Prosciutto
Prosciutto
by Carla Bardi
Reviewed by Elliot Essman
Full Review at www.stylegourmet.com.
My first memories of prosciutto entailed a veritable explosion in my mouth. As if hurtled in a flash to my first culinary Oz, I had the distinct realization that I was not in ham country any more. To call prosciutto “Italian Ham” is akin to calling the operas of Giuseppe Verdi “Italian Musical Plays.” Neither term properly conveys the sublime we find so often when it comes to Italy.
Carla Bardi’s Prosciutto comes to us from the Wine Appreciation Guild’s “Italian Pantry” series: luscious fully-illustrated volumes that give us the Italian A-to-Z on olive oil, pasta, cheese, and of course prosciutto and all its cousins. In truth, the book’s original title, Salumi, gives Italian food devotees a far better idea of the book’s ambitious scope; the term refers to “a vast array of different meats that have been cured with salt and spices then cooked or dried.” But even the term salumi fails to go the whole distance. Strictly speaking, salumi refers to any food (though usually pork) preserved in salt. The term insacatti refers to those meats packed into natural or synthetic animal gut. To do true justice to the book’s subject, the author is forced to resort to the unexciting but accurate phrase “Italian deli meats.” Salamis can qualify as salumi, insacatti, or both, but these distinctions are best left for the linguists. We food fanciers would rather read, salivate, and go online to book trips to Italy. Read the Full Review at www.stylegourmet.com.
by Carla Bardi
Reviewed by Elliot Essman
Full Review at www.stylegourmet.com.
My first memories of prosciutto entailed a veritable explosion in my mouth. As if hurtled in a flash to my first culinary Oz, I had the distinct realization that I was not in ham country any more. To call prosciutto “Italian Ham” is akin to calling the operas of Giuseppe Verdi “Italian Musical Plays.” Neither term properly conveys the sublime we find so often when it comes to Italy.
Carla Bardi’s Prosciutto comes to us from the Wine Appreciation Guild’s “Italian Pantry” series: luscious fully-illustrated volumes that give us the Italian A-to-Z on olive oil, pasta, cheese, and of course prosciutto and all its cousins. In truth, the book’s original title, Salumi, gives Italian food devotees a far better idea of the book’s ambitious scope; the term refers to “a vast array of different meats that have been cured with salt and spices then cooked or dried.” But even the term salumi fails to go the whole distance. Strictly speaking, salumi refers to any food (though usually pork) preserved in salt. The term insacatti refers to those meats packed into natural or synthetic animal gut. To do true justice to the book’s subject, the author is forced to resort to the unexciting but accurate phrase “Italian deli meats.” Salamis can qualify as salumi, insacatti, or both, but these distinctions are best left for the linguists. We food fanciers would rather read, salivate, and go online to book trips to Italy. Read the Full Review at www.stylegourmet.com.
posted by Elliot Essman at 9:52 AM
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