Cacciatorini DOP- Small Seasoned Sausages
Cacciatorini sausages are popular for their characteristic taste and small size, which
is quickly seasoned and can always be consumed fresh, since eaten quickly one at a time.
Moreover, the name of this sausage derives exactly from a widespread rural use of hunters
who used to bring short sausages with them in their excursions because, considering their
reduced size, they could place them easily in their sacks
Today,
Italian salami "alla cacciatora" is produced in ten regions:
Friuli Venezia Giulia, Veneto, Lombardy, Piedmont, and
Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy and Umbria, Marches, Tuscany,
Abruzzi, Latium, and Molise in central Italy. Historically, this
particular type of salami was first produced at the time of the
Longobard invasions in the hilly regions of Lombardy, when cured
meat, mostly pork, was the staple diet of the invading
barbarians, because it preserved well during their long
migrations.
This type of salami is called "alla cacciatora" because it
became a favorite food among hunters. Its small size made it
ideal for carrying in knapsacks and for easy consumption
whenever hunger kicked in.
The law regulating the production of salami "alla cacciatore"
sets the rules not only for the quality of its ingredients but
also for its dimensions. Each "salamino" should not be more than
2.4 inches in diameter and 8 inches in length, with a maximum
weight of 11.6 oz.
| Luganiga |
Pork
|
Also known in Italy as:
luganega luganiga (when it comes in a natural or synthetic casing),
salsisa, groppino, it comes from the area of the Lombardy Region and is
made from minced pork offcuts, eaten fresh after cooking. denervated
lean and fat pork, pink fat, lard, cinnamon, pepper, cloves, nutmeg,
musk, rose wine, sugar, saffron, pine nuts, raisins.
The form is cylindrical, coarse ground, in strings or continuous lengths
of different sizes depending on casing used. pink fat and lard are added
to the denervated offcuts together with seasoning. The mixture is then
minced and further mixed with care. The sausage meat is stuffed into a 'groppino
di capra' ('goat's back' shape) casing made from a pig's small intestine
in the case of thin sausages or from a cow's intestines in the case of
thicker sausages. |
| Mortadella di Fegato |
Pork
|
Liver mortadella:
Area: Lombardy Region, pork sausage with medium to long maturation time
that is eaten raw or boiled.
Ingredients: pig's liver. lean pork, belly of pork, aromatised red wine
(Barbera), salt, natural aromas, spices, pepper, saltpetre.
Form: finely minced sausage in natural casing. |
| Mortadella di Fegato al vin brule' |
Pork
|
Also known in Italy as:
Mortadela de fidig or Mortadell de fidich
Lombardy Region: pork sausage with short maturation time that is eaten
cooked.
Ingredients: pig's liver. pork, belly of pork, vin brűlé , cloves, salt,
spices, saltpetre.
Form: finely minced sausage in natural casing. |
| Mortadella di Fegato della Valtellina |
Pork
|
This is a speciality of Valtellina that bears a distant similarity
to the ‘mazzafegati’ (pork sausage made with orange peel, pine nuts and
raisins) of the Abruzzo and Molise regions.
It is a sausage product made of lean and fat pork meats, the fat usually
coming from the throat or bacon, to which fifteen percent of pork liver
is added. The mixture is flavored with cinnamon-scented mulled wine,
cloves and other spices in a natural casing and tied after having been
folded in half.
It goes through an initial drying period after which it is aged for
around two months, and then is ready for consumption.
It may be eaten raw, cut into slices, but it is usually left in water
for a day then boiled for twenty minutes. It is served hot, accompanied
by polenta, boiled potatoes and cooked vegetables. |
| Prosciutto Cotto |
Pork
|
Baked ham; large thighs are de-boned, then
cured in a salt brine, massaged, baked, and marketed without curing.
The sausage is obtained
from boned leg of a pig that has been injected with an appropriate brine
and aromatic solution, massaged in tanks, placed in moulds.
Ingredients: leg of pork, salt, natural aromas, nitrate, polyphosphate
nitrite and casein products (optional).
Form: squashed conical shape. |
| Salame Brianzolo |
Pork
|
Spiced pork salami. |
| Salame di Cremona |
Pork
|
Salami made from prized cuts of pork, belly
fat, salt, crushed garlic, and red wine; aged 6 months.
It comes from the Cremona
lowlands, in particular the areas of Soresina, Pizzighettone, Vescovato
(CR) It is a pork sausage eaten raw after medium to long
maturation, made with veined pork; salt, peppercorns, red wine, garlic,
natural aromas. |
| Salame di Filzetta |
Pork
|
Comes from the area of the
province of Cremona, it is a pork sausage, matured for a medium to long
period and eaten raw.
Ingredients: pork taken from the area between the loins and the neck,
peppercorns, natural aromas at producer's discretion, saltpetre
(optional). |
| Salame di Mantova |
Pork
|
Salami made from coarsely ground or
knife-cut pork shoulder and belly mixed with trimmings from
Prosciutto-making and white wine; aged 3 months and perfect for the
grill. |
| Salame di Rape |
Pork
|
Salami that includes pork fat, cooked
cabbage, and turnips; a specialty of Livigno, where the altitude forbids
anything but turnip cultivation. |
| Salame di Varzi DOP |
Pork
|
The
origins of Salame di Varzi go back to the time of the Lombard invasion.
The custom of eating pork became established precisely in those areas
that the Lombards conquered. In the twelfth century, Salame di Varzi was
a much cherished delicacy for the Malaspina marquis, feudal lords of the
area, who made it for their own family. The salami is made from prime
quality pork which is minced into rather coarse grounds using a template
with a 12-millimetre bore. The minced pork is then stuffed into a casing
made of pig entrails which have been pierced to allow the insertion of
the meat and then tied up again with thick cord. The sausages are
categorised by weight as follows:
Filzetta (weight from 0.5 to 0.7 kilos, minimum ageing 45 days);
Filzettone (from 0.7 to 1 kilo, minimum ageing 60 days);
Sottocrespone a budello semplice (from 1 to 2 kilos, minimum ageing
120 days); Cucito a budello doppio (from 1 to 2 kilos and more,
minimum ageing 180 days).
The salami must slice easily to reveal a bright red meat of compact
texture. The fat must be perfectly white in color and in the right
proportion with respect to the meat. The taste is sweet and delicate;
the aroma, which will be influenced also by the length of ageing,
fragrant and distinctive. The certificate of designation of origin is
reserved for salami produced in all stages, from the selection of the
meat to the termination of the ageing process, within a delimited
production zone that encompasses numerous town districts in the province
of Pavia.
|
| Salame d'Oca di Mortara IGP |
Goose and pork
|
Goose salami is a specialty of Lomellina, an area in the province of
Pavia, in Lombardy, which is delimited by the rivers Po, Ticino, and
Sesia.
Thanks to the abundance of grazing herbs and freshwater springs, goose
farming has been practiced in this area since ancient times. The town of
Mortara, which gives its name to the local salami, is the historical and
geographical center of this territory.
It seems that the tradition of making goose salami goes back to the
times of Ludovico "Il Moro," when the local Jewish community first
commissioned salami-makers to prepare non-pork, kosher sausages for
them. But, according to several accounts—including that of renowned
nineteenth century Italian cuisine expert Pellegrino Artusi who in his
1891 book on "The Science of Cooking and Eating Well" recounted an
eyewitness account of salami making at Lomellina—since there wasn’t
enough goose meat around to meet the demand for goose salami by
non-Jews, some salami-makers invented a sausage made with a mixture of
goose and pork meat. |
| Salame Milano (Milan Salami) |
Pork and beef
|
Area: Lombardy Region, it
is a salami made from pork and beef and pork fat in equal parts or only
from pork and pork fat. Also added are salt, split peppercorns,
ascorbate and nitrates at producer's discretion in filtered infusion of
crushed garlic and white wine. The form is cylindrical, the dimensions:
from 20 to 60 cm in length and 6 to 11 cm in diameter. Weight: 2-3 kg.
color: bright red color with 'grain of rice' appearance that is due to
the minute particles into which the flesh is minced (just a few
millimeters). The particles of lean meat and fat can nevertheless be
clearly distinguished.
The fat and lean parts are
first refrigerated to harden them and are then passed under the cutter
before they are minced and then mixed. This finely minced mixture is
then stuffed into a stitched natural pig's intestine casing. The salami
is then strung tightly together.
Maturation varies from 30 to 70 days depending on size. |
| Salsiccia di Castrato |
Mutton
|
Rare sausage from the Valcamonica. |
| Strinů |
Beef and pork
|
Sausage flavored with wine, garlic, cloves,
cinnamon, nutmeg, and pepper; made in the Valcamonica. |
| Verzini |
Pork
|
Also known in Italy as:
verzin, salamella fresca, come from the area of the Lombardy Region
They are fresh all-pork sausage that is cooked before being eaten.
Mixture of lean and fat cuts (shoulder, belly, minced neck, minced ham)
minced in a mincer and moulded into shape by a machine.
Ingredients: pork, salt, pepper. natural aromas that producer varies at
his discretion, minimum quantity of preservatives (nitrate, ascorbate)
white wine occasionally added, sugar.
Note: the sausages are
traditionally cooked with verza cabbage (hence their name) together with
other cuts of pork to make the Lombard dish known as 'cassoeula'. |
| Violino |
Sheep, goat, or chamois
|
The name derives not so much from the shape as from the
characteristic way of holding it for slicing. It is placed on the arm
like a violin and sliced thinly using the knife as a bow.
It is a specialty of Chiavenna, the Splugen Valley and most particularly
of Valle San Giacomo. It is a prosciutto drawn from the thigh of goats
or sheep, and sometimes even from roe deer or kids. The weight of the
‘violino’ varies from one to three kilograms (2 to 7 lbs.), depending on
the animal used.
Production is strictly limited to the artisans of the zone and the
distribution is just as strictly limited to local shops and some larger
markets in the city that specialize in typical products of the area.
|
(c) 1997-2008 E. Massetti
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Milan Salami
Raw Ham Fiocco