In May 1999 I was on a flight from Brussels
to Milan, from where I was supposed to take a train onward to Bologna. I was
heading for my 10-year graduation reunion of the Bologna Center of the Johns
Hopkins University. My then boyfriend, David, Dutch and Jewish, had offered me
the flight paid for by his free miles earned with Alitalia.
I had a seat at the corridor, two big fat
Belgian guys on my right. We were chatting happily when the steward stopped in front of me checking if it
was indeed me who had ordered a #kosher meal.
For ten seconds I remained clueless as what the hell he was talking
about. Then I realized it must have been David insisting I’d eat kosher. Or maybe
he was just registered as wanting a kosher meal each time he travelled. I never
asked.
My two neighbours were both Flemish, born,
raised, living and working in the province of West Flanders. They were heading for #Parma to meet with
customers. When our meals were served, they curiously observed my tray,
obviously missing the point as to why I could not eat #pork. Even the bonbon, wrapped in black paper with
yellow print, was kosher.
These two men were breading pork. With over
7 million pigs in Flanders early 1999 the pig population was at its peak. Little did we know that the #dioxine crisis in Belgium which, ironically, broke out less than a month later,
would make an end to this.
60 000 pigs were slaughtered, 437,5 million
euro down the drain.
They laughed
at me, cynically, in an effort to convince me how healthy pork meat is. I was
amazed to learn from these two slightly chauvinistic breeders that over half of
the pork meat used in the production of #Parmaham ( prosciutto di Parma ) is of
Belgian origin. Knowing the Italians for their strong believe in the fact that products
are the result of a combination of natural, environmental and human factors
determined by deeply rooted relationships and that these relationships have been established over the centuries
between farming and product processing, I remained very skeptical.
BREEDING
The typical production area of Parma
Ham, includes the territory of the province of Parma (Emilia-Romagna region,
Italy) located South of the Emilia Road, at a distance therefrom of not less
than 5 km, and up to a maximum altitude of 900 metres, bordered by the River
Enza to the East and by the Stirone stream to the West. The raw material
comes from a geographical area that is larger than the production area, and
which includes the administrative districts of the following Italian Regions:
Emilia-Romagna, Veneto, Lombardy, Piedmont, Molise, Umbria, Tuscany, Marche,
Abruzzo and Lazio (Italy).
For centuries, pig breeding was a great
tradition of Parma, as proven by the various sayings and proverbs in dialect.
The pig is an omnivore that is easy to feed and relatively easy to
domesticate. Only in fairly recent times
has the pig become a true “domestic pig”, meaning completely dependent on
humans. Lately, improved breeding techniques have led to an animal called the
“technological pig” or “industrial pig”.
The traditional ‘wild’ pig would mainly eat
berries and fruit found in forests or woods, such as acorns, available plenty
in the Po Valley. The ‘industrial’ pig, suited for the making of Parma Ham
lives of an extremely rigid, almost mathematical diet. It is precisely this
diet that can be copied worldwide.
So what then is the link between Belgium and Italian
Parma Ham these two men were talking about? These West Flanders’ farmers grow
the piglets which are then sold to Italy and further bred according to the
strict ‘ requirements for breeding pigs intended for the production of Parma Ham.’
SALTING
“Nothing is more useful than salt and sun”,
wrote Pliny the Elder in the 1st
century A.D.
Parma Ham or Prosciutto di Parma is the result of a meticulous, precise and well timed #salting process.
Salting has always played an important role in the preservation
of meat, fish and cheese. It was also an essential element in a primarily
vegetarian diet due to its potassium content.
Long before the invention of the deep freezer, the
importance of salt always fuelled intense trading of this staple.
Parma lies right is the middle of two coastal saline
zones : Venice, Comacchio and Cervia to the East and Genova to the West. Salt
was transported to the Eastern Po Valley primarily along the Po River and its
tributaries. Parma’s ideal geographical situation allowed for obtaining salt at
the best possible conditions. But the
cost of salt, not for transportation but for duties - considered an
indispensable staple,- remained high. Hence the people in the Po Valley tried
to produce it themselves, using rock-salt mines and particularly the saline
sources inland. The Po Valley, which was gradually formed by sedimentation,
contains great amounts of fossil sea salt, deep within its layers of
impermeable clay. For this reason, numerous salt- water ponds and springs can
be found on the plains, in the hills and in the mountains.
The hills surrounding Parma are known for its low
humidity, especially during the Summer months following the cool winter months
of slaughtering. During the cool winter months, the pigs are slaughtered and
then salted; in the months that follow the ham can then dry. There is a saying
that “to make a Po Valley ham, the pig must have passed two winters and the ham
two summers”,
I spent ten months in Bologna, 86 kilometers south of
Parma, studying International Politics and Economics. God I wish I ‘d studied
the making of Parma Ham !