A hand steadies a large cured meat hanging under a coat of white mould; more sausages hang from the beams of a stone cellar behind.

Food and wine

Cured Meats

Cured meat is memory. It is the way peasant cultures found to preserve pork after the winter slaughter, through salt, smoke, spices and time. In Tuscany curing has very deep traditions, each one tied to a territory, a microclimate, a family know-how handed down from generation to generation. The pork is the same, but every territory turns it into something different — because the wind of the mountains is not the wind of the sea, and the damp of the cellars changes what the ageing produces.

A paved street runs between stone houses; on the right an open shop with cured meats hanging inside, wooded hills at the far end.

Where

Where it is practised in Tuscany

The geographies all matter. The Cinta Senese is the Tuscan pig of excellence — a native breed once close to extinction and today in fortune thanks to DOP status — producing flavourful meat with well-distributed fat. Siena and the Arezzo area are the kingdom of the Cinta. The Lunigiana (Massa-Carrara) has historic traditions of singular cured meats such as mortadella and filetto della Lunigiana. The Garfagnana (Lucca) produces biroldo and mondiola. Colonnata, a hamlet of Carrara, is famous for lardo di Colonnata IGP — lard aged in troughs of white Apuan marble with aromatic herbs, an excellence recognised worldwide. The Maremma (Grosseto) has traditions of wild boar salami. Prato has mortadella di Prato IGP, with alkermes giving it its pink colour and its unmistakable aromatic scent. Firenze has traditions of finocchiona — salami with fennel — found throughout Tuscany but with particularities of its own.

A round board, five wooden-handled knives, a ball of twine, a mortar of peppercorns, coarse salt, small scoops of spices and a linen cloth.

How

The techniques of the craft

The techniques of the craft combine ancient knowledge with technical discipline. The slaughter of the pig is the first step, and in the work of the traditional norcino (pork butcher) it takes place in winter, once the meat has cooled. Salting — dry with coarse salt, sometimes with spices, or else in brine — is the decisive moment: too much salt ruins, too little does not preserve. Ageing requires precise environments: cool, damp cellars for prosciutto, ventilated rooms for salami, marble troughs for lardo di Colonnata. The spices (pepper, garlic, wild fennel, red wine, chilli) give the regional products their character. The cooking of certain products (mortadella, cooked ham, biroldo) calls for specific techniques of temperature and timing.

In a curing room a man in an apron adjusts a hanging salami; rows of sausages and hams line the walls, a whole salami on the table.

Now

The craft today

Doing it today is a craft that stands between tradition and regulation. DOP and IGP status has protected and valorised authentic Tuscan cured meats, but it has also imposed strict production rules that micro-scale family producers struggle to meet. The structured firms live on qualified exports and on sales in Italy through wine bars, fine food shops and restaurants. Traditional norcini often survive in marginal areas, with a loyal local clientele and limited production. The health challenge (control of Listeria and Salmonella, food safety) is central, and imposes significant investment even on small producers.