Dehesa de Extremadura

Dehesa de Extremadura (also Extremadura ham, Jamón Dehesa de Extremadura) is a Spanish PDO for hams and shoulders of 100% Iberian pigs raised in the holm- and cork-oak dehesas of Cáceres and Badajoz provinces. Rearing, slaughter and curing all happen in Extremadura. Two classes: bellota 100% ibérico (black seal) and cebo de campo 100% ibérico (green seal). Registered on 21 June 1996.

Pigs were counted and regulated here long before today's rules. The specification cites the ordinances of Valencia de Alcántara dated 5 August 1489, those of Zafra from 1528 and the first pig census in the Catastro de Ensenada of 1752. Older still are the stone «verracos», animal figures from the 5th–2nd centuries BC.

Under the 2022 specification only 100% Iberian pigs qualify. Bellota pigs enter the montanera in lots of 92–115 kg, eat nothing but acorns and grass for more than 60 days and gain at least 52 kg; they must be at least 14 months old with a carcass of at least 110 kg, 2 kg more than the national standard asks for 100% Iberian pigs. Cebo de campo pigs eat cereal and legume feed and spend at least 90 days in the field, at up to 15 head per hectare. In Extremadura, with nearly 1 million ha of dehesa, acorns ripen from November to February.

Salting uses common and nitrifying salt at 1–5 °C, roughly one day per kilo. The legs are washed, the salt spreads for 35–45 days at 2–6 °C, then they dry in sheds with windows until the fat starts to seep and age in cellars, longer for heavier legs. The specification sets no minimum in days of its own, so Real Decreto 4/2014 applies: 600 days for a ham under 7 kg, 730 for 7 kg or more, 365 for a shoulder.

The ham is long, V-cut, with the hoof on; colour runs from pink to purple-red, the taste is delicate, lightly salty or sweetish. Fat texture depends on the share of acorns in the diet, and salt stays at 5% or below.

It shares the 100% Iberian rule with Los Pedroches and Jabugo. What sets it apart is a territory covering all of Extremadura and the 52 kg weight-gain rule. And the word «Dehesa» in the name does not mean every leg is acorn-fed: the cebo de campo class is here too.

The label must show «D.O.P. Dehesa de Extremadura» and the category: «Jamón 100% Ibérico de Bellota» with a black seal or «Cebo de Campo 100% Ibérico» with a green one. A ham weighs at least 5.75 kg, a shoulder 4 kg. The page How to carve jamón explains the knife work; for the wider picture see Dry-cured hams and shoulders.

Why this matters to you: a name with «dehesa» in it sounds like a promise of acorns, but the colour is what makes the promise. Black seal means acorns, green means feed and field. The rest of the label rules are on the page Jamón ibérico.