Iberian Ham is the one with the highest international reputation and undoubtedly the best quality, but throughout history, especially in Europe, other similar types of cured hams have been produced. Since the time of Rome, the inhabitants of that time tried to imitate the technique of making and curing the ham that was produced in Hispania, world famous and acclaimed by kings and emperors from all over Europe throughout the centuries.
Buy Ham in France.
In our neighboring country there is a cured ham that is made in Bayonne, a town located in the southwest of France, in the New Aquitaine region, in the Adur river basin, near the Cantabrian Sea.
This product differs a lot from Serrano ham, not in its production process, since it is salted and cured in dryers like ours, but because in the process it is smeared with spices, which gives it very different organoleptic characteristics, giving it a texture, smell and flavor that are nothing like Serrano ham.
You can buy good quality ham in France, even with Protected Identification of Origin, but if what you are looking for are the characteristics of Iberico ham, they have nothing to do with it.
The breed of pig used to make the pieces is the Large White, originally from England.
Buy Ham in Italy.
Surely you have heard of the prosciutto, Parma Ham, well known also since ancient times. Prosciutto comes from the term prosciugare which means "to drain", that is, to dry, heal ...
Although the slices, a priori, between a Spanish ham and an Italian one can be visually similar, like the French one, it differs a lot from our Spanish ham.
Italian ham is characterized by having a marked sweet flavor and a more humid, less cured texture; in fact, when they are made, they can be cooked in wine, which means that the typical texture of air-cured meat is lost.
Also in the production process the bone is removed and they start to cure without it, which already completely changes the flavor, being this much softer.
The white pig breeds normally used are the Large White, Landrance or Duroc. The latter is the one used in Spain to cross Iberian pigs.
Buy Ham in Germany.
The Black Forest Ham, a product that takes its name from the region where it is made, is traditionally known as Schwarzwälder Schinken.
It has a characteristic red color and is marked with streaks of fat. Being a boneless ham, its meat is traditionally smoked when raw, giving it an instantly recognizable flavor and aroma. A variant in its preparation is the addition of ripening garlic, coriander, and black pepper. After this drying, the ham is placed in places with fir wood and spruce smoke.
Jamón Pasión Spanish Ham Online Store.
On the Jamón Pasión website, we know that both French, Italian and German hams are of very good quality, but here you can only buy Iberian and Serrano ham, since it is the product that we know and we can choose directly from the drying rooms to offer you the best possible quality. For the same reason, as there is no type of intermediary in the process, in our store you will get cheap Serrano hams.
In reference to Iberian ham, we cannot make a comparison with the rest of European hams, since in this case, the breed used, as you well know is Iberian, and the characteristics of the ham, especially in its infiltrate of intramuscular fat that provides the pieces of that peculiar flavor, texture and aroma cannot be equated to the breeds of white pigs.