A Day of Butchery at Casamonti – Part 2

Freshly fallen snow

Early the next morning we made our way back to Casamonti Estate, through a couple of inches of freshly fallen snow that carpeted the vineyards and rolling hills of Chianti. Alvaro and Silvano were already in the norceria and as we pulled in, we saw Massimo wave, while escorting a huge male Cinta down the driveway as though he was taking a dog for a walk.

Leapt into action

We quickly slipped into our uniforms and leapt into action, greeted with a cordial “buon giorno” and smiles, a nice change from the day before.
At the end of the previous day we processed all the pig jowls into uniform rounds for guanciale and dredged them in the same cure as the pancetta. We also pulled out and trimmed the capicola or coppa, a cut taken from the lower neck of the pig, of which some would be cured and wrapped in butcher’s paper before tying into uniform cylinders to be hung and aged into capicola.

The butcher’s paper helps slow down the aging and seal in moisture, resulting in a more flavourful end product. Some of the fresh pieces would also be butterflied and seasoned with salt and freshly chopped rosemary from the tree outside the door. This was called taglia and was sold to a restaurant to be grilled rare and served sliced as an entrée.

All about sausage

This day was all about sausage, and the first order of business was to haul out the large metal trays of trim and fat to weigh 80 kg in total. The ratio of meat to fat was eyeballed by Alvaro at about 30 to 40% fat.

Alvaro then measured out the exact amount of salt and pepper to season the 80 kg of sausage, there would be absolutely no other ingredients like nitrates or herbs to mask the unique flavour of the Cinta. Ready to roll, we started tipping the meat and fat into the grinder, running it through a course blade into a plastic tub. From there, we dumped the ground Cinta into the horizontal mixer which would mix the meat and fat evenly and allow us to season everything well.

With the entire 80 kilos seasoned and mixed, a trap door at the bottom of the mixer was opened and the sausage filling was dumped into a metal hopper. The hopper was then rolled over to a huge sausage stuffer that had a built in fork lift to carry the hopper up and dump the ground pork in the top of the stuffer. Meanwhile, Alvaro was threading the natural sausage casings, that had been soaked and rinsed in water, onto the filling tube and promptly started to fill the sausages. A hip activated switch controlled how fast the machine pushed out the filling and a gentle squeeze of the casing on the filling tube regulated how the sausages were stuffed. Too fast with too much pressure and the sausages were over stuffed and would burst and too slow with little pressure and they would be wimpy and misshapen. Alvaro, with decades of experience, pushed out huge lengths of perfect sausage in seconds on the wet and slippery table.

Shorter than American versions

Italian norcinos tie off their sausages using a continuing piece of butcher’s twine, dividing each link with a half hitch. The twine helps support the sausage, during transport and when hung to age into dry sausage.

Italian sausages are typically shorter than American versions and rarely cut into individual links but instead remain in long coils. To ensure there were no air pockets, we quickly pricked the sausage with a small tool that has a bunch of pins sticking out, this also helps them cure in the aging room. Massimo joined us and started dividing up the orders of fresh sausage and earlier cuts we had prepared and moved some of the sausages to hooks for drying.

Tuscan salami

The fridge that had been full of large cuts of the five Cinta when we started was now getting close to empty, as we hauled out the remaining trays of meat mixed with fat to start on the Tuscan salami.
Tuscan salami is a large 4 to 6 inch diameter sausage that is studded with chunks of fat. The fat is from the back of the Cinta and would first have to be cut up into uniform 1/2 inch pieces. The meat we were grinding would be made up of some of the more choice trim pieces and a good amount of fat (about 70:30) The same die was used to grind the meat but about a third was sent back through the grinder a second time to change the texture of the finished salami. When all 70 kilos were ground, we mixed in the diced fat and the pre weighed seasoning of salt and ground & whole black pepper, again with no herbs or additives, in the mixer. Alvaro watched closely as the mixer turned, waiting for the filling to start to bind together and gain a certain consistency, much like a baker with his dough.

When he was satisfied he shut the machine off and said he was ready to fill the salami. We then reloaded the stuffing machine that was fitted with a large diameter filling tube and large casings and Alvaro began filling the salami. This time he would fill about a twelve inch long piece of casing and then cut the salami free, sliding it on the wet table to Silvano, who would tie each end tightly closed with butcher’s twine, leaving a long piece hanging at one end. He would then slide the salami to me where I would line them up on the edge of the table and tie a uniform loop in the twine. The loop would be used to hang the salami in the aging room and lining them up on the edge of the table would allow us to easily run a bar through the loops to pick up and hang eight salamis at a time. Before that would happen though, each salami would have to be evenly pricked all over (especially the ends, I was told) to allow even drying and aging.

As we finished off the last of the Tuscan salami, Massimo had already cleaned and sanitized the grinder and mixer and was now hosing down the empty walk in. Alvaro grabbed me by the elbow and led me to the aging fridges with Silvano and Nat in tow. The first room was for prosciutto and was a little colder and dryer than the next room which was 63F and close to 70% humidity. The second room held racks of aging sausages, guanciale, pancetta and salami including the famous finocchiona that is seasoned with wild fennel. There were also some finished legs of prosciutto ready for delivery, hanging in the warmer room.

Passionately

Alvaro and Silvano slowly and passionately explained the feel of the finished prosciutto to me, making sure I touched and squeezed each area to feel the level of cure. The legs would also occasionally be pierced with a needle shaped and sharpened horse bone, the porous bone is then smelled closely. An experienced norcino like Alvaro can tell how close it is to being ready by its odour. Taking our time, we moved throughout the fridge looking at all the products and discussing what to look for and the proper way things should hang, plenty of space for air circulation and never touching.

It was an incredible end to a great day for me and even through my lousy Italian I felt as though I had shown myself as worthy to share the room with my new friends and that they had gained a new respect for my abilities and dedication to learning the advanced skills of the norcino.

Cinta fat

Returning downstairs, with the hard work now behind us and the entire butcher shop cleaned to within an inch of its life, Silvano had one more thing to show me. Prized for its qualities and flavour, nothing on these amazing Cinta Senese is wasted, including the abundant amount of back and belly fat still left over from making sausage and salami. In fact Cinta fat has been found to have no cholesterol and its gentle volatility allows it to melt like butter with the mildest of heat. To that end they make a pure fat product that is simply seasoned with salt and pepper and put through the grinder twice (very cold). The result is a Cinta fat butter which is incredible spread on warm crostini, used to sauté potatoes or cook your morning eggs, sinful I know but crazy good!

A laughter filled conversation

Changed and ready to leave, we had a laughter filed conversation about Canada, with the boys, curious to know about bears, Pacific salmon and the wilds of our beautiful country. Silvano then presented me with a bag which he had filled with a rack of fresh ribs, sausage and a container of the marvellous Cinta butter. Handshakes and thank yous were exchanged and a warm arrivaderci wished as we pulled out of the incredible Casamonti Estate.

On the highway, driving quietly towards Umbria, I smiled thinking how I had managed to win over my new friends and how they had fulfilled this old chef’s dream of being a true Italian norcino, even if it was just for a couple of days.

If you want to visit Casamonti Estate and sample their delectable Cinta products, as well as their sublime olive oil and wine please contact Ray to arrange a tasting and tour. Who knows, you may have a slice of the salami I helped make.
For part 1 of this story please click here.