Prosciutto

Most Americans are familiar with prosciutto, the flavorful Italian salt cured ham. The prosciutto we are familiar with is "crudo" though it usually is just called prosciutto in the US. In Italy prosciutto comes as "crudo" or "cotto." Cotto is just like boiled ham and comes in as many variations as in the US. The designation "crudo" indicates that the ham is a raw product that has been cured with salt and hung to dry. Similar, though very different tasting, hams are made in Virginia and Kentucky in the US. While cotto may be flavored as in the US, crudo is almost always salt cured and then hung to dry and finish for various, usually extended, periods of time.

There are also many types of crudo but they depend on flavor and texture differences from what the pig was fed or ate and the conditions of the curing. Some of the best prosciutto comes from Norcia, a city and an area, famous for its sausage and truffles. Much of the sausage from Norcia comes from wild boar that have fed on wild truffles. It has a unique, and I think, very good taste. Prosciutto from Norcia has a special flavor from the local mix of things to eat. The pigs are allowed to roam a bit so as to get a mix of food and also a few truffles but they are not wild pigs. There is a conflicted relationship between the sausage industry and the truffle gatherers, who are often the same people, because while the wild truffles give the wild boars their exquisite taste, the wild truffles are much more valuable when found by people and sold at the market.

Another extremely good prosciutto is from Tuscany. It has a more mild, delicate and refined taste. Very similar, and considered the best generally available prosciutto is San Danielle. It has a taste almost identical to Tuscan prosciutto but is extremely soft and moist. Equal quality prosciutto is always cheaper here than in the US but is still expensive. San Danielle goes for about 30 euro per kilo or about $18.50 per pound and Norcia sells for about 24 euro per kilo or about $15 per pound.

Many stores also offer the option of having their best prosciutto hand cut. Usually, it is San Danielle that is hand cut and then the price rises to 40 euros per kilo or about $25 per pound. When the hand cut option is available, you will see a large prosciutto locked into a specialized sort of vise and a knife and sharpening steel resting on the vise. A skilled clerk, curiously usually not a butcher, will cut the amount you request. The cuts are slightly thicker than the thinnest machine cut but still very thin. There is no taste difference that I can discern (though many Italians would disagree with me) but there is a texture difference that is substantial. If you buy hand cut prosciutto it is usually to be used as appetizer or with melon and not for sandwiches.

We have friends who make their own prosciutto from their own pigs (that are completely organic). It is deceptively simple, first the ham is buried in salt on a slanted rack that allows juice to drain into a sink. After about a week, most the salt is scraped off and the ham is hung in their cellar, amidst their fruit, wine and oil, for about a year. (I have read long articles that go into great detail about how to cure a prosciutto ham; apparently our Italian friends forgot to read them.) That's it. Taste varies from pig to pig and year to year. Always at least very good, sometimes exceptional. Best smelling cellar I've ever been in.

Next: Salsicce sotto strutto.