Get a taste of Bresaola

Valtellina is the birthplace of so many good things, including Bresaola!

Bresaola is a quality product made with one single piece of the highest quality meat, to which very few ingredients are added, just a bit of salt and some spices… Taste it simply, with a touch of extra virgin olive oil or perhaps the juice of lemon.

But please come to Valtellina to taste Bresaola: certain aromas and certain sensations can only be experienced here!

 

⇒ Watch the full web serie Valtellina Slow Tour

Main pic courtesy of Flickr User Wei Duan Woo

 

Video full text: Bresaola

Doctors on the ward? E.R.?
No! Where are we Nicola?
We’re in Valtellina, the birthplace of so many good things, and that includes Bresaola!
We are in a Bresaola factory.
So which “patient” shall we see now?
Let’s go and see the raw material that’s used for
making a quality product such as the Bresaola that comes from Valtellina.
Bresaola begins with one single piece of meat.
That’s why a piece of the highest quality meat is essential.
Bresaola can be made using 4 main cuts of the leg:
the thick flank, the topside, the silverside and the tip of the haunch.
This is the tip of the haunch, the best cut and the most used.
This is what’s called dry-salting.
Here they use salt and flavourings. What can you smell?
Cinnamon? Bay leaf? Pepper?
Oh my, so much cinnamon!
Massaging it helps the salt to penetrate.
The salting stage lasts around two weeks,
during which time it is regularly massaged.
After all of this the product is ready for maturing.
Here the meat is placed into a sock?
Once the salting process is complete, the meat has absorbed the salt.
It is pressed and placed inside an artificial intestine made from collagen fibre.
A net is then sewn that will allow the water to drain away during the maturing phase.
Good morning!
This is my dad, Paride, he’s our master maturer.
How long have you been doing this work?
I’ve reached my sixtieth year, so let’s say for a quite a few years.
We are in the Bresaola della Valtellina IGP Consortium.
Everyone here is so passionate and so keen to produce a good quality product.
We put our all into everything!
This product has reached as far as Expo in Milan, but this is the only place to eat it!
Certain aromas and certain sensations can only be experienced here!
What a wonderful smell!
This is the phase immediately following the salting and bagging where we move on to drying the product,
so that it keeps for longer.
It’s a complex process, but a simple one too:
a piece of meat to which very few ingredients are added.
A bit of salt and some spices. It’s a whole muscle, a lean muscle,
and there are very few contrivances,
making it so good for the diet!
And so, here it is!
So we’ve gone from the raw meat to the finished product.
All that remains is for us to taste it.
With a touch of extra virgin olive oil or perhaps the juice of lemon.
You can even make some parcels out of them containing goat’s cheese.
Really very good!