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In the production of food, it has always been about making the food durable.

This is also the case with meat: in the mountains, where salt was rare, traditional preservation was done by smoking.

The closer one was to the sea, the closer one was to salting and air-drying.

With the advent of electric cooling, both would be

In principle, procedures are obsolete, which is why today it's all about habit and taste.

A rule of thumb for ham says that it is smoked north of the Alps, salted south of it and air-dried.

There are tasty deviations from the rule in both directions.

An overview.

Prosciutto di Sauris

The German language island of Sauris is located at 1,400 meters above sea level in the northern Italian province of Udine and was difficult to reach until a few decades ago.

It was probably settled sometime in the 13th century by families from Carinthia who not only brought their language, but also their smoking technique.

Two producers have stayed who produce the Prosciutto di Sauris, which is coveted throughout Italy.

This is first rubbed with pepper, spices and sea salt and then smoked over a wood fire.

Compared to Tyrolean bacon, however, the smoking takes place at lower temperatures and for a shorter time, which gives the meat a pleasantly round note, but keeps the smoke tones in the background.

San Daniele

A little more than an hour's drive from Sauris to the south, San Daniele del Friuli is located on a secluded hill.

The place prospered thanks to its world-famous ham.

The conditions here, where the dry air from the Alps mixes with the salty and humid air from the Adriatic, are ideal for its production.

However, the production is largely industrialized - almost all producers rely on computer-controlled cold stores.

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An exception is the Bagatto family's prosciuttificio, where you can still rely on the much-vaunted air of the place, where the clubs mature for up to 19 months.

The prosciutto is tender and sweet and melts on the tongue.

“This is how it should be,” emphasizes the owner Dante Bagatto, “because if you have to chew it, it's not San Daniele.” As with Parma ham, San Daniele, whether industrially produced or not, can only use table salt - and not the more harmful curing salt.

Outwardly, the clubs differ from the equally world-famous ones from Parma in that the San Daniele has the hoof attached to the leg.

Gurktaler Luftgeselchter

If you drive from Sauris north-east, you will reach the Carinthian Gurktal after about two and a half hours by car over high roads and alpine passes.

In Austria, on the other hand, the contradictory name “Luftgeselchte” is unique - a bacon that is not smoked, but air-dried.

The “Seiser”, a butcher's shop with an attached inn in the town of Strasbourg, has been “air smoked” for generations - and, in addition to various types of bacon, also air-dried lardo, a fat bacon made from the crisp white rind without any meat, as is known from Italy.

“We used to say“ Salted ”to it, nobody was interested,” says master butcher Stephan Seiser.

"Since we've been calling him Lardo, he's been going away like hot cakes."

Prosciutto di Cormons

One of the most sought-after hams in Italy comes from the Friulian Cormons.

In the wine town at the foot of the Collio range of hills, the d'Osvaldo family has been producing lightly smoked ham for generations, exclusively in winter, without artificial cooling and entirely by hand.

"My great-grandfather was a cattle dealer, that led him to Austria," says Monica d'Osvaldo.

"From there he brought the smoking technology home with him."

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At first, the family only produced the smoked ham in small quantities until Monica's father concentrated on it.

“It was also he who gave up the strong smoking based on the Austrian model and started smoking only briefly and gently,” says the daughter.

“Not for the longer shelf life, but because of the taste.” Today the d'Osvaldos also offer air-dried ham, but the flagship of the house remains the uniquely mild yet characterful “Prosciutto di Cormons”.

It is smoked over cherry and laurel wood and is usually sold out before the end of winter.

Prosciutto di Parma

The Parma ham comes from the Emilia-Romagna region and is probably the only one that can compete with the prestige of San Daniele.

It is no coincidence that it is named after the city of Parma, just like Parmesan cheese.

In earlier times, the whey that was used in cheese production was fed to the pigs, whose legs were used to make ham.

Today the process is largely industrialized, only a few producers still rely on the natural climate to allow their hams to mature.

Unlike the San Daniele, Parma ham is not massaged and pressed, but is salted a little more.

That is why it is rounder in shape, firmer in consistency and less sweet in taste. Instead of fresh fruit, it tastes more dry or candied, and also of forest and undergrowth.

Culatello

One of the most expensive hams in Italy also comes from the area around Parma.

Strictly speaking, it is not a ham, but, as the Italian name Culatello suggests, a "little ass".

The culatelli are made from the middle muscles of the leg that have been loosened from the bone and freed from fat and rind.

In its traditional form only in the winter months and only in a few towns along the Po River (of all places!).

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Production traditionally begins in November, when temperatures drop and thick clouds of mist spread over the fields.

Then the culatello matures in cellars that are flooded by fog.

In an ambience that would be far too humid for the prosciutto that ripens just a few kilometers from here in the dry air around Parma.

The wet process for making culatello is, so to speak, the opposite of smoking, which was originally about drying the meat to make it durable.

JERKIN