Strolghino Di Culatello

Region: Emilia Romagna, Italy

Ingredients: Pork (from culatello), salt, pepper, honey

Culatello is a much-prized cured muscle cut from the southern plains of the River Po.  It is a challenging area to cure meat in due to its humidity: hot & humid in summer, cold and foggy in winter.  The Bergonzi family cure Culatello as well as making this Strolghino in their medieval home which has a cellar purpose built at the time for curing meat.  It has one window facing north which lets in the damp river air and one to the west to allow air to circulate.  This cellar is a unique microclimate for incredibly diverse moulds and airborne yeasts which mature the meat.  In addition, it is not refrigerated and the natural temperature swing to heat in the summer also creates unique maturing conditions giving greater depth of flavour to the meat. 

Only the heart of the cut is turned into Culatello, leaving equally delicious offcuts which the Bergonzis cut up to turn into Strolghino.  As the meat used is so good, there is little seasoning needed in this salami – simply salt, pepper and a touch of honey to start fermentation is used.

Minimum weight 235g