Did I forget to mention that Fernet Branca is headquartered in Milan, and that I have pictures from an exclusive tour I took of the factory? Non?

Here’s a sneak peek – if you’re interested in seeing more, let me know in the comments. Fernet lover? Hater? Don’t know what we’re talking about?

The picture below depicts a wheel of spices that go into the Fernet Branca secret recipe. So secret, in fact, that they readily admit many of the spices they display in the wheel are decoys and are not actually included in the final recipe. One ingredient they do confirm is saffron, as evidenced by that huge jar right in the center.

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Related Articles at Ms. Adventures in Italy:

• 2011 Year in Review in Pictures
• Early Morning in Venice
• Tour del Gelato: Il Massimo del Gelato, Milan

• Making Italian Prosciutto Crudo, Cured Ham in Parma: The Salting
• Making Italian Prosciutto Crudo, Cured Ham in Parma: Drying and Sugna

Done? Ok, so we’ve put on the sugna and now these potential prosciutto di Parma are settling in for the long haul: the Maturing.

At the seventh month, after the sugna is applied, they are moved to “cantine” – cellars for 10-12 months (based on weight) for the maturing period.

That’s when you get these fascinating halls of prosciutto that I posted before:

After the maturing period, a horse bone “needle” is inserted in five points of the joint and the bone is then smelled by experts for uniformity of aroma and maturation. The needle is inserted into the area covered by the sugna and then the controller will cover up the hole made with the needle using his hands.

One of my biggest regrets is that I didn’t get a picture of the horse bone needle that is used to check the aroma and maturation of the prosciutto – I saw it sitting innocently on their table in the antechamber.

Only, and only after all passing all these previous steps will finally be fire-branded “Prosciutto di Parma” with its distinct “corona a 5 punte” – 5 pointed crown brand that you can see here, and this manufacturer’s identification:

Remember when you’re buying Prosciutto di Parma, you’re actually buying from a consortium of manufacturers in and around Parma and not just a single company. Each prosciutto leg will have a unique code that can be traced back to the individual manufacturer.

Thanks to the Prosciutto di Parma consortium there are some great videos online for the public so you can see the horse bone needle in action.

Start watching at around 4:40 to see the entire prosciutto making process I explained in these three posts, and at 6:15 to see when he sticks the horse bone into the prosciutto and smells it.

Now it’s ready to eat – pair it with your favorite parmigiano reggiano cheese, a glass of wine (a sparkling white in summer and early fall is great) and some bread and grapes and you’ll have a great meal.

and just remember where it all comes from, the pig.

I hope you enjoyed this inside look at how Prosciutto Crudo Ham from Parma is made!

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Related Articles at Ms. Adventures in Italy:

• Making Italian Prosciutto Crudo, Cured Ham in Parma: Drying and Sugna
• Making Italian Prosciutto Crudo, Cured Ham in Parma: The Salting
• A little “taste” of Prosciutto di Parma

• Part 1: Making Prosciutto di Parma: the Salting
• Part 2: Making Prosciutto di Parma: the Drying and Sugna
• Part 3: Making Prosciutto di Parma: the Maturing

After the salting process, the prosciutto have been washed and now they are hung to dry – usually in climate-controlled rooms so that the temperature is an average and most importantly, dry temperature. If there is too much moisture in the air, the meat will spoil instead of curing. The air is also changed frequently. The legs are hung with rope and though many of the racks are now metal, more traditional racks would be made of wood.

The old style of making prosciutto, as I mentioned in the previous post, dictated that prosciutto could only be made certain time during the year – late winter to early spring, when the salting process could be done in a cold cellar, and then the drying out would be done in the open air. Several factories would actually put the racks outside on the roof to let the air dry out the prosciutto as it continues to cure.

In fact, one of the things I thought was really interesting was comparing the photo of these prosciutto from the 1950s with today’s – look how much fat of the prosciutto is exposed here! It’s something that’s a bit of a struggle for producers now – most people don’t really want to eat the fat and therefore a leg that’s a little more trim is desirable. But at the same time, the fat is what helps keep the prosciutto meat moist, tender, and adds lots of flavor.

If you don’t like to see where your food comes from – look away now. Here’s a close-up of the drying meat.

After it’s dried sufficiently, the prosciutto leg is ready for sugna (SOON-yah). What’s sugna? Sugna is rendered pork fat, which is spread over the exposed part of the prosciutto. Usually the fat is mixed with spices like salt and pepper, but each establishment has their own special mix and proportions. The sugna helps protect the exposed part of the prosciutto and keep it from drying out excessively with respect to the interior part of the prosciutto, and therefore ensures you a slice of prosciutto that is tender and moist the entire way through.

The sugna is spread onto the prosciutto by hand, as you can see here – there are finger marks in their sugna!

At this point the prosciutto is still NOT considered Prosciutto di Parma – that’s in the next post!

Continue Reading: Part 3: Making Prosciutto di Parma: the Maturing

If you’re planning on participating in the O Foods for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Contest – prosciuttO is a great O Food! Help us spread awareness!

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Related Articles at Ms. Adventures in Italy:

• Making Italian Prosciutto Crudo, Cured Ham in Parma: The Maturing
• Making Italian Prosciutto Crudo, Cured Ham in Parma: The Salting
• A little “taste” of Prosciutto di Parma

Part 1 in a series about how Prosciutto di Parma is made when I visited a prosciuttificio (prosciutto factory) during the Festival del Prosciutto in the province of Parma.

• Part 1: Making Prosciutto di Parma: the Salting
• Part 2: Making Prosciutto di Parma: the Drying and Sugna
• Part 3: Making Prosciutto di Parma: the Maturing

On the occasion of the Festival del Prosciutto di Parma in the province of Parma, we made our way just south of Parma to Langhirano (lahn-ghee-RA-no) where the festival was taking place that weekend. A small town of about 9,000 people, Langhirano houses the Museo del Prosciutto / Museum of Prosciutto as well, which I visited but that’s for another post. The festival runs from August 29 – September 20, 2009, so you still have time to celebrate!

On occasion of the festival, there were organized tours into a prosciuttificio – prosciutto-making establishment, leaving from the main station. I’m not sure if this trend will continue during the year – it’s best to go early and ask at the museum or stop by the station area to see if they have a little tent set up to coordinate the visits. The visits were organized only in the morning. Look for “Finestre aperte” signs which indicate the factory is open for a visit.

Many of the prosciuttifici are quite small and you get a sense of how much care goes into the preparation of prosciutto di Parma. We were lucky enough to have one of the owners of Corradi Guerino show us around his prosciuttificio.

One of my favorite things about food is learning how it’s made. It definitely increases my appreciation for the food next time I encounter it, if not increases my actual pleasure in eating it, knowing how much work went into getting it to that point. When I had access to television in the U.S., one of my favorite programs was on the Food Network, “Unwrapped,” which investigated all the behind-the-scenes details on how popular candy and other treats are made, whether by hand or in factories.

I just love that stuff!

Prosciutto di Parma has a DOP status (Protected Designation of Origin) since 1996 (one of the first in Europe) which means only products which meet standard requirements can be given the distinction of being called “Prosciutto di Parma.”

Along one wall, Corradi Guerino has some of the European Union requisiti / requirements for non-regulation fresh swine thighs in terms of appearance. This is how inspectors decide which legs don’t conform to the norms, and which can proceed. Just in this picture, you can see that they focus on “grasso poco consistente” – the fat around the cut of the leg is not consistent (lower left), “sfesatura” which roughly translates to breakage/inconsistency in the surface of the meat (top right) and “alterazione cromatiche del grasso” – the fat layer has breakage / inconsistency or strange marbling through the meat (lower right).

This is not to say that that leg of swine doesn’t someday become prosciutto – but it definitely won’t be labeled Prosciutto di Parma.

Onto the prosciutto preparation! The legs are first cleaned, salted and left for up to two months (but usually closer to a month). Two types of salt are used in the process – “wet” salt covers the exposed part of the meat to keep it moist and “dry” salt is used for the rest of the leg. The leg also needs to be at the right temperature: too cold and it will not absorb enough salt; too warm and it might start to deteriorate.

They are kept at low temperatures to avoid spoiling. You can tell by the fresh appearance of the meat that these legs haven’t been curing for very long and are di primo sale “first salt” which lasts around a week. Then the excess salt is removed, and a lighter coating of salt is added to continue the salting process (two pics down). Some of the legs have already been discarded due to the imperfections mentioned above. No other additives or preservatives are used, and it’s absolutely forbidden to freeze a leg that will become Prosciutto di Parma.

Here the prosciutto legs are di secondo sale – “the second salt”. You can see that they are more dried than before but they are still being refrigerated, and will be in this phase for 15-18 days. Funny thing, many of the Italians entered the large refrigeration room where these legs were being held and promptly exited again. It was quite cold and contrasted with the outside, normal temp (being the end of summer) and for most Italians change in temperature = another way to get sick. I agree in part, but I was definitely not going to miss out and spent quite a few minutes in the cooler.

During the salting process, the prosciutto are given “massages” to remove all of the blood still left in the meat.

Up next…prosciutto cures for months, and you’ll find out what sugna is and what it’s used for!

Continue Reading: Part 2: Making Prosciutto di Parma: the Drying and Sugna

If you’re planning on participating in the O Foods for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Contest – prosciuttO is a great O Food!

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Related Articles at Ms. Adventures in Italy:

• Making Italian Prosciutto Crudo, Cured Ham in Parma: Drying and Sugna
• Making Italian Prosciutto Crudo, Cured Ham in Parma: The Maturing
• A little “taste” of Prosciutto di Parma