Salami of Mantua
It is a cause of pride for the whole province. For its preparation - at
the beginning of the winter - pork meat coming from animals weighting
at least 180 kilos is used, except the leg, used to produce ham
and meat for sausages and cotechino. Muscles and nerves are not used,
since the mixture must be soft and compact, without hard sections. Meat
gets minced into coarse grains, according to the past tradition,
when everything was made by hand, and flavored with salt, pepper, and
garlic. The recipe also includes pepper in grains. Finally, the salami
is packed into a pork bowel and tied up by hand with some string.
After
drying up for two days with the heat of a wood-burning stove, the salami is
taken into a dry and well-airy place, and finally to a cellar or a
fresh and wet basement. Here, it must mature (without drying up) for at
least two or three months. When the maturation process is complete, it can be eaten from
spring.
