Good evening everyone, I'm Massimo Spigaroli. I'm wishing you a good evening
as it's been a whole day we've been working here, working pork in the midst of the fog, amidst the cold. To understand just how important this moment, winter, is. So, after the lasagna, where I told the story of my own lasagna, the story of my family, I'm here today to tell you about the story of pig, but first of all the story of culatello ham, that is by now the master of a territory where really incredible
knowledge converge. territory where really incredible
knowledge converge. We still have a good farm business
where we produce everything our pigs eat. We're raising 2-3 breeds, 2 at the moment: an excellent white pig from Italy and a black pig from Parma, two sublime pigs that allow us
to make valuable cold cuts. This is how I opened my doors to
ItaliaSquisita, so as to tell what we're going to do, what we have done today and mostly, what is important to do as life is made of things that we are able to do and when you know how to do them,
you can also tell them. 8:00 AM - Pig Full Immersion - Butcher laboratory We're now unloading the thighs, one for each guy, and then we'll start with the manufacturing of this the manufacturing of this very important product: the Culatello. What we're doing today
is a manufacturing that is happening in our territory since many, many years, since centuries, I would say. Cold, but proud. The cold, the frozen cutting board. I told the guys how magic this moment is. You're living it, just like it has always
been experienced in all of the previous generations, because in order to make a good culatello and to make a good cold cut, you need little ingredients: cold, the meat of a good pig, lots of knowledge, some salt and then maybe some garlic, some wine, but cold is fundamental. Cold, as while salt gets into the meat, in the end it needs cold to preserve it and bring it along, and this is fundamental. If we don't understand this, it's useless
to start anything in the first place. We're cutting the skin. We're removing the rind, careful not to direct the knife
towards the meat. If I'm removing fat from culatello, we're keeping it and
not throwing it away, we're making salami. If I'm cutting the rind, in this case I'm not bothered, because we can grind it to make cotechino. These are enthusiastic youngsters that I found in no time, because young people are like sponges, and in the end you need to be close to them and try to tell them about what is true. The telling can be done by now digitally, just like everything else, but putting your hands on the meat
and touching it, understanding and evaluating,
just as I explained these guys, it's important. Then I'm cutting the culatello. The bone does so. So I'm taking this piece and I have the courage to undo a whole ham to obtain two important pieces of meat. Again, very carefully here, as I'm not pulling the meat in any case,
I'm detaching it. Here we are. This is culatello. We're now cleaning it. Because we have the courage to undo a whole thigh (ham) to create culatello. Not only culatello, but fiocco, the rump, and then we obtain cotechino, also made with rind, and then we obtain a salami and so on
working for the whole afternoon. But let's get back to culatello, as it's surely the most important part, the king of cold cuts and the one that is bringing forward the quality image of a territory. So, we separated it from the thigh, we fastened it with these twines transversely so as to prevent it
from opening, then we massaged it, let's say, with wine and garlic. The wine is Fortana, a wine from our territory. Garlic,
people think this is an operation that only gives fragrance, just gives taste, but that's not it. It surely gives fragrance and
taste, but think about the alcoholic part of the
wine that disinfects the meat, and garlic, that is an important
antibacterial that initially sanitizes the meat. From that time on, you don't smell the meat anymore, you smell the fragrance of something that is about to come, a smell of cold cuts. Then we salted it. Salting is a very important thing. It's so important, because if I'm adding too much salt, in the end it will be good, but salty, and it's not worth anything. Nobody wants a salty salami. If I'm adding too little, a putrefaction will start at the core as soon as the heat comes and the culatello will go bad. And it's not over. There's what we call 'the blessing of culatello'. Blessing a culatello, one might think
that a priest is coming, but there's no priest, the priest is the pork butcher
and today it was me, with the guys, I was the priest
and I was sprinkling the wine, letting these drops fall, so I was blessing it and the guys watching were the people attending in the church, the church that was in that moment collecting around
the cutting board. I think these are very important moments. This is the blessing. And then, what did we do? We made pork cracklings, we continued with the salami, but mostly we tried to explain what was happening. Because it's not only about
working the thigh, it's not only about culatello. In this territory the whole pig
is used for production, the whole animal, so we made lard,
cracklings and then 'cicciolata', meaning the cooking of all of the parts. In our area, we say the pig is just like Verdi's music: there is nothing to throw away! We got to know Verdi, because up until the year 1882, my family worked for maestro Giuseppe Verdi and the pigs that were worked and turned into the cold cuts that accompanied the composer, who in his letters called them 'his best travel mates' were those produced by my great grandfather Carlo, who was already doing this job. Then we tied a culatello that had been already salted for 6 days,
because you can't tie a culatello on the same day, when salt still didn't penetrate. So we told this: "As you can see, here the salt slowly seeped through, we massaged it almost daily with some wine, garlic and Fortana, when it becomes brown, we're moving it into a bladder. It's in the pig's bladder because the pig goes entirely into its offal. The question that the guys asked was, how is that possible? The pig has one bladder only, but there's two culatello. Where is the other one going? This is a question I expected, because one use to go in the bladder, and the other in the stomach of the pig. Guys, here is our culatello. We saw how it is done, this is perfect, it should have this pear shape. I'm showing you something. In the end, it's about the meat of a good pig and these here are the tools: hands and a lot of mind. And then they're moved to the historical
cellars of Antica Corte Pallavicina. These cellars are 700 years old and have always stored culatelli and here are these molds that are very important, as when the new culatelli meet the old ones, they're giving them their molds, these important molds that are present in the territory, but mostly it's about beautiful, round, caressed
and loved culatelli. I might say I maybe know them all, one by one, because I'm always strolling around, watching them... What are we doing next? At the end, the sublimation of the whole work. So, we're taking the culatello, preparing it and finally, with lots of satisfaction, we're cutting it. We cut it and then we're finely slicing it, and what are we pairing it with? We're pairing it with something exceptional, The fried cake. There are those who call it 'crescentina', those who call it fried 'gnocco fritto' our territory calls it with an important name:
'chisoi'. So, now Lorenzo will make the recipe for us. Lorenzo is the guy who's helping me, my right hand. Soft wheat flour, now we made it better so
we're kneading it with milk, then we're adding some yeast at the end, we're adding some salt and then we're kneading and incorporating everything, then we're stretching it. We're stretching it not too thin, it needs to be slightly thick, and then lard, which becomes the element that is key in the frying. Frying in lard means obtaining products that are even tastier. Good day chef! I cut some things here, because now I want your opinion, after all of that work... Have a smell. It's so fragrant! Come on, have it! We made "fried cake",
we have it all! Come on guys! Go on! All of our pride in not losing this knowledge... Is it worth it?
- Yes, it is, definitely! In the end the effort was much, because there have been difficult moments, surely I tried to show all of the passages, but these guys' enthusiasm,
who at the end were really enthusiastic won over the cold. I have to tell you the truth, as I was tying the last culatello, my hands were so red that they couldn't go on. But my will was strong, to succeed in finishing this thing that I tried to continue, and I was paid back by the happiness of these guys when we gathered around a slicer and tasted a culatello with this fried cake, full of knowledge, full of willpower and this, I think, is the best thing that can happen, but mostly I hope this is useful for you! Come visit us,
it's a beautiful territory, a slice of good culatello, I think, will always be there. I'm satisfied, I'm tired but truly satisfied about a busy day, but that still gave me - maybe it made me gain
some years of life. I'm saying this as it comes, it might be, anyway,
I feel truly happy.
