Iberico Ham | Premium Fermin Paleta de Cebo de Campo - 10-12 lbs
What you're actually buying
| Approximate weight | 10–12 lb, bone-in |
| Servings of 1 oz | about 67 |
| Cost per serving | about $7.31 |
Servings are an estimate based on typical edible yield once bone, rind and outer fat are removed.
Fermín Paleta de Cebo de Campo Ibérica, 10–12 lb
The front leg of a free-range Ibérico pig raised on grass, grain and whatever the dehesa provides. Cebo de campo sits between Serrano and bellota: unmistakably Ibérico in character, at a price that lets you keep a whole piece on the counter rather than saving it for an occasion.
A paleta is smaller than a jamón and quicker to work through, which makes it the sensible first whole piece for a household rather than a party.
Handcrafted using traditional artisanal techniques at Fermín in La Alberca, Salamanca, a producer working in the region since 1956.
Enjoy it as a tapa, on a charcuterie board, or as the centrepiece of a Spanish table.
How to know it's the real thing
Spanish law (Real Decreto 4/2014) requires every Ibérico piece to carry a coloured seal declaring breed and feed. Four colours, no ambiguity:
- Black — bellota 100% ibérico: pure Iberian breed, acorn-fed, free-range
- Red — bellota ibérico: crossed breed, acorn-fed, free-range
- Green — cebo de campo: free-range, fed on grass and grain
- White — cebo: grain-fed, raised indoors
This piece carries the green seal: an Ibérico animal raised outdoors in the dehesa on grass and grain rather than acorns. Not bellota, and priced accordingly — but a long way from a barn-raised white pig. How to check that seal yourself, with the piece in front of you.
A stand and a knife: $88, once
No holder is included with this paleta, and a kitchen knife will not cut a slice long enough or thin enough. Two items and you are set — and this is the part people miscount: the equipment outlives the piece. Buy it once and every paleta after this one costs nothing extra.
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Holder Ham — Cuenca 100% natural wood, made in Spain · no rotational system listed · knife not included |
$49 |
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Professional carving knife, 295 mm, with sharpener Teflon blade · the sharpener is not a bonus: a paleta stays open for weeks |
$39 |
| Both, once | $88 |
Across the 67 servings in this paleta that is about $1.31 a serving the first time: $490 + $88 = $578, or about $8.63 per 1 oz serving all in. On your second paleta it goes back to $7.31.
Carving often? The Premium Holder Ham Segovia ($190) declares a premium rotational system, which the Cuenca does not — with the same knife that is $229, or about $3.42 a serving spread over this piece. All holders and knives are here.
Prices verified 19 October 2026.
Green seal or black? Our two Fermín bone-in shoulders, side by side
We stock two whole Fermín Ibérico shoulders, and they are different grades. The part that is not obvious from the shelf: the bigger piece is also the dearer one per serving. Seventy-three servings for $559 works out above sixty-seven servings for $490.
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This one — cebo de campo, green seal 10–12 lb · about 67 servings · about $7.31 each |
$490 |
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Fermín acorn-fed shoulder — bellota, black seal 10–14 lb · about 73 servings · about $7.66 each |
$559 |
So the $69 between them does not buy more ham per dollar. It buys a better grade: the acorn diet and the pure Iberian breed, the montanera fat that melts at room temperature, and the top of the four legal grades. That is a real difference on the plate, and it is the reason to pay it.
Buy this one if you want a whole Ibérico piece on the counter and the green seal is honest about what it is — of these two it is the cheaper per serving. Buy the black seal if bellota is the point of the exercise. Both are Fermín, both bone-in, both need the same $88 of equipment.
Worth reading before you commit to a whole piece
- Jamón or paleta: which should you buy? — the front leg against the rear leg, piece by piece, in cost per serving. This is the paleta side of that comparison, and in two of the three pairs the paleta wins on cost per bite.
- Bellota vs cebo de campo vs serrano — the four legal grades with the cost per serving of the whole pieces side by side, this one included. Read it before you decide between a paleta and a full leg: the order is not the one the price tags suggest.
- Is a whole jamón cheaper than sliced? — the full arithmetic with the $88 of equipment counted in, and the point at which a whole piece wins.
- How much jamón do I need? — 67 servings feeds about 33 people at 2 oz each. This works out your own guest count, and prices the same party three ways.
- How to carve a whole jamón — first cut, which way the piece faces, what the stand and knife cost, and how to keep the cut face covered between sessions.
- Spanish ham in Miami — our address and phone, and how pickup works if you would rather not ship a 10–12 lb piece.
- Jamón Ibérico for restaurants and shops — the same figures expressed as cost per 2 oz plate, with this paleta in the bone-in table.
- The Ibérico buying guide — seals, cost per bite, bone-in vs boneless, and keeping a piece once it is open.
