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Discovering the hidden heart of the city
along 3 easy itineraries Kill Pig
[Francesco Lorenzi]
The pig, the valuable animal which from time immemorial has been a source of nourishment to mankind, was always slaughtered and worked amidst the icy mists of winter, when the cold was the best way of conserving its meat and refrigerators were still a thing of the future. Now pigs are slaughtered all year round, and fresh sausages, tasty back for roasting and fragrant salamis can always be had. This was not always the case: up to the 1950s in the Tuscan countryside, as elsewhere of course, pigs were only slaughtered on those clear crisp days between the beginning of December and the end of February.In Tuscany they used to call it killing the pig, using the most violent and least hypocritical word for what happened: indeed killing the pig used to be a real bloody ritual sacrifice in which the animal was killed by sticking an extremely sharp skewer right into its heart using a technique which, when done by an expert, caused instantaneous death.
The still-whole carcass would be scrubbed hard using a stone and boiling water to get rid of all the bristles, then it would be tied, usually to a ladder, with the head downwards and legs spread apart while the blood would be collected in a special container. Fresh blood would be used the same day to make black pudding or roventini (a type of fritter to enjoy with Parmesan cheese), that are now very hard to get because present laws prohibit the sale of pig’s blood.
After a couple of days, during which the pig was kept cool in a sort of brief hanging process, the proper working began in which absolutely nothing got thrown away. Firstly the insides were removed, and the intestines, straightened out and carefully washed, were kept aside for casing the sausages and salamis that would be prepared using the meats. The internal organs, such as the lungs, heart and liver were chopped up and put into the casings or stewed; in Tuscany pig liver is used to make fegatelli cased in the net, or membrane, that holds the organs within the animal’s gut, and cooked in a casserole with bay leaf.
The choicest cuts of the animal, like the loin and rib, became roasts of steaks, and the fat and lean meats were minced and seasoned to make sausages or salamis. The animal’s limbs were cut and set aside to mature in salt and pepper for four months at least to make hams: prosciutto with the rump and spalla with the shoulder; the trotters, which north of the Apennines go to make the savoury zampone, in Tuscany are stewed with rind and beans. The fatty strips with the lean marbling from the underbelly were also salted and matured to make lardo or pancetta, both somewhat similar to bacon.
The bloodier types of meat, the fat and the rind were used to make buristo, a salami cooked after being cased, while the head was used to make soprassata or capofreddo, in which the meat was cooked separately and cased after cooking. Both were to be eaten quickly without maturing. Bardiccio is another of these poor salamis typical of the mountains eastern of Florence and the Casentino district, where it is called salsiccia matta (daft sausage): made with bloody meat, entrails (like the heart) and herbs, mainly fennel seed, it is to be eaten right away but strictly after cooking.
Sausage, liver cooked in the net and morsels of cooked lean meat could be kept for a long time sottâunto, i.e. coated in melted fat in a glass or earthenware jar. The leftovers of the lardo, fried in a little oil, became ciccioli, a sort of savoury crisps with a soft inside: these were used as an appetizer or rather, in times when there was no need to stimulate the appetite (but only the categorical imperative of satisfying it every so often at least), to add to bread or sauces.
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