Salami is an Italian term for a food made from raw meat or cooked,
with the addition almost always of salt, sometimes animal fat, herbs and spices
and possibly other ingredients and preservatives. In other languages, the term
is used to identify typical Italian cured meats, sausages and hams.

Types and varieties.

When sealed in a container, it is called a sausage (traditionally the intestines of the animal
are used, today synthetic materials are also used). It is preserved in different ways,
depending on whether it is raw, cooked, cured or smoked.
Sausages can come from the meat of other farmed animals (beef, goose, goat
donkey, sheep) and wild game (wild boar, deer, roe deer), but pork is certainly
the most used for this purpose and whole pieces (thighs, shoulders, cups) or minced
and sausages, both raw (salami and sausage) and cooked (mortadella, zampone, cotechino).
Mention should also be made of fish sausages, found locally in Italy, such as the Sicilian
ficazza di tonno from Sicily, musciame and trout salami from Trentino and Piedmont.

Raw ham is obtained from the leg of the pig, which is dry-salted, by immersion
in brine or by injection of the saline solution into the femoral artery. Dry salting is the
traditional process and the most suitable for a high standard of quality. The piece is
rubbed with salt once a day, for the duration of a month, in a refrigerated environment; at the
the ham is washed with lukewarm water and left to mature in the open air for at least three months
(for the best three months (for the best products even a year).
Salami is made from different muscle tissues, which are minced and mixed with fragments
fat, salt and pepper; the mixture is then stuffed into animal casings, which are tied with
string at regular intervals. This is followed by a maturing period (1 to 6 months)
in a ventilated and cool (10 to 13 °C) environment. and cool (10 to 13 °C). (source Wikipedia)


(Selection 2023)