The Serrano Experience

“When you’re in Spain, you don't go to a bar because of the wine, you go because of the tapas." After Miguel Sanz spoke these delicious words, I averted my eyes away from my wine glass and focused on the four-course menu placed at my seat. Every course at the Consorcio Serrano ham dinner had one thing in common, and, on the evening of June 23, I didn’t go to La Fonda del Sol restaurant for tapas, I went for ham.

Jamón Serrano or “mountain ham” is a staple of Spanish cuisine. Served with olives and cheese or used to flavor your favorite recipe, Serrano ham can easily be mistaken for Italian prosciutto by the novice eye.

One of the main differences between Serrano and prosciutto is that Serrano is hung and cured for a year or longer, while prosciutto is cured for only a few months inside a covering of lard, giving prosciutto a higher humidity content and Serrano a deeper flavor. Serrano's lower fat content and stronger bite also add to its appeal.

As guests arrived at the Serrano dinner, Master Carver Ricardo Garrido Robles from Spain performed a ham carving demonstration, placing the finished slices of delicate, red meat on a serving plate. After reviewing my failed attempts at picking up the ham with the provided skewers, the Master Carver told me that Spaniards eat the ham with their hands anyway.

The first course was composed of raw sea scallops that were hidden under two layers of Serrano, served with a side of horseradish. 

In this course, the chef did not put the ham on the plate with the intention of it being eaten, but rather it’s purpose was to cure the scallops.

 A softer flavor of Serrano was captured in the scallop, slowly introducing our palates to the strong ham flavor.

The scallops were followed by three more appetizers: 

oysters topped with Serrano jelly,

black mission fig with Serrano and montcabrer, 

and a tortilla Espanola with a ham aioli (not pictured). My favorite was the fig. Evidently, fig season had just started, which was made clear once I bit into the juicy, mildly sweet fruit. The light sugar from the fig helped to moderate and balance the sharp bite from the ham and the salt of the cheese.

The main course was a poached halibut, accompanied with Serrano ham and a slice of melon that must have been soaked in a spicy marinade of some sort -- a heat that Master Carver Robles and Miguel Sanz later admitted was not characteristic of authentic Spanish cuisine -- but it was an interesting touch for a night like this.

The most unique meal of the night was dessert: a tomato sorbet with arugula, roncal, and candied ham.

As we sat around the table, Sanz explained how one of the most beautiful aspects of Spain is how, compared to America where people will sit down for a meal and talk of other things, in Spain a group of people will sit down for a meal and then talk about that meal for the entire extent of it's consumption. And that's what we did -- talked about food for 3-hours.

Now, that's a culture we should all strive to be more like.