Cured meats & cheeses recipes
Jamón, chorizo, Manchego — the Spanish larder.
15 recipes
Cabrales
A powerful raw-milk blue cheese from the Picos de Europa, aged for months in damp limestone caves that grow its blue-green veins. Intense and mineral, it is eaten in slivers with bread and cider, or melted into a fierce sauce for steak.
Cecina de León
Air-dried, gently smoked beef from León, cecina is sliced whisper-thin and dressed simply so its deep, mineral flavour leads. This is less a recipe than an act of respect: good cecina, good oil, and almost nothing else.
Chistorra
A thin, fast-cured pork sausage bright with paprika and garlic, chistorra is Navarre's answer to a quick, sizzling snack. Cooked until its scarlet fat renders, it is unbeatable straight from the pan with bread or tucked into a soft roll.
Chorizo
Chorizo al vino simmers slices of the paprika-rich sausage in red wine until they plump up and stain the sauce a deep russet. It is one of the simplest and most satisfying tapas, ready in minutes and impossible to stop eating.
Idiazábal
A firm raw sheep's-milk cheese from the Basque and Navarrese hills, nutty and deep, with an optional smoky note that recalls the shepherds' cabins where it once cured in the rafters. Rather than cooking it, the art is in serving it so its character shines.
Jamón Ibérico
Spain's most prized cured ham, from acorn-fed Iberian pigs and aged for years until it melts on the tongue with a deep, nutty sweetness. The whole skill lies in cutting and serving it well, because good jamón needs nothing done to it.
Jamón Serrano
Spain's everyday cured ham, air-dried in the mountain air for a year or more until it is firm, salty and savoury. Leaner and more robust than ibérico, it is the workhorse of the Spanish table, as good in a sandwich as on a board.
Lomo Embuchado
Cured pork loin is one of Spain's most refined embutidos: a lean whole muscle rubbed with pimentón and garlic, then air-dried for months into deep-red, silky slices. Like all great charcuterie, the recipe here is really about buying well and serving simply.
Mojama
Salt-cured and air-dried tuna loin, dense and deep red, nicknamed the ham of the sea for its intensity. An ancient Cádiz delicacy, it is served in the simplest way possible, in thin slices with good oil and almonds, so its concentrated flavour dominates.
Morcilla
Morcilla de Burgos is a dark, spiced blood sausage bound with short-grain rice and sweet onion, firm enough to slice yet meltingly soft when fried. Its perfume of clove, cinnamon and paprika is what sets the Burgos style apart from every other blood sausage in Spain.
Queso Mahón
Queso Mahón is Menorca's cow's-milk cheese, its orange rind rubbed with butter and paprika during ageing and its flavour turned salty and sharp by the island's sea air. Rather than a recipe, it is best enjoyed simply, dressed the traditional Menorcan way.
Queso Manchego
Queso Manchego is the firm sheep's-milk cheese of the La Mancha plains, made only from the milk of the Manchega breed and marked with the herringbone pattern of its old esparto moulds. A cornerstone of any Spanish table, it shines in the simple, classic pairing with quince paste.
Salchichón
Salchichón is a patient, peppery cured sausage that relies on good pork, salt, coarse black pepper and time rather than paprika for its character. Making it at home is a curing project, best attempted in cool, humid conditions.
Sobrasada
Sobrasada is Mallorca's soft, spreadable cured sausage, glowing red with pimentón and rich enough to melt onto warm bread. Curing it at home takes patience and cool conditions, but the payoff is a paprika-scented paste unlike anything shop-bought.
Tetilla
Queixo Tetilla is Galicia's gentle, creamy cow's-milk cheese, known as much for its conical shape as its mild, buttery tang. Making a young version at home is an accessible introduction to soft-cheese making.
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