The salsicciotto frentano

Where the air is cold and dry, above nine hundred metres, exposure to the air alone is enough to keep it.

The story

It is a traditional cured meat of the upper and middle Sangro and Aventino valleys, a hill country on the eastern slopes of the Maiella. It is made entirely of pork: there was a time when almost every family kept a pig for the needs of the house. At Montenerodomo, Pizzoferrato and Gamberale, where the air is cooler, until a few decades ago several families killed a pig every month from November to February.

Dividing up the pig

After a few days in which the animal, fully gutted and cleaned, is left out in the night frosts so that the muscles relax and lose liquid, the various parts are “divided up” to make different products: capocollo from the meat around the neck; liver sausages (fegatazzi) from the lungs, heart, windpipe and liver; coppo from the cartilage around the head; hams from the hind legs.

For the salsicciotti the lean meat around the neck, the shoulders, the ribs and the hams is preferred; in any case some fat is needed too, chosen on purpose. The parts, cut with knives, are then minced, salted and flavoured with pepper, with both sweet and hot pepper, and with particular herbs according to taste, before being cased in the gut, air-dried and pressed.

Keeping it

After curing comes the keeping, either in lard or in olive oil; in the past some people used sandstone sand. If the air is cold and dry enough, as it is in villages above 900 metres, exposure to the air alone is enough to keep it. Nowadays vacuum packing is used as well.

Some of today's producers have made this product known under the name of salsicciotto frentano, winning many national awards thanks to the quality of the meat, the use of local flavourings and excellent curing without preservatives.