The Dry Cure

Presa de cerdo ibérico is the shoulder cap of the Iberian pig — anatomically the muscle between the loin head and the shoulder, one of the most marbled cuts on the entire animal. The presa is marinated in our own house American Embers Chipotle BBQ Sauce — the same in-house formula at SAL-1104, built on tomato, cebolla, cane sugar, miel, chipotle, sea salt, garlic, ground cumin, pimentón, citric and ascorbic acid stabilisers, and bay laurel — slow-cooked through the marinade and freeze-dried into mahogany shards with translucent fat sparkle. The product carries the same Spanish-Mexican axis the BBQ sauce embodies, now in dry form. The high oleic-acid fat of bellota Iberico is what makes the desiccation chemically viable — monounsaturated, structurally stable, surviving the vacuum-sublimation intact and re-melting at body temperature on the tongue. A luxury cured-meat snack: crisp on first bite, melting on second, releasing oak-smoked chipotle, pimentón, tomato umami, miel and bay laurel in concert with the Iberico’s nut-fat character.