🇪🇸Cuts in Spanish

Spanish butchery traditions vary by region — Galicia's beef culture, Catalonia's charcuterie, Andalusia's Iberian pork, Basque pintxos and chuletón — but share a vocabulary shaped by centuries of curing, roasting, and slow-braising unique to the Iberian peninsula. The Iberian black pig (cerdo ibérico) anchors Spain's most prized pork tradition: pluma, presa, secreto, lagarto, lomo, jamón ibérico de bellota — each cut precisely named, dry-cured for months or years.

Spanish beef nomenclature differs from Mexican and Argentine Spanish: solomillo for tenderloin, lomo alto for ribeye, cadera for rump. The chuletón — a thick bone-in rib steak, often from old dairy cows aged for tenderness — is the centrepiece of Basque and northern Spanish steakhouse culture. Curing, charcuterie, and aged meats define Spanish butchery as much as fresh cuts; the country's culinary identity is inseparable from its cured-pork traditions.