The parts of an Iberian jamón and paleta, zone by zone

A whole piece does not taste the same from one end to the other. Depending on where the knife passes, the slice comes out fatty or lean, tender or dry, mild or distinctly salty. Here are the six zones, what sets them apart, and which one to start with.

Where this information comes from

The names of the zones and the assessment criteria come from Real Decreto 84/2026, published in the Boletín Oficial del Estado on 11 February 2026, which creates the Spanish qualification for master carvers. The definitions of the pieces and the minimum weights come from Real Decreto 4/2014, articles 2 and 12. The carving rule comes from the manual of the Escuela Europea de Cortadores de Jamón.

The rest comes from our own practice: we carve whole pieces all year round. We flag it every time, because on this particular subject the line between the official text and the trade’s own usage runs straight through the middle of the article.

What the decree names, and what it does not define

Until 2026, no Spanish text named the zones of a ham. Not the quality standard for Iberian products, not the specifications of the protected designations of origin. The vocabulary passed from carver to carver, with regional variants nobody had ever settled.

The February 2026 decree changes that halfway. It requires the future qualified carver to identify “the most common names” for the parts of the piece, and lists them: maza, babilla, punta, jarrete, contramaza, caña and pezuña. It also names the bones the knife will meet. But it defines none of these zones, and the word “common” says exactly what they are: trade usage, not a standard.

The six zones

Zone names: Real Decreto 84/2026, module 5158. Positions and profiles: trade usage and our own carving practice.

The two faces: maza and babilla

The maza is the rear face of the thigh, the one carrying the whole mass of the hind leg muscles. The femur sits far from the surface, which leaves a considerable thickness of meat. It is the juiciest zone, the best marbled, and the slowest to dry. The 2026 decree even makes it a visual quality criterion: on a good piece, the maza is “even and wrapped in fat”.

The babilla is the opposite face, at the front of the thigh. The femur and the hip bone come close to the surface, the layer of meat is thin, and the fat cover lighter. The same decree describes it as “lightly wrapped in fat”, in contrast to the maza. It therefore loses its water faster, concentrates in salt, and yields shorter, drier slices.

This is not a flaw, it is geometry. The meat sits closer to the bone and is less protected, so it cures faster. Plenty of people who like long-cured ham prefer this zone precisely for that: it is franker and more concentrated.

The extremities

The punta sits at the very top of the piece, at the end opposite the trotter, at hip level. The trade holds it to be the fattiest and most aromatic zone, and many carvers save it for the end of a service. We share that view, but we give it for what it is: a tasting observation, not a measurement.

At the other end, the jarrete and the caña. The meat there is threaded with tendons and fibres, which makes a thin slice impossible. This is where taquitos come from, small dice to cook with or to nibble, and the bone left afterwards makes an excellent stock.

As for the contramaza, it is the zone whose name moves around the most. Some carvers see it as a narrow band extending the maza on the far side of the hip bone; others use the word as a plain synonym for babilla. The decree lists both terms together without choosing between them. So do not be surprised to find two definitions depending on the source: the ambiguity is real, and it is not your doing.

Which face to start on

No text imposes an answer. The 2026 decree only asks the future master carver to know how to choose between the maza and the babilla, which amounts to acknowledging that the choice is a judgement.

The rule taught in carving schools is simple. For a piece that will go quickly, a family meal or an event, start on the maza: it is the most generous, it gives the best slices, and they may as well be served. For a piece you will open and eat over several months, start on the babilla.

The reason fits in one sentence: the babilla dries faster. Saving it for last means finding it hard three months in. The maza, being fattier, copes with waiting far better.

That said, part of the trade disputes the rule and argues that drying depends above all on how the piece is looked after: putting the fat cover back after each service, covering it, and carving regularly. Both positions hold up. We follow the rule, and we look after the piece anyway. The detail on equipment and storage is in our buying guide and in our article on storing a ham after opening.

And on a paleta

The same names circulate, but no text mentions them for the paleta: there we are entirely in trade usage. Carvers speak of maza and contramaza on the same principles, with the same logic of a fleshy face and a lean one.

What really changes is the bone. A jamón is built around long, aligned bones. A paleta articulates on the shoulder blade, a wide flat bone crossed by a raised ridge, the scapular spine, which cuts the carving area in two. You do not go around it: you follow its shape, mark the wall of the bone, then recover the meat lodged in the hollow separately. That is what makes the paleta more technical and its yield lower.

Everything that separates the two pieces beyond anatomy — weight, curing time, the profile on the palate — is covered in our jamón and paleta comparison.

The weights, and what we cannot tell you

Our whole jamones weigh 7 to 8 kg and our paletas 4 to 5 kg. The regulation, for its part, sets floors: a 100 % Iberian jamón cannot be sold as such below 5.75 kg, a 100 % Iberian paleta below 3.7 kg. These are labelling thresholds, not average weights.

You will, on the other hand, read bone and yield percentages everywhere. We will give none. We looked for a published source on the bone-to-meat ratio of a jamón or a paleta, in official texts, in the designation specifications and in the technical literature. There is none. The only figures in circulation come from trade forums where they are given from memory, and contradicted in the same thread.

What is true and observable: a paleta holds proportionally more bone and sinew for less meat than a jamón. You will get fewer slices for the same weight. How many fewer, nobody knows with the precision a percentage implies.