CURE ALL

From Italian prosciutto to French saucisson, these are the best cured meats for your charcuterie board.

- Audrey Morgan,Greg DuPree

In the Catalonian town of Girona, a large metal door opened to reveal thousands of ham legs, hanging from the rafters like bulky baseball bats. The cool air carried aging meat’s distinctive funk: jamón serrano, Spain’s iconic salt-cured ham.

Traditionally, these hams were hung in curing sheds, explained Álvaro Díaz de Liaño López, marketing director at the Consorcio del Jamón Serrano. As the cold, moist winters gave way to hot, dry summers, salt would slowly release throughout the flesh, and enzymes would break down the meat’s fat, creating concentrated flavors and an unctuous texture. Modern facilities mimic the seasons with climate-controlled rooms and yield equally spectacular results.

Many of these hams would end up in the United States, packaged for brands like Costa Brava Mediterranean Foods and Noel Alimentaria. The latter had gotten me interested in jamón serrano in the first place. If you search “Costco ham” on TikTok, videos with millions of views show people unboxing 14-pound hams from Noel Alimentaria and carving paper-thin slices for holiday parties. Thirty years ago, jamón serrano couldn’t even be found in the U.S.

How did this happen? I wondered. How did European-style charcuterie become a holiday flex available to anyone with a Costco Gold Star membership?

For thousands of years, curing meat was the only way to preserve it. “Humans didn’t create this culinary marvel for our own pleasure. We did it for our survival,” says Michael Ruhlman, co-author, with chef and culinary instructor Brian Polcyn, of the 2005 cookbook