Our unusual and delicious Speck Trentino is made by Massimo Corra in Coredo, a village 900m up in the alpine Val di Non.
- Coredo in the Val di Non. The orchards you can see are growing apples
Like prosciutto, speck is made from the hind leg of the pig but, unlike prosciutto, it has the bone removed and the 2 muscles opened like a book before being smoked and aged. This means it’s a flat piece of meat and generally won’t be aged more than 5 months. Ours, however, is like no other speck I’ve ever seen: it’s enormous. Massimo Corra knows the virtues of long ageing so he buys pigs that are reared extensively on a local farm for 14 – 16 months. Their legs have a much thicker layer of both fat and meat which means that Massimo can age his speck for well over a year until the glossy fat just melts and the delicately smokey meat takes on a delicious hint of the spices with which it is cured.
- Schiena. Maturing Back Fat in Massimo’s Cantina
The cooking of Trentino is based on polenta (which is made in every valley using either water, wine or milk), potatoes and pork. Cured pork is king and is, for the most part, smoked. Massimo sells his range from his butchers shop in Coredo and it includes schiena (cured back fat), probusto (just like a frankfurter), a carpaccio of smoked loin and the Slow Food presidia salamis Mortandela del Val di Non and Lucanica Trentina. The only problem is availability: Massimo butchers just 5 of these big pigs a week, not enough for us to wholesale any but we do sell it online.
- Massimo With His Pancetta and Mortandela Salami