this little piggy went to market...

I love all cured meats. Proscuitto, capocollo, chorizo, bresaola - you name it, I will eat it.

But my greatest love of all would have to be jamon iberico and I know many others out there will agree with me.

I was bored one day...as you do being a stay at home 'homemaker' and online shopping is my greatest ally in that fight against boredom. A couple days before I was tossing up the idea of buying a whole jamon - stand and all to appease my craving for the stuff, but rather than breaking the bank in one click of the mouse, I settled for a sampler pack instead. To give some perspective, the sampler pack set me back around £30 whereas the entire jamon would have set me back around £450!

The sampler pack consisted of four types of cuts:

D.O Guijuelo ham (jamon)

D.O Guijuelo shoulder ham (paleta)

Chorizo Iberico Bellota

Lomo Iberico Bellota

We devoured pretty much all of them (with the exception of the chorizo) within the first 3 days of our package arriving from Barcelona.

Verdict? Whilst jamon iberico is well renown for being the king of hams, I must admit that I preferred the paleta. The paleta is not very well known outside of Spain but is the preferred cut by locals. Not only is the smell and taste more pungent but the cost effectiveness of the paleta versus the jamon has definitely won my vote. 

D.O Guijuelo jamon

(L) Lomo Iberico; (R) D.O Guijuelo paleta

Buy your ham through Hamlovers.