Pampering, proximity and salt make a king of hams

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-10-14 07:44

MILAN - You need salt, fresh air, expert hands and nothing else. It might seem like the recipe for a stay at a luxury spa, but these are instead the ingredients for turning a leg of pork into the "King" of Parma hams.

It's not as simple as it sounds, though, to produce the sweet, tender delicacy that Italians call "Prosciutto di Parma" and which has become increasingly popular with Britons and Americans as "Parma Ham."

It takes months of careful work by experts who stick to traditions as ancient as Christianity, eschewing modern technology and additives.

"There are no secret formulas here," says Paolo Tanara, chairman of the Consorzio del Prosciutto di Parma, the organization that supervises production of the deep pink hams.

"There are, or better still there should be, only personal expertise and practice, a favorable environment and the simplest and oldest preservative: sea salt."

Prosciutto di Parma can only be produced in a very restricted area of 29 sq km (11.2 sq mile) around the town of Parma in the region of Emilia Romagna, just north of Tuscany.

To the north of this area, production must be 5 km south of the ancient Roman road, the Via Emilia, to avoid the fog of the Po valley.

In the south, it cannot climb above 900 meters on the Appenines to avoid the severe mountain climate. To east and west, it is bordered by the rivers Enza and Stirone respectively.

And the region benefits from the salty sea air of the Ligurian and Tuscan coasts.

Into this little alcove, around 2,700 legs of pork are brought every day from 10 selected regions of Italy.

And it is here that they get the care needed to turn them into Prosciutto di Parma and earn the title of King, with the branding of a five-pointed crown that is Parma Ham's worldwide sign of excellence.

"Many people have tried to imitate this product," Tanara says. "They haven't managed to because it is only here that there are the conditions suited to drying the ham and the care and expertise of people who are using a 2,000 year-old tradition."

Parma Ham was awarded protected status as a brand by the European Union in 1996 and it is now registered in over 40 countries.

Around 10 million hams are sold every year, of which about 2 million are exported, mainly to France, the United States and Germany, which each consume about 400,000 a year.

Foreign consumers prefer ready-sliced hams in vacuum packs instead of insisting, as most Italians do, that it is cut to order in front of them -- allowing them to choose sweeter or less fatty, thin or thick.

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