Iberico Shoulder Range-Fed

It’s amazing, I’m glad that I found Monte Nevado, it’s a real Spanish ham, it tastes just like the ones I normally buy in Spain and it smells amazing. The ham is very good and the amount of fat (or tocino how we call it in Spain) it’s just perfect, one of the magic of the Spanish ham it’s the tocino, that gives to it the special flavor. I’m so happy I found this brand because it makes me feel home ❤️ And I will buy it again for sure. I have tried before their already cut ham and I loved it so this time I tried the Ham shoulder and I don’t regret because it’s simply delicious.

To provide some context, I’ve been buying Costco’s serrano ham leg ($100 or so) over the last three Christmas and overall, I’m quite satisfied: good balance fat/meat, lots of meat easy lasting 3-4 months (eating 2-3 times a week and gifting some to friends), and the taste is definitely a notch above the prosciutto you get at the local supermarket.For this year, I decided to up the game and get a proper “Iberico” bred ham leg. To provide further context, I’ve had Spain’s top of line “pata negra”, acorn fed, 100% iberico. You can tell by the color of the meat and the fat lines and crystals that run across. The taste is well worth the EUR200+ per kilo that it costs at the local (Spain) supermarket. Obviously, I wasn’t expecting that this 50% Iberico ham will look, let alone taste, anything close to the top of line I had in Spain, but I was expecting better than Costco’s serrano ham.So, was it? the taste is indeed deeper and a notch better than Costco’s serrano ham but, it is not 3x better (which is what it costs). Not that I was expecting this to taste 3x or 2x times better. Much of the cost is in the “service” of bringing an Iberico bred ham to the US, which is probably a miniscule market. The balance of fat/meat is a tad worst than Costco’s Serrano ham but not out of context. I would say that it appears to have “too much” fat as other reviewers have written here, because the leg is small with not much meat content to begin with.That brings me to the second problem with this leg. Why the small size? Was it a young animal? Or perhaps it simply did not grow big enough? Whichever case, the end result is that this leg is small with less meat content that it should be. It's probably unsellable in Spain but good enough for export?Anyhow, I’ll continue with my hunt of the perfect Iberico ham next year but it will not be from this brand.

Finally received the jamon today and I am very disappointed. My husband is originally from Spain and we both are foodies. We know what a good iberico jamon should taste like and this is not it, by far! It has lots of fat, but the meat tastes almost stale, not much flavor and some bitter aftertaste. Waste of money.

This leg is pretty tasty compared to similar qualities available. Definitely worth the upgrade from a Serrano. Even though it's 50% iberico it still has a nice aged flavor, soft bright center meat, and a great texture. After trying Fermin and other products I can say that Monte is a pretty good brand and I will purchase other legs from them in the future.

Knife sharpener was not included. The picture shows that a knife sharpener is included - no sharpener was with my item. The instructions for assembling the holder for the ham were actually instructions for a different holder.

There is nothing to like about this other than the knife. Terrible taste, I doubt the wild raven will even eat it. The knife stand is not worthy of gifting. This special gift was a huge disappointment. Negative star rating.

I really loved this Shoulder, great taste . It has more fat than a Ham but that is expected. The holder could be better. The screws are not good at all. I would recomend watching a video on how to cut a shoulder to get more for your money. Jamon lovers have great videos on YouTube. Overall definitely recomended. Will by again for sure.

The Iberico ham shoulder was nicely packed and very greasy (to be expected). The shoulder was only 10 lbs. When min was supposed to be 12 lbs. Flavor a bit fuzzy yet and very chewy. It might be the area we are cutting right now though. This was a novelty. Not sure it is worth it yet.