History

However, it is in the age of the Roman Empire where most references to ham and its history appear. With the Romans (200 AD) practices related to salting and conservation of what was known as “Cecina de Cerdo” (air dried pork meat) were already being made.

The “matanza” or slaughter of the pig was institutionalised. In the beginning it was the cook (or Coquus) – who was normally a slave with good connections – who carried out the slaughter of the pig. With the passage of time it was specialised cooks, known as “vicarius supra cenas”, who carried out such tasks and who constituted the “Collegium Coquorum”.

In these times, besides consuming ham, other parts of the pig, (loin, heads, ribs, pork belly…) salted or stuffed into casings were also eaten. However, ham was the most valued piece of the pig and only eaten by the elite in society.

The recommendations of those times regarding the stages of salting and curing of Serrano Ham and other parts of the pig, are still in use to this day. In addition it was already known that the climate of the area where those processes were to be carried out, was very important, since to a large extent, they determined the length of the salting period. These types of production have been gradually perfected with the aim of improving the product (for example, salting was carried out in the ancient world but using the whole pig).

Hams from Pomeipoles (Pamplona) were held in high regard and the production in Tarraco (Tarragona) was also important – a fossilised ham was found here, in Conesa, dated at more than 2,000 years old.

The Roman world was dedicated for centuries to the production of ham, to such an extent that in 200 AD hams were produced in Cantabria and Sardinia and from the first to the fourth century there was an important production.

With the appearance of Medieval society, monasteries and convents were responsible for preserving the country’s gastronomic culture. Monks, besides tending their gardens, used to raise a pig each year for its subsequent slaughter. Thus, there was always food in their pantries.

In the Xll and Xll centuries Spain advanced southward, allowing the growth of stockbreeding since more meadows and forests were found for the feeding of pigs. In these times the peasantry had increasing access to pig breeding, although in a limited way; but gradually the slaughter and production of hams and charcuterie became more common in towns and villages.

The late Xlll century saw a major expansion of stockbreeding, during this period we can start to see herds of pigs, in a semi-wild state, in close relation with cork oak and oak groves.

Written literature from the XlV century (for example, several texts from the Archpriest of Hita) also shows the great importance of ham in our country. In the XVll century, poets and writers bore witness to the qualities of ham in several literary works: Miguel de Cervantes in Don Quixote, Lope de Vega in his comedies, Tirso de Molina, Góngora…

According to an old legend, there are three “elves” who made Serrano Ham into a gastronomic art: imagination, experience and time.

The pig and Serrano Ham, is and has been quintessentially Spanish, an ambassador of Spanish culture, present most of the time in our dishes and meals. The reason for its success may be that every part of this animal can be used

– “ …from its head …to its trotters”.