How can you recognise the best cured meats and salami? Simple: the pork must have a firm consistency and a non-watery cutting surface, characteristics of meat from mature pigs of at least 10 months of age. The degree of acidity (pH) also plays a very important role, as it helps determine the meat’s capacity for water retention.
The degree of acidity of meat is related to the butchering process, in particular to the level of stress endured by the animal prior to slaughter. The less a pig is stressed in the course of its life - and its death - the better the fruit of its sacrifice. Try any poor-quality salami, and you will notice an acid odour released at the first cut... And fresh meat?
Every Wednesday Esperya despatches the best fresh meat available in Italy, selected from breeders and butchers who continue to pursue the ideal of quality in a sector in which, unfortunately, all too many have given their allegiance to quantity - with disastrous conequences, as we have seen.
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