Pueblos con encanto: La Alberca and the Sierra de Francia

Sun setting on Miranda del Castañar and the Sierra de Francia

Last weekend I took a road trip to Salamanca, my first time there! Rather than write about that, which I imagine dozens of bloggers and travel guides have already done to death, I thought I would write about the other part of that trip: a visit to the beautiful, and less-well-known Sierra de Francia south of Salamanca. Most visitors to Spain, particularly to Madrid, often manage to see the many impressive mid-sized cities of interior Spain... Ávila, Salamanca, Toledo, Segovia... etc. But once again I want to make a plug for seeing Spain's rural, off-the-beaten-path sights. Which is why I'm revisiting my series, "Pueblos con encanto", with this photo recollection of my visit to La Alberca, a hike through the surrounding Sierra, and my jamón fest in the other must-see pueblo of the Sierra, Miranda del Castañar.

Some of the many "Lugares de Interés Turístico" listed on a sign at a
pit stop on the AP-6 between Ávila and Madrid. I've been to three of these
(Ávila, Salamanca, and Segovia), and seen a fourth from the highway.
What about you?

• Autumn in the Sierra de Francia

There are many hiking trails that you can do in the Sierra de Francia. Unfortunately we only had time to do one: La Alberca-Herguijuela, a 3-hour (one-way) trail that connects La Alberca with another, even smaller town Herguijuela de la Sierra. The trail is rated medium difficulty (although it's pretty easy if you skip the final section, a steep descent to Herguijuela that I imagine might tire you out going up it). This is not the most famous trail in the region, which would probably go to the Peña de Francia Trail that leads up to the tallest peak in the region, and which is rated as very difficult, though you can cheat and simply drive up to the top. (Next time!) Still, any hiking in the Sierra de Francia is going to be pretty darn pleasant, especially if you are as fortunate as we were to do it in the Autumn, when fall colors were setting in.

The yellow-white mark of the "P.R.", pequeño recorrido, trails.

And a river runs through it... always fun to see streams crossing the trail

This was about the steepest ascent we had to deal with

You can see the leaves of the Chestnut, Oak, and Pine trees changing colors at different stages, and the trail is covered in fallen leaves, giving it extra charm...

... and you'll find frost on the ground along the turns in the trail where the sun don't shine (a.k.a. "la umbría")!

And like all good trails, eventually you come out to some very nice overlooks, great panoramic views of the Sierra...

That haze or smoke you can see over the valley is from wood-burning fires.
The entire valley, all the towns we visited, smelled of the fireplaces warming houses.

• La Alberca, a foodie's paradise

The Peña de Francia, which
you can see from La Alberca

After our hike we walked around La Alberca, an incredibly quaint and photogenic small town in the Sierra. You'll notice the white-with-wood-stripes architecture typical in this Sierra, which make the main plaza particularly pretty. (I must have taken dozens of photos of it, trying to figure out the right angle of light, since the shadows were difficult at certain times of the day.)

I wouldn't say the town is a secret in the region, since there were large groups of local tourists visiting it on the puente holiday weekend. But it's not so well-known outside of the region, despite its clear beauty and tourist appeal... not to mention the food!

The main square in La Alberca

La Alberca's main square, seen from another angle

The house on the right is an example of the typical architectural style of the pueblos of the region.

Smile for the picture!

Awesome brick-walled path leading from the town center out to the edges of town.

I've written in earlier "Pueblos con encanto" entries that the perfect formula for enjoying these day trips to towns is to hike early in the morning and then save time to visit the town shops for local foods and to eat a hearty meal in the homey, traditional restaurants that always populate these places. Needless to say, that's precisely what we did. We booked a lunch at a recommended restaurant, La Cantina de Elías. After our hike, we were ready for the meat-heavy fare typical of the region.

At the end of the Main Street, at the edge of town, are these old arches and, behind them,
the restaurant, La Cantina de Elías, where you can get some excellent,
homey traditional local food.

I order sopa de ajo every time I'm in a Castilian region, a specialty there.
(Note the beers in the background... they always taste so good after a hike!)

Chuletón! This is one Texan who is always desperate for the steaks in Castilla y León,
in my opinion one of the few regions in Spain where they know how to prepare beef.
This chuletón was made with ternera morucha, a local breed of cow from this region.

After lunch, despite being totally stuffed, we could not resist stopping at half a dozen shops in La Alberca and buying local food products... beans, a specialty of the region, but also sweets and pastries from a highly rated, nationally renowned bakery...

We didn't know about it in advance, but we recognize a good bakery when we see it.
Small towns in Spain are famous for their bakeries, but this bakery in La Alberca was another level!

"Estos jarrones de turrón han salido en el telediario de la primera el día de nochebuena del 2010."
Why take my word for it? If it's good enough to get national news coverage on Christmas Eve,
then it must be good, right?

In addition to the usual suspects, you can find a variety of
local bean varieties in the Sierra de Francia.

• Jamón epilogue in Miranda del Castañar

We stayed overnight in the pueblo Miranda del Castañar, which is noteworthy for its castle and its history as an important center for the Spanish Inquisition. (Don't worry! That was many, many years ago.) While not as pretty as La Alberca, it has just as much to see and do. In our case, the highlight of our stay here turned out to be jamón! The Sierra de Francia is in the heart of Spain's jamón iberico de bellota country. (Please feel free to review my blog entry on it here.) On our drive from Salamanca to Miranda, I was floored when I realized that there were pata negra pigs roaming around the fields of acorn-bearing oak trees adjacent to the country road we were on. It was like right out of a jamón advertisement. (My wife must have wondered if the squeal she heard was from me or the pigs.) The Sierra de Francia is extremely dry, which is why it is a major center for producing the famed Spanish ham, and in particular the high-end variety from pigs that feed on acorns.

One of the coolest things in Miranda del Castañar is this point
on the main street where two opposite houses nearly touch. I can
just picture the owners passing each other the salt.

The town walls, after the castle, are what the guides sell up the most for this town.
There is a shop adjacent to them where you can hear about an old bodega,
which used to run the wine through the walls pouring it out here onto the street for buyers.

Apiarian tools right next to the town walls... Yes, there
is a lot of local honey to be found at the markets here.

The castle during the day.

On our first night we went to a great bar with great atmosphere, La Mandrágora, and ate tostas featuring different high-quality cuts of ham. (I confess, we violated our usual rule of trying different restaurants, and returned there the next night for more.)

From the traditional, quaint exterior, you'd never imagine that La Mandrágora
would have such a hip, modern atmosphere inside.

Mmm... tostas de lomo. This was the nicest quality lomo I had ever had.

While talking to the owner of La Mandrágora, we asked where we could buy some good jamón at a reasonable price, thinking she'd direct us to one of the shops in Miranda del Castañar. Instead, she replied, "You should just go directly to the jamón factory here in town where I get it." She gave us directions (it's not a big town) and told us to tell him that she sent us. We thought, "What a bargain! We'll get it from the source. No middleman!"

But it was even better than that. This is small-town Spain, in an under appreciated tourist area, where people are friendly and proud. (Moreover, as an American, I'm a curiosity in such places, since we're not common there.) So when we struck up a conversation with the jamón factory owner, Jamón Benito Pérez (if you're curious), about differences between food in Spain and the U.S. (e.g. he laughed when we told him that tapas bars in the U.S. are a fancy affair), he invited us down into the cellars where they age the ham and produce the different cuts. Next thing you know, we're getting a free tour and lessons in how jamón is produced!

This is where they cut it up, grind it, and process it.

Salt. Lots of it.

This is only one corner of only one room on only one floor out of four floors full of
hanging jamones! For the best jamones it will take them 3-4 years of hanging here in
the dry Sierra climate to age to perfection.

So our brief weekend in the Sierra de Francia was delicious, and fun, and relaxing. I encourage you to add it to your list of destinations for the next time you're in central Spain. You won't be disappointed. And for the moment, it's still a hidden gem!

One of many spectacular sunsets during our stay in the Sierra de Francia

Another sunset seen from just outside the town walls of Miranda del Castañar

Jamón, Jamón

I have come to associate the Christmas season with Spanish ham, or "jamón". This is because it is quite common for Spaniards to gift each other "un jamón" (i.e. the leg or "pata" of ham) for Xmas, particularly as a professional holiday gift. For example, in many schools it is common for the parents of students to pitch in together and buy the teacher a food gift basket that includes a jamón. My mother-in-law, herself an elementary school teacher, usually gets one each year, making it part of the household tradition to be slicing "fresh" cuts of jamón for the weeks around and after Xmas. (We also start pulling out all the recipes which use jamón as a garnish, like habas beans sauté with garlic and ham, or panini-style jamón y queso sandwiches.) For this reason, you will probably be seeing more and more legs of ham hanging in your markets and supermarkets in the weeks to come as vendors anticipate this holiday demand.

A typical Christmas thank you package from my mother-in-law's elementary school students.

One of the many seasonal joys of the Christmas holiday in Spain, slices of jamón at the in-law's

Just ask Penelope Cruz, what
is more Spanish than tortilla de
patatas con cebolla and jamón?

Most Americans and Brits who come to Spain are aware that Spanish jamón is highly prized here and quite reputed. I'll add my voice to the chorus call that it is delicious and well worth trying, whatever your feelings are about pork. If Spaniards are a bit crazed about pork, Americans are oddly sheepish (pardon the pun) about it. For Americans, pork tends to be sausages, bacon, pepperoni, sliced ham for sandwiches… and occasionally "the other white meat" (i.e. pork chops). It's thought of as a fatty or salty meat. The health conscious therefore often avoid it, and many who would gladly down a burger or fried chicken might have a peculiar policy of steering clear of it...

Which reminds me of a personal story. I had an American friend stay with me in Spain ten years ago, who joined us and our friends on a night out clubbing. Predictably the night started with a tapas dinner, and a friend of a friend at the dinner table, eager and proud to share his culture with this foreign guest, encouraged him to try the jamón serrano, and was startled when my friend resisted…

Spaniard: Try the jamón, it's delicious!
American Friend: Oh, no thank you. I don't eat pork.
Spaniard: Why? Are you vegetarian?
American Friend: No, I'm not a vegetarian.
Sp: Are you jewish?
AF: No, it's not that.
Sp [Now shoving the plate in his face]: Then why not try it? It really is good.
Me (intervening): Yeah, [AF], you really should try it. It's nothing like the pork from back home.
AF: I just don't eat pork. I don't like it.
Sp [now really confused and insistent]: No, it's really good. It won't hurt you. You should try it!
AF [awkwardly tries to change the subject]: So what is that dish...
Me [grinning at the whole experience]

So I'll repeat it, jamón really is nothing like any of the pork products we find back in the States. For Spaniards, pork might be cochinillo asado, sausages ("longanizas", "chorizo" or other "embutido"), or pork chops ("chuletas"), and cuts or sliced ham ("fiambre"), but first and foremost it is jamón, the cured, dried ham, usually encountered in thin slices. In 2009 alone, Spaniards consumed almost 21 million kilos of jamón ibérico, and one culinary blogger convincingly argues that "hay un jamón ibérico a tu medida" (there is a ham that fits each person's taste).

And it has reached such a mystique that certain quality cuts are even popularly considered to be health-promoting. My mother-in-law claims her doctor once said that "the good jamón" (i.e. the jamón de Jabugo, discussed below) shouldn't be a concern for raising her blood pressure or cholesterol… and would even lower it! A reputed Spanish nutritionist, Francisco Grande Covián, was known to say that the Iberian pig was "un olivo con cuatro patas" [an olive tree with four legs], as if to say it was as healthy to consume as olive oil.

You'll find jamón served in sandwiches ("bocadillos"), used as a flavor garnish ("guarnición") in dishes or tapas (like croquetas de jamón, yum!), or, most commonly, served in slices to be eaten on its own or with bread or cheese. (Warning Note: A "bocadillo de jamón (y queso)" _always_ refers to jamón ibérico or serrano on a baguette-style bread; however, "un mixto" has "jamón York", which is Spanish for the kind of uncured soft ham more commonly encountered in the US and UK, and is served on "pan de molde", i.e. sliced soft bread.)

Different kinds of ibérico Spanish hams, in this case all from Guijuelo in Salamanca

While everyone talks about Spanish ham, often in fairly general terms, it's important to realize that there are some important categories and distinctions to jamón. Here I'll try and sketch out the different kinds of jamón products, in case so far they've all just blurred together as 'sliced, cured ham on a platter' to you.

There is a major division drawn between jamón ibérico (the superior) versus jamón serrano (still good, but for more routine consumption). When Grande Covián or my mother-in-law talk about the magically healthful jamón, they are talking about "jamón ibérico", and more specifically about the "jamón ibérico de bellota". The pigs destined for this market are fed exclusively acorns ("bellotas"), left to roam wild, are predominantly the cerdo ibérico breed known as "pata negra", called such because of the breed's characteristic "black legs". Looser (and lesser) production grades of jamón ibérico are the "jamón ibérico de recebo" (acorns and pasture fed) and then the "jamón ibérico de cebo" (grain fed). This last one is what people are usually referring to when they say "jamón ibérico" unless they specify otherwise. In all cases the ham is dried and cured for anywhere between 8 to 36 months. For these superior hams, there are several denominaciones de origen (D.O.) regional labels: the "Jamón de Jabugo", which is produced around the town Jabugo in the sierra de Huelva, and Jamón Ibérico Guijuelo produced around Guijuelo in Salamanca are the two most famous ones; and then there are also D.O. for some hams produced in Los Pedroches in the province of Córdoba and for "Dehesa de Extremadura" in the provinces of Cáceres and Badajoz.

This image highlights the four categories or labels for jamón ibérico, based on looser to stricter
degrees of controls on feed types (grain, field grain, grain and acorn, and acorn)

The famous "pata negra" cerdo ibérico, visibly black.

The cerdo ibérico left to graze for acorns (bellota) and possibly grains (recebo, cebo de campo) in Extremadura

Jamón serrano (which literally means "mountain ham," and is because the drying sheds, secadores, are usually built at higher elevation; this ham is also sometimes referred to simply as "jamón curado") is still pretty darn good, but is less the gourmet's jamón, and more the gourmand's, what one consumes day-to-day or at their local bar. This jamón is made from the Landrace white pig breeds, rather than the pata negra, and it is not usually cured for as long. (Though like wine there are three degrees or denominaciones of how cured it can be: "bodega" (9-12 months), "reserva" (12-15 months), and "gran reserva" (more than 15 months). The most famous of these that I've heard people talk of is the "Jamón de Teruel," the best of which some people say rivals jamón ibérico (it was the first Spanish ham to receive a D.O.), but there is also "Jamón de Huelva" and "Jamón de Trevélez" (in Granada).

And it's obviously not just the kind of ham, but also the cut. As one Spanish blogger explains,
different cuts along the leg will have different consistencies, meatier or fattier, more and less tough.

Given this deep pride and technical elaboration, I strongly encourage you to try jamón at least once, whatever your opinion of pork might be. (Though I, of course, will understand if vegetarians, Jews, and Muslims opt not to.) Pork is excellent in Spain, and jamón king, so any opportunity you have to try it is worth taking! Particularly since, until recently (around 2008-2009), the United States didn't allow Spanish jamón to be imported, and it is still the case that you can't bring it through customs for personal consumption. (Indeed, if my in-laws accounts of U.S. Customs are typical, it seems to be a running joke among border agents at international airports to tease entering Spaniards about whether they've brought in with them illegally any jamón... which would have to be surrendered on the spot and added to the agents' personal stash.)

Interesting footnote: I know a food anthropologist in the States who's been studying a farm in North Carolina (or is it Virginia?) that raises the Spanish pata negra breed there, but with few of the intense D.O. quality controls that occur in Spain. They are sold as "heritage breed pigs".