Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Meat from Slovenia

Kraški zašink PGIKraški zašink

Kraški zašink is a boneless pork neck from the Slovenian Karst that is dry-salted by hand with sea salt, stuffed into a natural casing under elastic netting and dried without heat for at least 12 weeks. It must lose at least 36 % of its weight and finish with water activity below 0.92. It is a salt-cured, air-dried meat, not a lactic ferment.

Fully documentedMeat3.2 months – 3.4 months

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe specification fixes the neck weight, temperatures, times and end values, but not the amounts of salt and seasoning, which each producer matches to the weight of the neck.
Pork neckAt least 1.5 kg freshFree of surface fat, bone and gristle, well bled, with no cuts or bruises; +1 to +4 °C before salting[eu-kraski-2011]
Sea saltThe amount is matched to the weight of the neck; the finished product holds less than 6 % salt[eu-kraski-2011]
Sugar, pepper and garlic[eu-kraski-2011][si-spec-2013]
Permitted additivesThe Slovenian specification allows sodium nitrite (E250), potassium nitrate (E252), ascorbic acid (E300), sodium ascorbate (E301) and sodium isoascorbate (E316)[si-spec-2013]
Natural-fibre casing and elastic nettingEarlier a pig's bladder, then a rectum, tied round with string[eu-kraski-2011]

Total time across the recorded steps: 3.2 months – 3.4 months

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
1–4 °C

What changes: The boned pork neck is trimmed clean of fat and gristle

Step 1 of 6
Trim and chill the pork neck
Time
Not documented
Temperature
1–4 °C
Set
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

The neck takes all the cervical vertebrae up to the fifth dorsal vertebra and must weigh at least 1.5 kg fresh. The start of salting is marked on each batch.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Kraški zašink is a boneless pork neck from the Slovenian Karst that is dry-salted by hand with sea salt, stuffed into a natural casing under elastic netting and dried without heat for at least 12 weeks. It must lose at least 36 % of its weight and finish with water activity below 0.92. It is a salt-cured, air-dried meat, not a lactic ferment. Made in 6 steps over 3.2 months – 3.4 months. The longest step, dry and mature, takes at least 2.8 months (European Commission 2011) and runs at 10–16 °C (European Commission 2011). Salt is up to 6 % (European Commission 2011).

Key numbers
Main stepat least 2.8 monthsSet[eu-kraski-2011]Dry and mature
Temperature10–16 °CSet[eu-kraski-2011]Dry and mature
Saltup to 6 %Set[eu-kraski-2011]Dry and mature

What makes this one different

Kraški zašink is a whole neck, not a ham or a minced sausage, and the Karst makers use only dry salting. It is never heat-treated; it dries below 16 °C, so the fat stays firm.

Related ferments

Safety

The specification sets salt below 6 %, water activity below 0.92 and a weight loss of at least 36 %, and matured products are stored at up to +8 °C. The neck must be salted 24 to 120 hours after slaughter, or frozen for no more than 6 months at -18 °C, and must measure +1 to +4 °C just before salting. Slicing and vacuum packing may take place only in approved plants. This is raw pork that is never heated, and CDC says curing, drying or smoking alone does not consistently kill Trichinella worms. CDC also says freezing pork less than 15 cm thick for 20 days at -15 °C kills them. This page describes commercial production under a specification; it is not a tested home recipe.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Records of the Karst diet from 1820 list dried meat products. Necks were first dried on the bone; later the boned neck was dried in a pig's bladder, then a rectum. Kraški zašink was registered as an EU PGI in 2012.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
  1. [eu-kraski-2011] European Commission 2011, Publication of an application, single document 'Kraški zašink' PGI (SI-PGI-0005-0824-29.09.2010), Official Journal C 309, 21.10.2011 (CELEX 52011XC1021(02)), read via the EU Publications Office cellarspec
  2. [mkgp2021] Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food of Slovenia (MKGP) 2021, Protected Slovenian Agricultural Products and Foodstuffs, entry Kraški zašinkgov
  3. [si-spec-2013] GIZ Kraške mesnine 2013, Specifikacija za zaščito geografske označbe Kraški zašink (approved specification no. 33203-37/2006/49 of 13 May 2013), Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food of Sloveniaspec
  4. [cdc-trichinella] CDC, How to Prevent Trichinellosis (12 March 2024)gov