The importance of salt for the development of Parma charcuterie

The importance of salt for the development of Parma charcuterie

- Categories : Mamma Rosa's Notes

How, the fact of having salt at hand, has allowed the birth of the salami industry in the area of the province of Parma and to acquire the market leadership since the time of the ancient Romans.

In the previous post I described the ancient ham production technique used in Cisalpine Gaul, the current Po Valley. If you haven't yet read the article about the ham production technique in the time of the ancient Romans, you can read it now by clicking here.

This procedure had salt as one of the main elements of the recipe without which, at the time, it would not have been possible to make the hams.

Already in pre-Roman times in the Parma area, more precisely in Salsomaggiore and Salsominore, some salt water springs were known.

Over time, due to a series of earthquakes, these springs became silted up but the Celelati Gauls [tribes of Celtic origin, editor's note] who inhabited these lands began to dig a whole series of wells with the aim of recovering these precious brackish waters.

Basically, they dug out salty sludge, scrubbed it, and boiled it in pots.

The evaporating water left the salt residue on the bottom of the pot.

And from here it was then collected and stored for later use.

This salt I'm talking about, however, was a particular salt since it came from a "fossil" sea that was trapped between the various geological stratifications of the earth and contained not only sodium chloride [scientific name of salt, editor's note] but also other minerals such as iodine and bromine which have a strong disinfectant power.

The substantial difference with common salt lies in this power that made it so precious.

But why did the Celelati Gauls treat the meat of the pigs' legs with salt?

Well, they did it because this treatment allowed them to remove all the water from the meat mass of the pork leg thus preventing the bacteria that infested it from surviving and thus ensuring better conservation of the legs in the pantry.

Small curiosity: in the first century BC. the geographer Strabo tells us that at the time all the hams eaten in Rome came from Parma and its surroundings.

BUT THEN WHY IS PARMA HAM CONSIDERED TO HAVE A SWEET TASTE?

As we have seen before, the salt used in the Parma area contained disinfectant minerals.

This fact has allowed the local butchers to reduce the amount of salt used in the production of ham and other typical cured meats of the area since the objective of killing bacteria was achieved anyway.

In addition, this possibility allowed them, at the same time, to obtain large savings since in the past, unlike today, salt was very expensive.

All this has led Parma ham to:

  • be less salty than hams from other areas of Italy;
  • establish itself in the world, like ham with a sweet taste;
  • acquire the leadership, in Italy, among raw hams.

Among other things, this peculiarity, i.e. the lower use of salt in the production of Parma ham, was also maintained when, in the 1900s, for commercial reasons, the snow-white salt taken from the salty waters of Salsomaggiore was replaced by sea salt.

It is a differentiating element that gives a unique and unmistakable characteristic to the ham of our lands.

CONCLUSION

I hope you enjoyed this short post of mine dedicated to the importance of salt in the development of cured meats in the Parma area.

Looking forward to seeing you in the next post.

Ciao,

Mamma Rosa

Share this content