Iberian ham and salt

At Ibericomio we are crazy about Iberian ham and we want to share with you all the knowledge we have about it.

In a previous article, we talked about the relationship between the consumption of between the consumption of Iberian ham, salt intake and hypertension.. The information we provide is reliable and contrasted. We hope it will be of interest to you, but in this article we will talk directly about salt and ham.

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How does salt influence Iberian ham?

Salt is a vital component in the production of Iberian ham. Without it, the ham cannot be cured and therefore it is unfeasible to produce an Iberian ham without salt.

Can there be a cured ham without salt?

An Iberian ham or shoulder ham is impossible without the salting process.

By salting the ham, in a process of osmosis, the salt extracts the water from the lean ham. The average time in salt of a ham or shoulder can vary depending on the following factors, among others:

• pH at which the fresh piece arrives from the slaughterhouse
• Amount of fat contained in the piece
• Animal feeding

A high pH, above 6.5, implies a greater water retention capacity and will therefore hinder the curing process. Optimally, the pH should be between 5.5 and 6.0. A higher pH means a higher amount of salt, a lower pH means we should shorten the period of the piece in the salting chamber.

The greater the amount of fat in the piece, the greater the difficulty in osmosis and therefore the more salt will be required.

If the animal has consumed a lot of acorns, the levels of monounsaturated fatty acids in the meat will be high. These fatty acids also prevent salt penetration. For this reason, it is common for a leg of acorn-fed acorn-fed ham to spend more time in salt than a leg of cebo or cebo campo ham.

The salt used in the salting process will always be a combination of new salt and salt already used in previous salting processes. In addition, it is important that the relative humidity of the room is above 90% so that the salt is dissolved and remains moist. This facilitates its effective penetration into the ham or shoulder.

Thanks to the osmosis process, the salt deposited on the ham will extract a large part of the water from the ham. In the absence of water, the life of microorganisms is not feasible and putrefaction will be avoided.

How long does the salting process of Iberian ham take?

When a large part of the water has been extracted, the ham is turned over so that the salt reaches all the muscles of the ham and the correct curing process is achieved.

The salt is charged with the ham’s fluids and fluid proteins such as myoglobin. For this reason, the salt from a ham salting facility will have an ivory or somewhat pinkish color.

Until recently, it was customary to keep between 1.5 and 2 days of salting per kg of fresh weight. This resulted in hams and shoulders with 6 grams of salt per 100 grams of product. This is an enormous and unhealthy amount of salt for the daily nutritional needs of an adult person.

How much salt is in an Iberian ham?

According to WHO reports, people with hypertension should not consume more than 5 grams of salt per day. On this basis, the Iberian ham production industry has been reducing the salting time of the ham. This is no easy task. A balance must be found. Salt is critical in the overall ham drying process.

At present, the average salting time for an Iberian ham is 1 day per kg of fresh weight. As white ham has less monounsaturated fats, salting time is shorter, about 0.7 days per kg. of weight.

The result is that, today, the amount of salt per 100 grams. of Iberian ham from any producer of Iberian ham is between 3 grams and 5 grams of salt. Typical parameters are around 3.4g/100g – 3.8g/100g.

If the ham contains less than 3 grams, defects may appear. Soft and pasty flesh. above 5 grams, the salty ham would be very noticeable.

Why do hams seem to us to have the same salt when their salt content is lower than a few years ago?

It is increasingly common to buy sliced ham at the supermarket or at ibericomio.es. Many times, anxiety gets the better of us. We take the ham out of the fridge, open it and eat it. As a result, it seems salty to us.

An important aspect to consider: The temperature of consumption influences the perception of salt.

When consumed cold, ham will always seem much saltier than ham at room temperature. Why? Because the fat present in ham at room temperature is a barrier to the perception of salt. Cold fat does not contribute anything to the ham.

Don’t tell us that you remove the fat from the ham because that is a sin. The fat contains all the volatile compounds that generate the aroma that makes Iberian ham a unique product.

If you are one of those who wait for the ham to temper, there is another reason for that salty perception: The level of sodium in our saliva has decreased and… the perception of saltyness is established by the difference between the sodium in our saliva and the sodium level of the food.

Consequence: Although the level of saltiness of Iberian ham has decreased, as the level of sodium in our saliva has also decreased, the ham will still seem as salty to us as it did a few years ago.

By the way, ham proteins bind and fix the salt. A very high temperature breaks this binding and will generate a greater salinity in the taste of the Iberian ham. Therefore, when any cured ham is grilled, the product will be excessively salty.

How does the salt content of Iberian ham affect a consumer’s health??

We have already indicated that the WHO recommends a maximum of 5 grams of salt per day. Assuming that we consume 50 grams of Iberian ham per day, we would be ingesting about 2 grams of salt with our ham. Therefore, the consumption of Iberian ham, in the amounts indicated, is perfectly compatible with the WHO recommendation.

It has been demonstrated that Iberian ham, during the curing process, also generates compounds that can compensate for the presence of salt, which is so negative for people with hypertension. Iberian ham contains compounds such as potassium, monounsaturated fatty acids, amino acids such as tyrosine and arginine.

Potassium, among other functions, helps to reduce the negative effects of sodium on blood pressure. Monounsaturated fatty acids help reduce your LDL (bad) cholesterol level. It has been shown that regular intake of tyrosine is able to improve memory from dopamine synthesis. Finally, arginine may play an important role in cardiac ailments as it increases blood flow through the coronary artery.

In 2009, the Department of Biomedical Humanities of the University of Navarra published the study “Consumption of cured ham and incidence of cardiovascular events, arterial hypertension or weight gain“ whose conclusions are that there is no evidence that consumption of cured ham is associated with increased cardiovascular risk, arterial hypertension or weight gain.

In addition, several ongoing studies will soon reveal that Iberian ham or shoulder ham are rich and very healthy products.

What difference in taste can I find between a ham with a nutritional value of 3.4g of salt and one with 3.8g of salt?

If you notice, we are talking about a variation of 0.4 grams in 100 grams of product. A consumer will not be able to perceive any variation between the two products. From a nutritional point of view, we are talking about a difference in the maximum daily intake of 0.4 grams more salt per day, that would be a 2% variation in your salt intake.

How does a producer guarantee that its entire ham production has a salt content of 3.6g/100g as indicated in its nutritional information?

In order to determine the values to be included in the nutritional table on the label of a food, the regulations require producers to have the declared value tested among a representative number of the product. In addition, an average of all salt contents obtained will not be used. The highest amount of salt obtained among all the products tested will always be reported in the table. In the case of salt, it must be expressed to at least 1 decimal place.

We already know what the regulations tell us. Several factors must now be taken into consideration:

– Iberian ham is a living product

– Not all parts of the ham will contain the same amount of salt.

– Ham production is not as homogeneous as that of the screws. Especially in artisanal productions. In the high-performance meat industries it is easier to achieve standardization of all the parts that are produced.

So we might think that 3.6 grams is not going to be a realistic value? The answer is clear and simple. Yes, the 3.6g/100g is an amount perfectly controlled by the producer. Technology and years of handcrafting Iberian ham allow the producer to control the salt content of each piece with an error of less than 1%.