“Like a great wine, Bellota ham loves to play on all your senses and to intoxicate you with its delicate, complex bouquet.” Florence Châtelet Sánchez, founder of Maison DEHESA.
First, learn to appreciate the ham by sight and by smell
The flesh should be a deep red, richly marbled with fat.
The flesh should glisten, proof that it has reached the right temperature for the singular scents of Bellota to unfold.
Then touch and taste…
To the touch, the slice should be as fine as lace.
Begin by tasting the fat of the ham, to take in all the aromas and the complexity of the vintage. Hold the fat in your mouth and let the air pass out through the nose: on contact with oxygen, the flavours reveal themselves. To approach the ham through a small slice of fat is to feel the full expression of the terroir where the pig was raised; beyond the acorns, it is all the Mediterranean herbs and fruits it fed on that bring minerality and richness to the aromas.
Then comes the lean, whose attack on the palate should be elegant. It proves meltingly tender, and its Bellota flavours unfold gradually, on the mid-palate and then the finish, leaving no aftertaste of fat or salt. In hams aged for more than 42 months, notes of flowers, dried fruit and candied fruit develop harmoniously on the mid-palate and the finish. The persistence of the aromas on the palate, measured in caudalies, bears witness to exceptional quality.
Tasting at the right temperature
Too often, ham is eaten greedily and in haste: scarcely in the mouth before it is already slipping down an eager throat. And all too often, the slices are still far from the ideal temperature for tasting…
It then becomes impossible to appreciate the full aromatic palette of the ham, above all in hams aged for more than 50 months, whose aromas open very gradually, unfurling slowly.
For those who buy pre-sliced ham, this means opening the packet in advance so that the slices can breathe and release their aromas. Ideally, open the packet half an hour before serving, at room temperature. Always serve the ham on a warm plate, whatever its age: gentle warmth releases its aromas.
All in all, a ham born of two years of rearing and a minimum of three to four years of ageing is a delicate, fragile work. Its fine aromatic palette must never be jarred by sharp swings in temperature or humidity. So let time do its work, and wait patiently for the gentle ham to cast its subtle charms and express its full personality.
A few more tips for aficionados
Every ham is different. Some vintages deserve more than 70 months of ageing, others do not. Only the pig’s last “campaña de bellota” (the year of the acorn harvest) tells whether the ham will belong to a great vintage or not. Within the same vintage, moreover, some hams call for longer ageing than others. This also depends on their weight. And on the climate over the years of ageing: if certain winters are too damp, the hams will need a further 3 to 6 months. One must therefore know one’s hams, their history, the time they have travelled through, and ideally follow their evolution, by nose, week after week, in a dedicated cellar.
Bellota ham in its purest aromatic expression. Pairings: Serve your Bellota ham with white bread, light and airy. The bread may be toasted and lightly sweet (a lightly enriched, brioche-style loaf or cornbread), but avoid any dark or multigrain bread, whose acidity is too high. The ideal accompaniments to Bellota ham are crushed ratte potatoes and a toast laden with fresh tomato, rubbed with garlic and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil. Bellota ham also pairs beautifully with foie gras, eggs in a tortilla or poached, figs, quince jelly, asparagus, or turbot and scallops. While Maison DEHESA ham lends itself to many pairings, they are best used sparingly, with old vintages (aged for more than 52 months), so as not to overwhelm a rich and delicate aromatic palette that reveals itself only little by little, as if to tease the impatient gourmand. Choose a mineral or slightly oxidative wine, or else a vinous champagne, such as a Krug brut, a Ruinart blanc de blancs or the Billecart-Salmon rosé. The mineral character for which Maison DEHESA hams are so renowned will be heightened by the chardonnay and pinot of the great champagnes and white Burgundies. Faults: As with wine, ham can show faults born of errors in the ageing process. One may find salty notes, when the ageing has not been taken to its optimal point, or musty notes, when the humidity was too high during ageing or storage. A ham is also said to be “pommadé” when it shows excessive sweetness, the result of fattening the pig on feed meal or of adding sugar to the ham (an industrial process).
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