Culatello
Culatello is considered one of the most prestigious deli meats in the Italian production tradition. It is obtained from the hind limbs of the pig, defatted and deprived of the rind, in which the muscle mass around the femur is isolated.
Culatello is considered one of the most prestigious deli meats in the Italian production tradition. It is obtained from the hind limbs of the pig, defatted and deprived of the rind, in which the muscle mass around the femur is isolated.
Culatello is considered one of the most prestigious deli meats in the Italian production tradition. It is obtained from the hind limbs of the pig, defatted and deprived of the rind, in which the muscle mass around the femur is isolated. The front part of the cut is used for the preparation of the “fiocco” (flake), which has a lower curing time than the culatello itself. Both, culatello and fiocco, are specialties of the Parma area; the Culatello di Zibello has received the European PDO mark. Their nutritional value is similar to that of the defatted raw ham.
Like ham, culatello is also obtained from the thigh of the hog, exactly from the muscular part between the “fiocco” and the cuff. The thigh, once boned and freed from the rind is defatted and sectioned to obtain the part needed for the production of culatello. At this point there are the trimming and grooming phases and, after removing the femur, the salting and the ligation, in order to give the classic and well-known rounded pear shape. After the first two / three days of salting, the culatello is massaged and, if necessary, more salt is added; a rest period follows, after which it is stuffed into a natural gut. Thus the seasoning begins, going from a minimum of six to a maximum of twelve months.
