Serrano ham
Meat
Top 10 pairings
A Spanish dry-cured ham from the hind leg of white-coated pigs, salted and air-dried for months until deep red, firm and intensely savoury. Sliced wafer-thin, it is eaten raw as a tapa or draped over bread or melon.
Picking a good onedrag
Freshly cut: rosy-mahogany lean, white fat, nutty savourOff: grey-green, slimy, sour or rancid
Sound hamBuy itWhite specks in the lean are tyrosine crystals, not mould. A faint cheesy funk is the cure at work.
Colour of the leanDarker red rim, not a fault
The fatWhite to faint cream, glossy
Take a sliceSupple, barely moist, not tacky
Smell at the cutSalty, faintly cheesy, not sour