Ham

PROSCIUTTO COTTO

Success in making hams depends entirely on the quality of the meat chosen. Begin with a medium-sized pork leg with the bristles, bone and fat removed. Put the meat in an adequate container in a brine of heavily salted water, a bit of sugar, bey leaves, cloves, cinnamon, and saltpeter. Let it stand for about 20 days. Wash the ham in cold running water, dry it and put it in a mola for cooking ham.
The meat is pressed into the desired shaped mold.
It is sealed and immersed in a pot, covering it with water. While cooking, the temperature of the water should be 425 F. The ham should cook 1 hour for each 2 Ibs. of meat. Let it cool in the cooking water then keep it in the refrigerator. Let it rest for one day and then the ham is ready to be eaten. This product must be refrigerated all the time and should be sliced only when ready to eat,otherwise it gets dark.

Roe-Buck prosciutto

PROSCIUTTO DI CAPRIOLO

This is deer's leg treated with salt pepper, finely minced garlic and peperoncino. It ages for about 50 days. It is usually thinly sliced, and served with oil and lemon, salt and pepper. It is typical of Val D'Aosta and Valtellina. It is also called violino (violin), referring to the elongated shape of the capriolo leg.

Wild boar prosciutto

PROSCIUTTO DI CINGHIALE

Wild boar prosciutto is typical of Tuscany, a region with a large extension of wooded land, an ideal habitat for wild boar. Basically the leg of the boar is processed with the seme method as for all prosciutto - the only difference is that from the shank up to the hooves the skin is kept on. This allows for the dressed leg to absorb all the indispensable quantities of salt and spices only through the skinned portion of the leg, therefore the final product remains rather gamey, and not too salty.
In the past, wild boar prosciutto was very rare, but today they are farm grown and more readily available. This prosciutto is rather lean, and it is thinly sliced by hand.

Cured Hot Leg

PROSCIUTTO

Prosciutto is made by salting a pork leg and then preparing it according to local usage. The pork leg is cleaned and left to lie flat for a whole day in a cool place. Then it is cover with salt. The salting period lasts about two months, after which it is washed several times in cold water until the salt is removed. Then, it is hung on a sunny, airy place. The air plays an important role in the quality of the final product. The length of this stage depends on the local climate. The Prosciutto will be ready only when entirely dry. When dry, it is left hanging in an airy place at room temperature for a year and more. Prosciutto has many varieties. Cooked ham, unlike the raw version, is made with medium-size boned pork leg. Among the raw hams Prosciutto di Parma is the best-known. The Consortio del Prosciutto di Parma is the organization responsible for controlling the quality of all ham of this kind produced in Italy. This means checking the quality of the pork meat, its healt conditions and the production proedures. San Daniele is the other kind of raw ham controlled by a government decree. San Daniele is characterized by its dark red color and shorter periods of seasoning. This, of course, does not mean that the San Daniele is less seasoned than Parma. The reason is technical: San Daniele hams are piled on one another during seasoning; therefore, the weight causes the salt to penetrate deeper into the meat. Parma, on the other hand, is hung at a set interspace. The third kind of raw ham is that of Colli Berico-Euganei, from the region of Veneto. It has a very delicate and fragrant taste. This type, also, is controlled by a consortium - the Consorzio del Prosciutto Veneto. It was constituted in 1971. Its areas of control spread in the provinces of Vicenza, Padua and Verona. In the latter, in the zone surrounding the Garda lake, the Prosciutto producers are now associated in a cooperative which is responsible for the quality of the entire production.

Other information : Prosciutto is made by salting, aging and dressing a pork leg, then preparing it according to locai usage. The choicest varieties come from: Parma, San Daniele and Tuscany.
The Parma prosciutto is cut with a short shank or, as the native say, a coscia di pollo, "like a chicken leg". The hog leg should maintain the same shape as when butchered, that is fairly round.
The prosciutto from San Daniele is different in two ways. First, the leg is kept whole up to the hooves. Second the leg is somewhat flattened. Therefore, the leg is worked in such a manner that it remains stiff. It is then salted and placed under weight, a method that allows the leg to discard more moisture and, thanks to the particular climatic conditions of the area, allows for a particularly sweet flavored product.
Prosciutto from Tuscany has a very different production method from that of Parma and San Daniele. First of all, Tuscan production is limited to an artisan level. It is much saltier because traditionally the Tuscans do not salt their bread. Consequently the additional salt in the prosciutto compensates for the lack of salt in the bread. The prosciutto from Tuscany is, therefore, drier and much more red in color. It is traditionally sliced by hand and not by machine.
The basic method of making prosciutto is as follows: After having cut and cleaned the leg, let it lie fiat for a day in a cool place. Then cover it with salt and let it lie fiat on one side for 4 days, then, again for 4 more days on the other side. When the salting period is over, rub it vigorously with fresh salt and let it stand for a few more days without salt. Wash the leg several times with cold water in order to remove the remaining salt and hang in a dry, airy, ventilated place.
This stage is very important since the air plays a primary role in the quality of the final product. It is not possible to set the length of this stage in advance; it depends on the locai climate. The prosciutto will be ready when entirely dry. It generally takes 12-18 months to achieve a fine quality prosciutto. The production is supervised and approved by a locai board, in charge of controlling and preserving the quality of the product.
NOTE: Prosciutto can be made anywhere that has moderate climatic conditions. The fact that prosciutto is so distinctive, in terms of aroma (fragrant) and taste (sweet) is because the climatic condition in Italy allows for a subtle aging. It is a natural phenomenon that cannot be easily explained or duplicated.