Who Invented Jamón Serrano?

Cured ham as we know it today was born out of the need to preserve food.

At Enrique Tomás, we are going to delve into the history of gastronomy to discover how the idea of curing food with salt came about and who is credited with this wonderful invention. Let’s get started!

A Little History

Let’s go back around 5,000 years, to a time without the benefits of technology, but with the same harsh weather conditions and basic needs. In this reality, human beings, always eager to learn and evolve, began creating ice pits, the first primitive refrigerators. From there, it was only a matter of time before other methods of food preservation were discovered. Smoking, marinating, drying and salting were some of these methods, and it is specifically the last two that interest us as we delve deeper into the origins of jamón production.

We know that people already preserved meat by drying it in the sun; then fire appeared, paving the way for cooking and smoking. Finally came the revolution of salt, which changed everything forever. The development of human civilisation owes a great deal to salt, considered in many places to be the famous “white gold”.

Salt was already being used as a seasoning during the reign of the Chinese Emperor Huangdi, around 2670 BC. In ancient Egypt, during the time of the pharaohs, meat was preserved in salt in order to keep it for longer. The Celts also became involved in salt mining, as was the case in the city of Salzburg, Austria, whose name means “city of salt”.

But if we already had a well-established preservation method, who invented jamón serrano? Who first came up with the idea of preserving meat from scratch?

The Origins of Gran Reserva Jamón

We know that pigs arrived in the Iberian Peninsula with the Phoenicians — or at least this is what the evidence suggests — when they established their first settlement around 1100 BC in what we now know as Cádiz, formerly called Gádir. Another detail from history is that, in the period immediately following the Roman Empire, the Iberians were already trading in certain cured meats and sausages, including jamón.

You have probably heard the saying that “every part of the pig is useful”. This refers to the fact that pigs have always been a highly valuable resource when it came to meeting the population’s food needs. During Roman times, jamón, the most prized part of the pig, was an exclusive food enjoyed by the wealthiest classes, but every part of the animal was used. As we explain in the book Jamón para Dummies, in the section on history:

“The Romans spread salting techniques. They salted jamón and paletillas and sold them throughout Europe, coating them with oil and vinegar to protect them from impurities. They offered them in a wide variety of forms: with or without the hoof, smoked, fatty, partially skinned, etc. Even then, they clearly distinguished between jamón and paletillas. The former was called pernam and the latter petasonem.”

— Jamón para Dummies

During the Roman Empire

But did the Romans invent jamón? The truth is that we do not know for certain who invented jamón serrano, but what we do know is a curious legend that tells how jamón, like every great invention, was created by accident and by chance.

The story goes that a pig fell into a stream whose waters had a high salt content and drowned. The pig was found by some shepherds, who roasted it to eat. They then discovered that the salted meat had a much more pleasant flavour, particularly the legs. From that moment on, the word spread and, whenever a pig was slaughtered, its front and hind legs were covered in salt for a period of time. Little by little, the flavour was perfected.

Whatever the case, or whoever was responsible, this legacy has survived to the present day. Naturally, with today’s techniques and knowledge, we have achieved a world-class gastronomic product that also became firmly established on our peninsula thanks to its climate, the expertise of its people and their sheer need to preserve food.

When it comes to producing jamón, tradition is a reliable and essential value — so much so that, ultimately, it is the best ingredient of all. Don’t you agree?