Salumi? Salami? What is what!

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Salumi are Italian cold cuts often made from pork, but can also be made from beef and other animals. There are A LOT of different types of salumi from prosciutto to mortadella.

Salami is a specific type of salumi that is actually a cured sausage made from either beef or pork. It is fermented and air-dried, like many other types of salumi.


Now that we have those two differences set aside, lets see where salumi came from!
The word salumi originates from the Latin word sale, or salt. As I spoke about in a previous blog, salumi came to be when pigs started to be farmed, not wild. When the pigs were wild, people would watch after them, but they did not need to feed them because there was plenty of food in the woods. When they became sheltered, farmers needed to feed the pigs and it got very expensive. If they were to slaughter the pigs and just sell the meat, they would be lucky to break even. This is when salumi began because the farmers discovered if they made the meat into salumi, they could get more money for the same pig. Looking upon this now, this is absolutely genius!

Today in class, a Michelin star chef came and showed us the process of making salumi, mainly sausages. We had a whole half of a large white pig, about 55 kg clean. Large white pigs are very common in Italy, but the Nero di Martinfranca produces some of the best salumi in Puglia. Logan and I got to debone a pork loin, something I have never done before! I really did enjoy doing it though.



Here are some of the salumi made from a pig:
Speck: dry-cured, lightly smoked ham - Speck is produced in South Tyrol in Northern Italy

Prosciutto: dry-cured ham that is thinly sliced and often served just like that - You can get prosciutto cotto, which is cooked prosciutto

Italian Word of the Day: Cotto = Cooked, Crudo = Raw 

Culatello: cured meat typical of Parma; produced with the pork leg stuffed into the pig bladder

Lardo: Type of salumi made by curing the fatback of the pig and seasoning it - The most famous Lardo is from Tuscany

Lonza: a very lean piece of salumi made with the loin of the pig

Pancetta: An Italian "bacon" made from the pork belly; it is salted and crusted in pepper, then cured

Soppressata: There are many types, but the two main ones are a cured dry sausage from Basilicata, Apulia and an uncured salame made in Tuscany and Liguria.

Coppa: A traditional Italian pork cold cut, cured and made from dry-aged muscle from the neck and shoulder of the pig.

Mortadella: A symbol of Bologna - heat-cured meat made with different pieces of pork finely ground and traditionally put into a cow's bladder

Guanciale: The pork cheek that is very fatty; it is rubbed with salt, sugar, and spices, then cured for a few weeks

With Love,
Baylee

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