Two pigs + one weekend + Italians = alot of salumi

by starchaholic

mmmmm pig

 

“We kill the pigs this saturday, you come and see, it will be good for you to learn”  my friend Mario tells me in class. Saturday 2 pigs are being slaughtered and Sunday is reserved for turning every scrap of them into wonderful cured pork products that will mature and ferment over time.

It is an event that is planned every year at the end of winter, so it is cold enough to work with the raw pork. I get to attend on Sunday, sadly never meeting the intact, breathing animals; but their trimmed, ground, fried, and salted innards. I get some important tasks delegated my way. The stirring of the cioccoli, the tying of the salami casing (thanks culinary school for teaching me butcher knots!), and dedicated food taster. questa lingua, mangia!; this is tongue, eat!

Mario has been doing this for years and has learned from a now 70 something old man who has been doing this since he was 14. It is a tradition that is sadly done less and less in Italy as most of the products are available at the local supermercado. It harkens back to a time of agriculture and a simpler way of life. what a more respectful way to eat, you raised the animal, killed it yourself, and then preserved the products by salting and drying for use throughout the year.

mixing the salami meat with vino, salt, pepper, and minimal spices

This pumps the meat in the intestine castings

tying of the salami

a young apprentice at work

The salami is hanging to dry and cure. Italian meat lesson: Salami with an A is all the minced/ground meat in a casing type preparations  and Salumi with a U is all of the cured pork products; salami, culatello, proscuitto and such

cioccoli, fried pork rinds

Mario and I with a type of salumi called cotechino: made from the skin and meat of the pig.

panchetta and a cut from the pigs calf