page_title: Jamón ibérico
section_title: Pata Negra
hierarchical_section_title: Jamón ibérico / Commercial grading and labeling / Pata Negra
caption_attribution_description: Jabugo - 003
context_page_description: Jamón Ibérico, "Iberian ham", is variety of Jamón, a type of cured ham produced in Spain and Portugal, where it may be labeled as presunto ibérico.
context_section_description: Meaning literally black leg, pata negra is a commercial label for jamón ibérico. In colloquial Spanish and popular culture, it is used as a superlative or synonym of the best.
  It referred to the color of the pigs' hoof, which are white or fair-colored in most traditional and commercial pork breeds in Spain, but always black in the Black Iberian breed.
  The term used to be liberally applied in both Spanish and Portuguese, leading to quality and markets disputes, since the term was used interchangeably both as great quality jamón (of any breed) and ibérico jamón (of any quality). Along reputable pata negra producers, there were plenty of doubtful producers using the term in their labeling.
  Jamón has also been sold unlabeled in small towns and unpretentious establishments all around rural Spain. While as a general rule, a black hoof should indicate an Ibérico ham, the ancestry could be exceedingly cross-bred or untraceable, and also there were cases of ham sourced from rare breeds with dark hoofs, and even manually darkened hoofs.
  
  Modern regulations only allow the use of the wording pata negra for black label jamón sourced from acorn-fed pure-bred Black Iberian pork.
caption: The locality of Jabugo is completely dedicated to the Jamón production.
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