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Typical salami from Piedmont include:
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. |
| Bale d'Aso |
Pork
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Delicate boiling sausage. |
| Bisecon |
Pork
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A cross between head cheese and sausage. |
| Bresaola dell'Ossola |
Veal
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Bresaola flavored with white wine,
cinnamon, cloves, thyme, rosemary, bay leaves, and sugar. The "bresaola"
of Val d’Ossola is an ancient local tradition (in the area it is called
"carne salata" - "salted meat"): it is usually obtained from two cuts of
beef: the cut of rump and the eye of round. |
| Cacciatorino |
Pork
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The Little Hunter's Sausage; small salami
created for hunters who needed a quick energy fix on the hunt. |
| Carne di Melezet |
Veal
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Salted chunks of meat; conserved for months
in a savory brine. |
| Filetto Baciato |
Pork
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"The Kissed Filet," a soft salami wrapped
around a cured pork filet. |
| Lardo di Cavour |
Pork
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Subtle lard, especially delicious when
perfumed with rosemary. |
| Marzapane |
Pork
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Oddly named garlic- and wine-laced blood
sausage made near Novara. |
| Mortadella di Fegato or Mortadella
d'Orta or Fidighin |
Pork and beef
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Sausage featuring pork liver, beef or pork,
and white wine or reduced Barbera wine; smoked or unsmoked, meant for
boiling. The
fidighina or liver Mortadella, is a really tasty salami made of pigs
liver with other parts of the swine, beef and dressings made in a shape
of a doughnut.
It is cooked in a pan for a couple of hours and then served on a soft
Polenta layer which has to be entirely tasted with a good local wine. |
| Prosciutto di Ossola |
Pork
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Salted ham flavored with aromatic herbs. |
| Prosciutto di Val Vigezzo |
Pork
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Ham aged 40 days, smoked over juniper wood.
The processing is original of the town of Trontano, near Domodossola,
but today this kind of ham is produced only in Val Vigezzo. |
| Salame della Duja |
Pork
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The production of "salam d'la duja," a pure pork sausage preserved in
fat, is limited principally to parts of Piedmont, though it also
includes the area of Lomellina in Lombardy. The Piedmontese
provinces involved are those of Novara and Vercelli: these areas are
damp because of the presence of numerous waterways and rice fields and
thus do not constitute a favorable environment for the traditional
methods of curing meat, which require dry conditions. The type of
sausage produced here is first cured for a brief period and then left to
mature in a "duja," a special container which was originally in
terracotta, though nowadays it is often made from materials such as
steel. The sausage is placed in the "duja" and covered with a layer of
melted leaf lard which, when solidified, allows it to mature without
becoming hard. The best "salame della duja" is made with pure pork from
pigs that have been fed primarily on cereals. The best cuts are the
shoulder, the leg, the loin, the neck and the belly. The meat is ground
relatively coarsely and seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic and red wine
(sometimes also with cinnamon and nutmeg). It is then packed into skins
to form a sausage, whose weight decreases as it is cured. Curing takes
about 5 weeks, and then the "salame" is immersed in lard in the "duja"
for a period of up to a year or even more. |
| Salsiccia Cruda di Bra |
Veal
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Spiced sausage, eaten raw, sautéed, or
grilled. |
| Salame d'Asino |
Donkey
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Donkey meat salami. |
The Piedmont salami on this page are for sale at: not available
(due to FDA regulations they do NOT ship to the USA).
(c) 1997-2008 E. Massetti
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