Prosciutto San Daniele
While describing the Italian cuisine, one of the first words that came into the mind besides noodles and the famous round cake is ‘prosciutto’.
Similar to ‘parmigiano’ the word describing perfect slice of ham has made the international career. But not all the ham deserves the rights to be called ‘prosciutto’.
This word is reserved for the selected pieces of pork tights cured with salt and matured in the special local air conditions.
If anyone is going to ask what is so special in Italian weather, to make the ham unique, well… they’ve never been to Italy.
But seriously, there are not so many locations to age pork properly. The tradition of not eating pork in some eastern cultures is based on the fact that the desert sun is good for drying beef, and some dairy products, but not for the pigs meat, that spoils several hours only after the slaughtering.
Many of European countries developed the way of smoking meat, but the climate suitable for aging the ham is found only in several alpine places, where the Alps begin to rise out of the ground level – neither too high above the sea, nor too low. The Italian regions with long tradition of air-cured ham manufacturing are Friuli ( San Daniele ), Emilia ( Parma and Modena) and Piedmont. It is also produced in the Veneto region, in Tuscany, Marche and Umbria.
The hills around small town San Daniele ar elocated only 35 km away of the Adriatic Sea, which treats them with warm breezes, met in San Daniele with cold north winds coming down from the Alps. The local soil has excellent drainage properties and the gentle, but constant ventilation, which supports the maturing processes.
It was the Celts who first made use of salt to preserve pork, and traces of their activity were found in Friuli along the the river Tagliamento.
The valley which leads to Tarvisio became later described as the Canal del Ferro, from the name of ancient Roman road.
Romans also appreciated the valour of dry ham, and some two thousand yeas ago build ‘villa’ at the very top of the hill overlooking the trade road. Prosciutto from San Daniele became well known in Middle Ages, and demanded on many of aristocracy tables around Europe. Until the Second World War the ham has been made only from local black pig, but due to the increasing
demand the pigs from other regions are used nowadays.To hide this fact, for a long time the transports were coming to the town silently at night.
In 1960′s the consortium was formed to protect the brand mark.
The prosciutto San Daniele can be made only in one of 30 approved manufactures located in San Daniele, with use of pork supplied by some 5 000 authorized pig farms.
The fresh pig tights are intact ( full leg with the trotter ) and over 12 kg in weight.
The maturing process is supervised by the consortium, which guarantees the quality with the label PDO (Protected Designation of Origin).
The pig tights are first cleaned, chilled, cured in sea salt and left for about two months. During this time the ham is gradually pressed to drain all blood left in the meat.
Next it is washed several times to remove the salt and hung in a dark, well-ventilated environment. The amount of time the ham is left to dry depends on the size of the ham and the local climate. When the ham is completely dry it is hung again, this time the air temperature is stable, and the meat matures for several months.
Prosciutto can be aged for over two years, but the standards for San Daniele require the full process to take at least 13 months , including a minimum of 8 months of air-curing.
No preservatives are used during the whole production process, only the salt that is reuired to be from the sea, and so the final quality of the ham depends solely of the air surrounding the tights.
The air-cured ham tastes simply great, and although some traditional recipes include ham in cooked dishes, it would be a terrible los if prosciutto is used that way.
Prosciutto crudo is supposed to be sliced as thin as possible, which is very important to bring the whole valour of the ham, and eaten as it is.
It is quite often served in the restaurants as an antipasto, supported by the slice of bread ( panini ), or breadsticks ( grissini ) and sometimes goes as a part of Caprese Salad, or wrapped in fresh mozzarella. The vegetables from the salad cannot be flavoured, no spices to disturb the taste of ham.
San Daniele prosciutto can be accompanied by the dry wine, not too sweet, as it again could take the flavour out of the ham.
[photo courtesy of toyohara]
