I do not know if San Daniele Prociutto (ham) is better than Parma or vice versa. But one thing is certain… I am greedy for both.
Although I eat the ham every day … I’m not worried about seeing how it is produced. The “crudo” ham of San Daniele and Parma, along with that of Modena, represent the Italian excellence known all over the world. It seemed right to know how this delicacy is produced.
I have the pleasure and fortune to have a dear friend who has a prosciutto (ham) production site in San Daniele, so I asked if, one day, he would take me there …to let me learn the whole production chain.
The opportunity was presented to me in June, when my friend invited me in San Daniele to see the annual festival of San Daniele “prosciutto”.
I could not say no to such an opportunity.
The family of Leonardo Levoni, my friend, has one of the largest Italian and European companies in the field of slaughter and production of meat delicacies. Their company (Gruppo Alcaruno) has many locations in Italy and abroad and among the group companies there is also Filierauno Prosciutti in San Daniele. One of the 28 consortium companies that share the production of San Daniele’s ham. These companies are concentrated in a few square miles inside San Daniele territory.
The San Daniele Consortium was born in 1961 to protect the San Daniele Ham. This product that was declared by the European Community in 1996 as a PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) product. Every year the consortium define what are the maximum production amounts and assigns, on the basis of production capacity, the annual quotas to the various companies belonging to the consortium.
We left Modena late in the morning and the trip due to traffic lasted more than 3 hours, but it was extremely enjoyable. “Leo” was my tutor on this trip by anticipating all the rules and production processes compliant with the constraints imposed by the Consortium. I also had the opportunity to admire vineyards, many of them dedicated to Prosecco’s production. I remember that Friuli Venezia Giulia is a region known for producing excellent wines (Tocai, Ribolla, Prosecco, …) as well as being rich in places where history, nature and traditions blend together ..
After a short but pleasant stop to eat two slices of Prosciutto and a glass of Friulano, we arrived at the site of Filierauno Prosciutti. I was expecting a “small” company instead representing one of the largest in the consortium. Its storage area is as high as a 10-story building ….
Leonardo was my guide in this very interesting visit … Obviously before I entered I was dressed like a surgeon before an open heart operation.
I was impressed by the controls and procedures to maintain the antiseptic environments. The first part of the “Tour” was that related to the preparation of the pig’s thighs (rifinutura, massaggiatura and salatura). The thighs are then laid down on movable shelves and left to rest for few weeks for remove liquids (water and blood).
At the end of this drying period, the seasoning period begins. At this stage the pork thighs are hung in racks and moved from month to month in seasoning areas. In this journey, future hams are put to “rest” in cells with different temperatures and degrees of humidity. The end of the route are department stores where the ham will end after months of ageing and may be ready to be sold. The trip departs from the ground floor areas ending in the raised warehouses. The skilled hands of these craftsmen, care for the quality of the ham, always checking the salinity and “scent”.
Being in an immense room surrounded by thousands of hams is definitely impressive.
Obviously my trip had another purpose … eat the ham so I chose to go to San Daniele just during the days of the San Daniele Festival.
The old town of San Daniele is small but very cute and of course in those days full of show areas where It was possible to taste the ham of various ages.
It was interesting to see the number of tourists mainly from Austria and Germany.
I have come back from this trip even more proud of Italian culinary heritage … inimitable.
Thank you Leonardo … you made me a nice gift !!
Useful information:
Nearest Airports:
- International Airport of Bologna – BLQ (distance 268 km)
- International Airport of Venice – VCE (distance 117 km)
Low Cost Airlines operating on Bologna Airport: Ryan, Easyjet, Wizzair, Airberlin, Vueling, Jetairfly.com, Albawings, Eurowings
Low Cost Airlines operating on Rimini Airport: Nord Wind, Albawings, Air Baltic
