character. 3/5
Unearthed Jamon Serrano Gran Reserva, Waitrose
Price: £70 — 90p per 100g. Stand included: Yes (self-assembly).
Knife included: No.
Weight on package: Min 7.5kg Actual weight: 7.78kg Verdict: this certainly looks the part — a whole leg on the bone, complete with a hoof, all wrapped in an elegant black sack. And at 90p per 100g, it’s amazing value.
Once you cut into it, you can see that this 15-month-minimum matured serrano is high quality, with ribbons of fat marbling the meat. the texture is excellent, but the flavour disappointing. it’s a touch on the bland side, lacking nuttiness and depth.
Assembling the stand was also seriously hard work.
But if you want a showstopper, and don’t want to spend £100, this is for you. 3½/5