If you know Spanish food, or know your way around a plate of charcuterie, then you probably know about jamon serrano, the dry cured ham from Spain, similar to Italian prosciutto. Jamon serrano also has a couple of sisters, jamon jabugo, and the one that has gotten a lit bit of press lately, jamon iberico.

Jamon Iberico is made from black Iberian pigs, which are allowed to range freely in Spain's dehesa, a woodland of evergreens, and other trees and plants. The pigs graze on chestnuts and acorns. Until recently, jamon iberico has not been allowed into the US because slaughterhouses in Spain did not pass USDA sanctions. However, Fermin, a small family owned operation in Spain received approval by the USDA about two years ago. The jamones that they started curing back then are now becoming available and are scheduled to arrive in the US by early summer.

I have taken a peek at tienda.com, an online resource for Spanish foods and food products, but any orders placed for Iberian ham are set to be shipped in Winter 2007 at the earliest. And that's if you have $668 to spare!

Give me a plate of cold meats a little cheese, crusty bread and a few glasses of wine and I am a happy chap. Spanish preferably...

• Butifarra - a speciality of Catalonia Butifarra, is a cooked sausage made from chopped lean pork, just occassionally having a little chopped mushroom in addition to salt and pepper. Sold in strings for grilling or in larger rounds for slicing and serving cold.
• Cecina - most produced around Leon. Made from beef, cecina is salted and smoked over oak before air-curing for upwards of six months. More intense than the Italian equivalent Bresaola.
• Chorizo - perhaps the most well known of Spanish meats with its distinctive colouring hailing from the use of pimenton (a Spanish paprika). Made from pork and pork fat. Available in all shapes and sizes.
• Jamon - air-cured ham and the king of charcuterie in Spain. Sliced as required from a whole leg or pre-sliced and vacuum packed. Varieties include Jamon Serrano and Jamon Iberico.
• Lomo - a complete loin of pork with all fat removed is coated with a dry marinade of garlic, nutmeg, salt and pimenton. This is stuffed into a casing and air-cured for at least six months. Delicate in flavour.
• Morcilla - blood sausage/black pudding. Highly spiced with cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, and anise. Often plumped up with onions or pine nuts. Sold pre-sliced or in thick chunks.
• Salchichon - when chorizo has the pimenton replaced with pepper (black or white) it becomes Salchichon. Often studded with peppercorns much like a salami. A fuet is a thinner version from Catalonia.