La Cura Seca
◆ In House

La Cura Seca

Freeze-Dried Iberian Jerky
€21.90
Marbled Ibérico presa marinated in the house's chipotle BBQ sauce, slow-cooked and freeze-dried into shards that stay crisp on the first bite and melt on the second.
1
Origin España
Producer Zales & Rego
Volume 75 g
Appearance

Mahogany shards with translucent fat sparkle

Aroma

Oak-smoked chipotle, sweet pimentón, dried tomato, bay laurel, Iberico fat

Taste · Primary

Iberico acorn-fed nut-fat, oak smoke, sweet pimentón

Taste · Secondary

Chipotle slow-heat, tomato umami, miel sweetness, bay laurel

Texture

Crisp shattering on first bite, fat melts as it warms on the tongue

Finish

Long, smoky-sweet, with a sustained acorn-pork-fat resonance

queso manchego semicurado
FROM OUR TABLECuatro LunasOrganic Semi-Cured Manchego DOP

Presa de cerdo ibérico is the shoulder cap of the Iberian pig, one of the most marbled cuts on the entire animal. The presa marinates in the house's own chipotle BBQ sauce, tomato, onion, cane sugar, miel, chipotle, sea salt, garlic, cumin, pimentón and bay laurel, slow-cooked through the marinade and freeze-dried into mahogany shards with translucent fat sparkle.

The high oleic-acid fat of bellota Ibérico is what makes the desiccation chemically viable, monounsaturated, structurally stable, surviving the vacuum sublimation intact and re-melting at body temperature on the tongue.

laboratorio antiguo
The Producer

Zales & Rego - Alcorcón, Madrid

The line starts in a botica in Mondoñedo, Galicia, where remedies, conserves and spices once shared the same shelf. Alonzo Rego carried the trade to Cádiz in 1776, then across the Atlantic to Veracruz in 1795. In 1888, Don Ismael Rego y Salcedo gave the house its formal name. Seven generations later, Zales & Rego returns to the old world, composing and selecting from a workshop in Alcorcón, Madrid: compose, select, preserve the excellent.
Founded 1888
Generations Seven, documented in archive
Workshop Alcorcón, Madrid
Philosophy Compose. Select. Preserve the Excellent.
The Process

Marinated, cooked, then freeze-dried.

Presa, the marbled shoulder cap of the Ibérico pig, marinates in the house's chipotle BBQ sauce before slow-cooking through it. The high oleic-acid fat in bellota Ibérico is stable enough to survive vacuum sublimation intact, so freeze-drying doesn't dry the fat out, it stays ready to re-melt at body temperature. What's left is crisp on the first bite and molten on the second.
Cut Presa, shoulder cap
Marinade House chipotle BBQ sauce
Fat High oleic-acid, survives freeze-drying intact
Texture Crisp, then melting

“Freeze-drying usually dries out the fat. Ibérico fat just waits.”

Zales & Rego · España