OF PORK AND ITS FLAVOURS

by Editorial Staff | Jun 1, 2020 | Food products & ingredients | 0 comments

[…] and his obedient heart grew calm in endurance; yet he kept turning this way and that.

As a man, over a blazing fire, turns a sausage stuffed with fat and blood, this way and that, longing for it to cook quickly, so he turned […] thinking how he would attack the shameless suitors […] [1]

In this passage from the Odyssey we may find one of the earliest hints at the existence of a cured meat. A similar sausage can still be found today in Tuscany, specifically near Pisa, where it is known as Buristo.

Origins, salt, and early techniques

The history of cured meats is complex and varied, and although exhaustive sources are hard to come by, it is clear that the first products resembling today’s cured meats appeared chiefly in Italy and only following the widespread use of salt (sal–umi, “salted meats”).

The very first cured products, contrary to what one might think, were made from fish, because the art of salting was first developed and applied to the catch rather than to pork.

The word salame (Latin salamen)—which in Italian can also mean a foolish person—has medieval roots, when “salame was used to describe someone dull-witted and thick-headed, like stockfish or dried fish, salamen.” [2]

From the Etruscans to Rome: hams and sausages

The Etruscans were among the first, in the Po Valley, to develop the making and preservation of ham, starting with wild boar. During Rome’s expansion, ham was widely used to feed the army on the march. It is no coincidence that the men of Legio X—made up entirely of legionaries from Emilia—bore the emblem of the wild pig or boar.

The same applies to sausage—sal-ciccia—i.e., a mixture of salt and spices combined with minced meat and stuffed into a casing. The first widely known and exported sausage of the Roman Empire was the Lucanica.

Norcini, craft guilds, and know-how

Along with the growth of cured meats—and thus pig farming—another figure emerged: the Norcino (or Mazén), the traditional pork butcher. Over time this role became so important that, in the Middle Ages, the first guilds appeared alongside the earliest “Notices and statutes [which] set precise rules for anyone wishing to practice the art of lard-maker and sausage-maker. Thus, in 1547, after forming—though not without difficulty—an autonomous guild separate from the butchers, the Modenese sausage-makers decreed that ‘no one may make sausage unless he has been an apprentice to a sausage-maker for three continuous years.’” [4]

As these guilds developed, so too did attention to preparation and processing across our regions, and local specialties became increasingly established.

Italian cured meats: PDO and PGI

The history of Italian cured meats is truly ancient, as are their quality and denominations (indeed, the oldest sausage ever found was discovered in Sicily). So ancient, in fact, that Italy today boasts Europe’s broadest range of PDO and PGI cured meats.

Italian PDO cured meats

• Capocollo di Calabria
• Coppa Piacentina
• Crudo di Cuneo
• Culatello di Zibello
• Lard d’Arnad (Val d’Aosta)
• Pancetta di Calabria
• Pancetta Piacentina
• Prosciutto di Carpegna
• Prosciutto di Modena
• Prosciutto di Parma
• Prosciutto di San Daniele
• Prosciutto Toscano
• Prosciutto Veneto Berico-Euganeo
• Salame di Varzi
• Salame Brianza
• Salame Piacentino
• Salamini Italiani alla Cacciatora
• Soppressata di Calabria
• Sopressa Vicentina
• Salsiccia di Calabria
• Jambon de Bosses (Val d’Aosta)

Italian PGI cured meats

• Bresaola della Valtellina
• Ciauscolo
• Coppa di Parma
• Cotechino Modena
• Finocchiona
• Lardo di Colonnata
• Lucanica di Picerno
• Mortadella Bologna
• Mortadella di Prato
• Pitina
• Porchetta di Ariccia
• Prosciutto Amatriciano
• Prosciutto di Norcia
• Prosciutto di Sauris
• Salama da Sugo
• Salame Cremona
• Salame d’Oca di Mortara
• Salame Sant’Angelo
• Salame Felino
• Salame Piemonte
• Speck Alto Adige
• Zampone Modena

Local traditions and conclusions

Beyond the cured meats listed above, there are countless local products—some now almost forgotten—that allow you to put a different salume on the table every time while strengthening local production and traditional methods. One example among many is the Ventricina del Vastese, almost obligatory fare in eateries in Teramo and its province.

Your gastronomic offer can be built on elements that clearly connect people and place, time and tradition—linking dishes with a narrative thread that elevates their ingredients and shared cultural history.

Lorenzo Terzoli Bergamaschi
Anthropologist

[1] Privitera, G. Aurelio. Il ritorno del guerriero: lettura dell’Odissea. Vol. 301. Einaudi, 2005.

[2] Ballarini, Giovanni. Cavoli a merenda: Le parole della tavola. TARKA, 2018.

[3] https://www.salumi-italiani.it/storia-dei-salumi/

[4] https://www.saperesapori.it/blog/storia-degli-alimenti/salumi-dagli-etruschi-al-prosciutto-di-parma/