Guijuelo

Guijuelo (also Guijuelo ham, Jamón de Guijuelo) is a Spanish PDO for hams and shoulders of pigs with at least 50% Iberian blood. The pigs are fattened in dehesas across four regions, while salting and curing happen in 78 municipalities in the south-east of Salamanca province, at about 1,000 m. The name was registered in the EU on 21 June 1996 (PDO-ES-0077).

How did a small town become a ham centre? The specification points to 1880: that year industrial slaughter began in Guijuelo, helped by the new national road and railway.

The legs come from adult pigs, excluding boars and breeding sows. The breed is Iberian or Iberian × Duroc, with at least 50% Iberian blood. De bellota pigs graze the montanera on acorns and grass for more than 60 days and are slaughtered at 14 months or older; de cebo de campo pigs live on outdoor range, eat feed and must be at least 12 months old. They can grow up in Castilla y León, Extremadura, Andalusia or Castilla-La Mancha, but slaughter and curing stay inside the processing zone.

The work runs in five steps: salting (time depends on weight), washing in warm water and shaping, post-salting, drying and ageing. Drying takes place in buildings with windows, in natural air, until the fat starts to melt on its own; this stage lasts at least 6 months. The overall floor comes from the national standard Real Decreto 4/2014: 730 days for a ham of 7 kg or more.

The cut runs from pink to purple-red with veins of fat; the taste is delicate, sweetish or lightly salty, and the PDO itself stresses a mild flavour from minimal salt. Monounsaturated fatty acids must make up at least 54% of the fat. The rind is covered with white, blue-grey or violet mould.

Many Britons and Americans know Spanish ham only as «serrano» from a deli counter or a supermarket packet. Guijuelo sits in another league, because it is an Iberian ham with a breed rule: Jabugo takes only 100% Iberian acorn-fed pigs and Los Pedroches only 100% Iberian ones, while Guijuelo is broader, with 50% and 75% qualifying and the cebo de campo class as well. Its climate is its own too: a high plateau, long cold winters and a dry wind.

Ask at the deli counter or a Spanish specialist shop which colour the seal is, because the seal goes on at the slaughterhouse: black for bellota 100% ibérico, red for bellota ibérico (50 or 75%), green for cebo de campo. There is no white, since the PDO does not accept the cebo class. After certification the «Guijuelo» logo is branded on the leg and a numbered band with the EU symbol and the class is added. A finished ham weighs at least 6.5 kg (100%) or 7 kg.

How to read the rest of the label is explained on the page Jamón ibérico, how to carve on How to carve jamón; for the wider picture see Dry-cured hams and shoulders.

Why this matters to you: in 2023, according to MAPA, Guijuelo marked 75,704 hams, and the largest group, 32,334, was bellota 75%. So the word «Guijuelo» does not tell you the pig was purebred: check the seal colour and the percentage.

Protection for Guijuelo began from below: in June 1986 a group of curers and pig farmers started the project, backed by the ministry and Castilla y León. The curing zone averages 975 m on the Salamanca plateau between the Sierra de Béjar and Peña de Francia, with long cold winters and strong dry winds that dehydrate the hams. The single document says the area has had a curing industry for at least 200 years. The acorn crop of each montanera is assessed and a maximum number of pigs set, and unannounced inspections check the acorn and grass feeding.