Jambon de Bayonne

Appearance & taste

The ham is rounded. The evenly coloured rind is taut towards the shank, and the fat has a rich colour, is firm and smells pleasant. The meat on the surface does not form a crust.

The muscle is an even pinkish red, the fat white, firm and not oily. The ham is rather dry (on average 47 % dry matter) and yet juicy, lean (on average about 6 % fat) and only slightly salty; salt and moisture are evenly distributed across the slice. In thin slices it melts in the mouth, with a delicate taste and a strong aroma from the long ripening.

It is sold on the bone, boned and pressed into shape, as a whole, half or quarter ham or in portions. The label carries the statement “dried and ripened in the Adour basin” and the logo with the word “BAYONNE” and a red Basque cross.

Production

The pigs are fattened and slaughtered in 22 départements in south-western France, from Charente and Vienne to Pyrénées-Orientales. At least 60 % of their feed consists of cereals, cereal by-products and peas, of which at least 50 % is cereals and cereal by-products. Uncastrated boars and culled sows are excluded.

Curing is done the traditional way: the fresh ham is rubbed with dry salt from the Adour basin and then massaged regularly so that it gradually loses moisture. This is followed by a resting and warming phase, drying and ripening. From salting to boning, the ham stays in the area.

Pre-slicing and packing also take place only there. Before slicing, the ham is boned and checked for defects in smell and colour, rests for at least a week and is firmed at no more than −14 °C. No more than one hour may pass between slicing and packing, so that the fat and colour do not oxidise.

Origin & history

The climate in the Adour basin is mild and oceanic, shaped by the proximity of the Atlantic and the Pyrenees. Typical is the foehn, a warm, dry downslope wind: it often makes the humidity drop from 90 % to 20 % within a few hours and so directly affects ripening. The ground contains rock salt, deposited around 200 million years ago when the Aquitaine Basin was flooded by the sea. It has been mined since antiquity, for example in Dax, Salies-de-Béarn and Bayonne-Mouguerre. The salters value it for its purity and because, unlike sea salt, it is not abrasive.

According to the specification, the ham’s good reputation goes back to the 16th century. In 1673 Froidour noted that the hams known as “Jambons de Bayonne” were hardly made in the town itself but came from the Labourd, Basse-Navarre and the Soule. In farming families the ham was the finest piece of meat; it served as a store, as currency in hard times and to pay tithes and rents. Later the butchers in the towns made it, and today industrial plants do too. Refrigeration allows it to be made all year round.

A legend tells of a wounded wild boar that died at a salt spring; the following summer the villagers found it completely preserved in the dried-up bed of the spring. Since then, the legend says, ham has been preserved every winter with salt from Salies-de-Béarn or another salt works of the Adour basin.