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Meat from Italy

Salama da sugo IGPSalama da sugo

Salama da sugo is a Ferrara sausage of minced pork neck, nape, belly, shoulder, tongue and liver with plenty of red wine and spices, stuffed by hand into a pig's bladder and tied into a six- or eight-part melon shape. It is dried and matured for four to six months, and may carry traces of natural mould. It is always cooked before it is eaten, served hot with its juice (sugo).

Fully documentedMeat4 months – 6 months

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceShares of the meat and amounts per kg of meat as set in the PGI single document; minced meat from under the shoulder may also make up 25 % (± 15 %).
Pork neck25 % (± 15)[eu-salama-2014]
Pork nape25 % (± 15)[eu-salama-2014]
Pork belly25 % (± 15)[eu-salama-2014]
Pork shoulder20 % (± 15)[eu-salama-2014]
Pork tongue3 % (± 2)[eu-salama-2014]
Pork liver2 % (± 1)[eu-salama-2014]
Red wine15 cl (± 5) per kg of meatUp to 1 cl per kg may be replaced by brandy, grappa or rum[eu-salama-2014]
Coarse sea salt26 g (± 4) per kg of meat[eu-salama-2014]
Cracked or ground black pepper2.5 g (± 0.5) per kg of meat[eu-salama-2014]
Cinnamon, nutmeg or cloves (optional, together or alone)0.75 g (± 0.5) per kg of meat[eu-salama-2014]
Natural pig's bladder[eu-salama-2014]

Total time across the recorded steps: 4 months – 6 months

Start
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What changes: Pork cuts, tongue and liver are trimmed by hand and minced

Step 1 of 5
Trim and mince the cuts
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Moulds

The cuts are trimmed by hand with a knife and minced.

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

Salama da sugo is a Ferrara sausage of minced pork neck, nape, belly, shoulder, tongue and liver with plenty of red wine and spices, stuffed by hand into a pig's bladder and tied into a six- or eight-part melon shape. It is dried and matured for four to six months, and may carry traces of natural mould. It is always cooked before it is eaten, served hot with its juice (sugo). Made in 5 steps over 4 months – 6 months. The longest step, dry and mature, takes 4–6 months (Coloretti F 2015). Salt is 2.2–3 % (European Commission 2014).

Key numbers
Main step4–6 monthsReported[coloretti2015]Dry and mature
Temperature115–121 °CReported[qualigeo-salama]Cook before eating
Salt2.2–3 %Set[eu-salama-2014]Season with wine, salt and spices

What makes this one different

Salama da sugo is filled into a whole pig's bladder rather than a gut casing, uses liver and tongue and a large dose of wine, and is matured for months but always cooked before eating.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Salama da sugo crudaSold raw after maturing; cooked before eating.
  • Salama da sugo cottaWashed of mould, sealed and autoclaved at 115–121 °C after maturing; may be sold in segments.

Safety

The salama is always cooked before eating. The cooked type is heat-treated in a sealed wrapper, and only that type may be sold in segments, cut before heating.

History and sources

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

Linked to the Este court of Ferrara; in 1722 Antonio Frizzi published a mock poem, La Salameide, about it. Registered as an EU PGI in 2014.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [eu-salama-2014] European Commission 2014, Publication of an application, single document 'Salama da sugo' PGI, Official Journal C 178, 12.6.2014 (CELEX 52014XC0612(01)), read via the EU Publications Office cellarspec
  2. [coloretti2015] Coloretti F., Grazia L., Gardini F., Lanciotti R., Montanari C., Tabanelli G., Chiavari C. 2015, A procedure for the sensory evaluation of Salama da sugo, a typical fermented sausage produced in the Emilia Romagna Region, Italy, Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture 95:1047-1054 (abstract)paper
  3. [qualigeo-salama] Fondazione Qualivita (Qualigeo), Salama da sugo IGP product sheetweb