Prosciutto di Parma

Onto the prosciutto preparation! The legs are first cleaned, salted and left for up to two months (but usually closer to a month). Two types of salt are used in the process – “wet” salt covers the exposed part of the meat to keep it moist and “dry” salt is used for the rest of the leg. The leg also needs to be at the right temperature: too cold and it will not absorb enough salt; too warm and it might start to deteriorate.

They are kept at low temperatures to avoid spoiling. You can tell by the fresh appearance of the meat that these legs haven’t been curing for very long and are di primo sale “first salt” which lasts around a week. Then the excess salt is removed, and a lighter coating of salt is added to continue the salting process (two pics down). Some of the legs have already been discarded due to the imperfections mentioned above. No other additives or preservatives are used, and it’s absolutely forbidden to freeze a leg that will become Prosciutto di Parma.

Here the prosciutto legs are di secondo sale – “the second salt”. You can see that they are more dried than before but they are still being refrigerated, and will be in this phase for 15-18 days. Funny thing, many of the Italians entered the large refrigeration room where these legs were being held and promptly exited again. It was quite cold and contrasted with the outside, normal temp (being the end of summer) and for most Italians change in temperature = another way to get sick. I agree in part, but I was definitely not going to miss out and spent quite a few minutes in the cooler.

The old style of making prosciutto, as I mentioned in the previous post, dictated that prosciutto could only be made certain time during the year – late winter to early spring, when the salting process could be done in a cold cellar, and then the drying out would be done in the open air. Several factories would actually put the racks outside on the roof to let the air dry out the prosciutto as it continues to cure.

In fact, one of the things I thought was really interesting was comparing the photo of these prosciutto from the 1950s with today’s – look how much fat of the prosciutto is exposed here! It’s something that’s a bit of a struggle for producers now – most people don’t really want to eat the fat and therefore a leg that’s a little more trim is desirable. But at the same time, the fat is what helps keep the prosciutto meat moist, tender, and adds lots of flavor.

The sugna is spread onto the prosciutto by hand, as you can see here – there are finger marks in their sugna!

At the seventh month, after the sugna is applied, they are moved to “cantine” – cellars for 10-12 months (based on weight) for the maturing period.

That’s when you get these fascinating halls of prosciutto that I posted before:

After the maturing period, a horse bone “needle” is inserted in five points of the joint and the bone is then smelled by experts for uniformity of aroma and maturation. The needle is inserted into the area covered by the sugna and then the controller will cover up the hole made with the needle using his hands.

One of my biggest regrets is that I didn’t get a picture of the horse bone needle that is used to check the aroma and maturation of the prosciutto – I saw it sitting innocently on their table in the antechamber.

Only, and only after all passing all these previous steps will finally be fire-branded “Prosciutto di Parma” with its distinct “corona a 5 punte” – 5 pointed crown brand that you can see here, and this manufacturer’s identification:

Remember when you’re buying Prosciutto di Parma, you’re actually buying from a consortium of manufacturers in and around Parma and not just a single company. Eachprosciutto leg will have a unique code that can be traced back to the individual manufacturer.

Thanks to the Prosciutto di Parma consortium there are some great videos online for the public so you can see the horse bone needle in action.