Iberico pork
In Holland, I learned that eating too much pork ususally costs some issues with your skin and we know that many don't eat pork due to their beliefs. I was never so aware about pork and what it did to my skin until my last years in Holland. I also didn't eat that much pork to begin with so there's that. My favourite pork cut in Holland must be the bacon to add to typical Dutch stew with potatoes and vegetables.
But then we went to Spain and the first host told us about Iberico and one evening we had iberico for dinner but probably not prepared the best way because both of us don't remember being impressed, at all. So we kind of forgot about Iberico being so great for some years. Until we moved back to Spain a few years ago and you can't deny Iberico here because it's litteraly on every restaurant's menu. It comes in small tapas but also plates and some offer it from the grill, even better!
Curious to read more about Iberico? Check it here
I have to say that Iberico is probably the meat that dissapoints the least here in Spain if you ask us, order a steak and your average will be not so great, order any beef cut for a tapa, and you'll probably not be impressed much because it seems that Spanish restaurants master the Iberico cuts best. And why wouldn't they, we're in Spain after all!
As a person that isn't that fond about meat as many are, I rather eat no meat than a bad piece of it, I value a good piece of whatever I ordered. If it comes in a small tapa sized dish or plate, that's no difference to me but if I try to cut something and it's all chewy, you lost me and I will probably never order it there again. Heck, I can even be done with that type of meat for months just because of remembering that bad part, lol.
My boyfriend is different, he will keep trying, he loves meat much more than I do. The thing is, he doesn't have the risk of getting constipated by too much meat like I do, it's a leftover gift from a surgery decades ago, and therefore I listen to my body when and don't eat much meat in general as it adds to the problem.
Christmas decoration in the local restaurant where we shared the above dish of Secreto Iberico
Iberico made me forget about beef!
I never thought I'd say this but once we gave Iberico (mostly the secret cut!) a new try in some restaurants, we learned that this was the way to go if you don't want to get dissapointed. Even better if they prep it on the grill, I mean, that's just so delicious! But everything tastes better on the grill, doesn't it?
The type of meat that you could always give me, was a good steak, but these are more difficult to find, not only when going for a bite somewhere but also in the stores. The meat is different here, it's harder to find the good cuts and sometimes if we find a good piece, the butcher just doesn't cut it the way we are used to (and prefer) eating it and then we have ourselves a dissapointment again.
Once I embraced secreto Iberico again, I never bothered to even ask for a steak, haha. Secreto Iberico is the secret cut of this meat, from what I read it depends a bit on the butcher how it's done but either way, it rarely dissapoints. We love eating it with some pepper cream sauce but it's one of the few things that I love to eat even without much veggies on the side, although I truly appreciate some grilled peppers such as in the pictures above. It's one of my favourite things to add to this meat.
We never attempted to make this at home, why? I'm afraid without any knowledge about a good part of the meat, that it will be a failure to begin with. But hey, since we're sticking around here, I might as well give that a try one day and see if I can grill it at home.
Have you ever tried Secreto Iberico or any of the other cuts? Let me know in the comments..
All pictures above are mine...