Jambon du Kintoa

Appearance & taste

Sold whole, on the bone and with the whole foot, the ham is oval; from the thigh bone to the tip it measures more than 10 cm. On the head of the thigh bone it bears the “Kintoa” brand. Before packing it is rubbed with ground Piment d’Espelette. It is also available boned in one piece, as a quarter or in slices.

The meat is intensely red and marbled, the fat white to pink, soft and creamy. The aroma is intense and complex, with notes of butter, undergrowth, cured meat, dried fruit such as hazelnuts and preserved fruit. The taste is intense and long-lasting. The meat of the topside contains at most 7 % salt and at least 4 % fat.

The label gives the date of salting and shows the “Kintoa” logo with the crown of the kings of Navarre and the head of a Basque pig; each ham has its own identification number.

Production

The pigs belong to the “Pie noir du pays Basque” breed, a slow-growing breed of the Iberian type from the Mediterranean region. They are very hardy and quickly put on fat when food is plentiful. They spend at least the last seven months of their lives on pasture. There they eat grass and herbs, occasionally acorns and sweet chestnuts, insects, worms and roots; during fattening this makes up about half of their daily feed. During this time the layer of fat and the intramuscular fat form. The rest of the feed comes mostly from the area and, from the third month, consists of at least 60 % cereals. The animals are slaughtered at 12 to 24 months.

Salting is traditionally done with salt from Salies-de-Béarn, which has many trace elements and large crystals. After the first drying the ham is covered with a protective layer based on lard. At least six months pass between salting and the start of ripening. After that it ripens for at least ten months in rooms that are open to the outside on several sides, so that temperature and humidity follow the weather outside. At the end the protective layer is removed and the inner side is traditionally covered with Piment d’Espelette, which according to the specification is particularly suitable because of its rather mild heat. All steps from the birth of the piglets to the ripening of the hams take place in the area.

Origin & history

The area lies largely in the French Basque Country and includes neighbouring municipalities to the east and north; it extends from the Pyrenees in the south to the Atlantic in the west. The climate is Atlantic, with 1,200 to 2,000 mm of rain a year without a dry season and with mild winters. A foehn-like south wind brings spells of heat and dry air, especially in autumn and spring. The valley basins hold fields and pastures, while on the slopes pastures, heaths and woods of pedunculate oak, sweet chestnut and beech alternate; the pastures grow almost all year round.

According to the specification, substances from the pasture plants accumulate in the fat, slow down rancidity and so allow the long ripening that shapes the aromas of the ham.

The name goes back to the “Droit de quinta” levy, which the kings of Navarre already imposed in the 13th century on pigs driven onto the royal mountains of Navarre during transhumance: the kings claimed every fifth pig.