The Fat That Connects Olive Oil to Presunto

When we speak about fat, we tend to speak about quantity.

How much fat? How much saturated fat? How much should we eat?

But perhaps there is a more interesting question:

What kind of fat is it?

In Alentejo, that question creates a fascinating connection between two products that, at first sight, could hardly be more different: extra virgin olive oil and presunto from the Porco Alentejano.

The connection is oleic acid.

Not All Fats Are the Same

Fat is composed of different fatty acids. Some are saturated, such as palmitic and stearic acids. Others are unsaturated.

Oleic acid — chemically known as C18:1 — is a monounsaturated fatty acid, or MUFA. It is particularly associated with olive oil and is one of the characteristic fatty acids of the Mediterranean diet.

According to International Olive Council standards, oleic acid can account for approximately 55–83% of the fatty acids in olive oil.

But olive oil is not the only traditional Alentejo food where oleic acid plays a major role.

A Surprising Number, Even for a Chemist

Being a chemist myself, I find it fascinating to see just how high oleic acid levels can be in a meat-based product.

We tend to associate animal fat primarily with saturated fatty acids, while monounsaturated fats — and oleic acid in particular — are more instinctively associated with olive oil.

Yet the fat of the Porco Alentejano tells a more nuanced story.

Research on Alentejano pigs has found approximately 47–48% oleic acid in subcutaneous fat. Research specifically examining presunto from Alentejano pigs raised under the traditional agro-silvo-pastoral system found oleic acid at approximately 53% of the neutral-lipid fatty acids in the muscles analyzed.

For me, this is one of those moments when chemistry challenges the assumptions we make about food.

A visible piece of presunto fat may look like what we conventionally think of as "animal fat," yet chemically, a substantial proportion of its fatty acids can be the very same monounsaturated fatty acid we so strongly associate with olive oil.

That doesn't make presunto nutritionally equivalent to olive oil. But it makes the composition of its fat considerably more interesting than the simple distinction between "animal fat" and "vegetable fat" might suggest.

The Acorn Connection

This is where the montado enters the story.

During montanheira, Porco Alentejano forage across the landscape, consuming acorns and other naturally available resources. Acorns themselves can be remarkably rich in oleic acid, with studies reporting values around 60% or more of their fatty acids, depending on species and conditions.

Diet matters because the fatty-acid composition of pig tissues can be influenced by what the animal eats. Research on Alentejano pigs has shown that diets richer in oleic acid can increase its proportion in their tissues.

It creates a compelling chain:

landscape → acorn → pig → fat → presunto

And in that same Alentejo landscape, another tree is producing fruit whose oil is also dominated by oleic acid.

The oak and the olive tree arrive at remarkably complementary expressions of fat.

Olive Oil and Presunto: Similarity Without Equivalence

The comparison needs perspective.

Olive oil remains considerably richer in oleic acid and is essentially a fat. Presunto is a complex food containing protein, water, salt and fat, and its composition varies according to genetics, feeding system, tissue and curing process.

But when we compare the fatty-acid composition of their fats, the connection becomes striking.

Fatty acid	Olive oil*	Alentejano pig/presunto**
Oleic — MUFA	55–83%	~47–53%
Palmitic — SFA	7.5–20%	~23–25%
Stearic — SFA	0.5–5%	~9–14%

* International Olive Council compositional range.

** Approximate values reported in studies of Alentejano pig subcutaneous fat and presunto. Values vary according to tissue, diet and production system.

The comparison isn't intended to suggest that eating presunto and consuming olive oil have the same nutritional effect.

They don't.

What it shows is something much more interesting from a product and terroir perspective: oleic acid is the predominant fatty acid in both olive oil and the fat of traditionally raised Porco Alentejano.

Why Oleic Acid Matters Beyond Nutrition

Oleic acid isn't interesting only because of nutrition.

Fatty-acid composition also influences the physical characteristics of fat.

A greater proportion of unsaturated fatty acids contributes to a softer fat than one dominated by saturated fatty acids. This helps us understand something we experience when eating a good presunto: its fat does not behave like a hard block of animal fat.

At the right serving temperature, it becomes soft, glossy and almost translucent, gradually yielding in the mouth.

That sensory experience has chemistry behind it.

And for a product intended for long maturation, the balance between monounsaturated, saturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids also matters. The relatively high proportion of monounsaturated fat and comparatively lower proportion of highly oxidation-prone polyunsaturated fatty acids contribute to a lipid profile particularly interesting for cured products.

Perhaps We Should Talk About Fat Differently

Premium food has spent years talking about provenance, breed, maturation and craftsmanship.

Fat deserves the same attention.

For Porco Alentejano, the story should not simply be that the animal contains fat. The composition and physical character of that fat are part of what differentiates the product.

And this creates a particularly Alentejano narrative.

The olive tree gives us an oil dominated by oleic acid.

The oak gives us an acorn rich in oleic acid, consumed by an indigenous pig whose fat can also be dominated by oleic acid.

Then time, salt, climate and craftsmanship transform that animal into presunto.

Perhaps these should not be seen simply as separate products of the same region.

They are different expressions of the same landscape.

One landscape. Two trees. Two extraordinary foods.

And, unexpectedly, one fatty acid connecting them.

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