Prosciutto of Pietraroja
Prosciutto of Pietraroja, in the province of Benevento, has been known for centuries to the point that in one of the posters in the archive of the Reign of Naples, the symbol of this small town is a woman with a ham. There is also proof that in 1776 the Duke of Laurenzana of Piedimonte, commissioned a supply of “prigiotta” of Pietraroja. In 1917, Antonio Iamalio, in his description of the province of Benevento “Queen of the Sannio”, tells that it is “Flourishing and pigs are bread, from which derive the famous Pietraroja hams”. The ancient workmanship stems, the characteristic climate and the fine mountain air, make this meat a unique product with a delicate and unmistakable aroma. The typical transformation of the ham starts with a hand-fillet of the leg, the back leg of the pig, from which the ham id obtained. The from is placed on a traditional wood concave and inclined gable the day after, where it is salted and left for about 15/20 days. After this period, once it has lost most of the serum “salamona” and it has been cleaned of the residual salt, the ham is placed in a press where it is pressed more for another 4 weeks and spiced with black and chili pepper. Unfortunately today its production is very limited: only a few hundreds are produced a year mostly destined to family consumption.
