Parma Ham and its encounter with History


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 !