If you like prosciutto, you gotta try culatello. Formally known as Culatello di Zibello, it is a luscious cured meat that’s literally the culo (that’s Italian slang for butt) of the pig. Whereas when making prosciutto, the entire leg of the pig is salted and dried in cool air at a high altitude, in making culatello only the largest, choicest muscle of the leg is used, turning a simple ham into a sublime experience.
Culatello di Zibello is your favorite prosciutto taken to an all new level. The town of Zibello in Emilia Romagna is located in the lowland plains north of the Appenine mountains, about 10 miles to the north of Parma, in an area prone to humidity. Because the entire leg with the bone doesn’t cure well in the high humidity and warmth of the plains, they cure just this choice piece of the leg with the bone out. The result is a cured meat that is so delicate and porky, so satiny, luscious and soft in the mouth you seriously consider never eating anything else again.
culatelli aging in the cellar
Culatello isn’t imported into the US so you have to search it out when you’re in Italy. Legally the only three cured pork products that can be imported are Prosciutto di San Daniele, Prosciutto di Parma and Mortadella di Bologna, based on old import restrictions because of parasites that existed in raw pork, implemented to protect the US consumer. Today, while these are allowed in, it’s not from just any Italian producer but from specific producers that have met the strict guidelines set by the US FDA and have passed stringent inspections from US FDA inspectors. Sure do wish they spent that kind of time and energy inspecting the meat packing plants in America.
Not being able to export their exceptional culatello to the US concerns the people of Zibello, of course. They see the market strength of neighboring Parma and they want a piece of the American pie. Back in 2009, shortly after the last Presidential election, I was talking with a culatello producer about the US import ban. He was telling me how difficult it is when American food writers and chefs come to see, taste and fall in love with culatello. But since they aren’t able to get it at home, they stop writing and talking about it. But, he continued, now that Obama had been elected President of the United States, the locals were convinced that soon culatello would be recognized for the superior pork product it was, and very soon the ban on it would be lifted.
Now, having spent the entire 2008 campaign and election in Italy, I was aware that people outside of America had high hopes for our new President and were certain that Barack Obama would save the world. But it had never been made so clear to me in how many small, myriad ways Obama was expected to do this. An obscure cured pork product that many Italians have never heard of, much less Americans, and that even the majority of well-connected foodies don’t even know exist, was going to be brought to the forefront of importation issues by the election of a man in a distant country. No matter how wonderful or delicious or regionally important this product may be, those expectations were astounding. Oh how I wish it were so! Perhaps if we all spent more of our time and energy finding and eating pork products as excellent as Culatello di Zibello, peace might reign in the world! Make food not war!
Buon Appetito! Gina