Brescian Salami

Brescia salami is one of the excellences of our area’s food and wine culture. The meat processing and recipe are handed down from generation to generation and from father to son.

Made from cuts of the noble parts of the pig with the addition of 25 percent ground bacon and flavored through salt, spices and wine, the grain is coarse, the taste is traditional, and the color appealing.

It goes best with homemade bread, polenta, medium-aged cheeses and still or slightly sparkling red wines. The sausage is stuffed into natural casings the seasoning lasts from 40 to 60 days.

Like all foods that have become part of a region’s gastronomic tradition in ancient times, it becomes difficult to find the origins of this product. The Greek historian Polybius, in the 2nd century B.C. reports that the Po Valley was famous for raising pigs. In “De re rustica,” written in the 1st century B.C. by Marcus Terentius Varro, we refer to the Gauls then settled in the Po Valley as experts in pork processing.

News about the preservation of pork comes to us from a capitular of Charlemagne, who in the early 9th century prescribed that smoked, salted and sausage meats be processed with great cleanliness. In the Middle Ages, pork was also consumed in the form of sausages: salami, sausages, and in this regard the spices, introduced in the sausages, mixed with the meat were of great importance: pepper and other oriental imports (cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, cumin, saffron).

By the early 10th century, the Brescian monastery of St. Julia, which controlled about seventy large farms scattered throughout the Po Valley, owned a total of 3746 animals, of which 1672 (slightly less than half) were pigs.

The problem of preserving meat is as old as man and has found several solutions. Salting is among them one of the oldest, and among the traditional methods of preserving and processing meat, the preparation of salami stands out. As the word itself says, salami, as well as cured meats, are characterized by the use of salt both as an ingredient and as a method of preserving the product. In fact, salt has a very important action, because it dehydrates tissues, stops the development of harmful microorganisms and instead promotes those that play a positive role in maturation and aging. This is precisely why salting is one of the most delicate stages in the preparation of salami. The dosage of salt must be carefully screened to obtain a product that is preservable but not salty and uniformly flavorful in all its parts; moreover, the percentage varies in relation to altitude, production area and seasoning.

The choice of meat is the first moment in the preparation of salami and is of paramount importance, because the final characteristics and success of the product will depend on the quality of the raw material.For this, all lean parts of the pig will be used, including valuable cuts such as the thigh and tenderloin. The meat must be healthy, firm, and ripe, and must be carefully prepared and cleaned and must come from castrated female and male pigs. The fat used must also be exclusively “hard” (lard, guanciale, pancetta); today an average of two kilograms out of eight lean cuts is used, whereas in the past this percentage was higher. For the mincing of the meats, which used to be done at the point of a knife, today in the Brescian area a meat grinder is used, obtaining a medium-grained mixture, which is then salted, spiced and “rügat sö” (worked with force) in the “mezèt,” a peculiar concave wooden or marble top.

Along with salt, other ingredients promote preservation and affect the flavor and appearance of salami. Nitrites and nitrates of sodium and potassium have a preservative and cosmetic action by preventing the development of toxic microorganisms and maintaining the red color of the meat. Spicing is often a defining element of the product: pepper, spices, garlic and wine are some of the most frequent ingredients. In the Brescian area, the preferred spices are cloves, pepper and cinnamon, while garlic is only simmered in wine, white or red, then strained into a cloth, beaten and squeezed over the mixture so that only the aroma remains.

Of great importance is the choice of casing, which gives the product its shape, protects it from air and light, and with its porosity allows it to dry and mature. The type of casing is mainly pork, but it can also be bovine or equine. The choice of the part of the intestine to be used determines some important distinctions among salamis, because in addition to those called salamis, which are cylindrical in shape and for which the pig’s small intestine is used, there are also soppresse, which are round in shape and stuffed into the cow’s blind casing, rosettes, made with the fat found inside the filza, cut and sewn, and the “os del stomec,” in which the “empiöm” (minced stuffing) is stuffed into the pig’s caecum, a factor that allows the sausage to remain soft and aromatic for up to two years, if properly seasoned. This particular name comes from the fact that the center of the salami is placed in the center of the pig’s sternum bone, which will make it a true specialty.

The last stage is tying with string, after which it is placed in moderately heated rooms and then cured for a period that varies depending on the size. The optimum degree of humidity is 75 percent, while the temperature should be kept constantly at 13°; basement cellars in rustic houses, with beaten earth floors and stone or terracotta walls, are excellent for this. Several factors contribute to the success of the product, ranging from the quality of the meat to environmental conditions. Fundamental, as mentioned, are the drying and curing stages during which natural physical, chemical and biological changes occur that lead to the formation of the organoleptic characteristics of this product: appearance, taste and aroma. The maturation processes are profoundly influenced by climatic conditions and in particular by temperature, humidity, ventilation, factors that together contribute to differentiate the salami in the various territories of the Brescian area, more than the ingredients, which are basically the same and distinguish it by its delicate and rather sweet flavor.

The production of salami is very ancient and widespread, so much so that it attracted the intervention of public authorities as in the case of the Venetian Republic, which by ducal decree of January 30, 1529 intervened to abolish the tax imposed the previous year by the Rectors of Brescia on the export of salami and foodstuffs.

The most prized delicatessens in Brescia were those of Corteno, not because of any particular secrets they possessed, but because of their skill in dealing with pork, which a local tradition has it that they dated back to the time of the decline of Rome (300-400 AD) and would have had their greatest development around the 13th century. The same tradition has it that, although handed down from father to son, there was an actual guild with a license in Corteno.

The Cortenese delicatessens operated not only in Brescia (where among many were the Sabbadini, Pellegrini, Martinotta, Brangi, Tucchi, etc.); they became known in Vicenza (with the Chiodi, Pedezzi) and also elsewhere, as more recently Giacomo Bianchi (Comarì) in Montebelluna, Martinì Sabbadini and Francesco Martinotta in La Spezia.
Later Cortenese salumai had to limit their activities to Aprica, Edolo and generally the upper Camonica Valley.

The art of charcuterie was increasingly expanding especially in the late 1800s. In July 1901 the Salumieri League was founded in Brescia to defend the interests of the category.

Increasing commercialization led to the establishment of larger and larger delicatessen factories, such as the Salumificio Tre Valli founded at Bornata in May 1954, the Salumificio Volpi s.p.a. in Collebeato, the Salumificio Gianni Beretta in Franciacorta, the Salumificio Aliprandi in Gussago, and the Salumificio di Franciacorta in Nigoline di Cortefranca, born in 1993 from the merger of the Salumificio Bresciani in Timoline and the Salumificio Sebino Redaelli Villongo.

The pride of Breno’s gastronomy is mutton sausage, to which a week in November is dedicated. Its discovery is attributed to a butcher in the 1800s, Pietro Rizzieri (Pierì Rizer), who produced it by cutting the meat into small pieces on a log.

Rizzieri himself handed down the recipe to Giovanni Pedersoli from Breno, known as “el signùr del dòss,” and his brothers. Also in Breno has endured the sheep meat sausage, in the production of which, in addition to Pedersoli, Gastone Giorgi had fame. Breno sausage is offered for sale in “circles,” “sercòl,” “sincù,” put in a pot when the water is boiling, left to cook for ten, fifteen minutes with care not to puncture the casing and served with boiled potatoes. Typical are the sausages of Niardo, resulting from the processing of salami, such that the inhabitants apply the nickname “salsise” or “salsisì.” Particular is the Montisola salami processed exclusively by knife into large pieces of very lean pork.