Upon receiving the fresh pork legs from the abattoir, the head chef and his colleagues will take each leg, remove the skin, debone it, and trim the fat. 

Next they will carve off what is considered the lower quality of meat (called the “fiocchetto”). 

Once they have finished, they are left with the most tender piece of the upper leg; the back muscle of thepig’s haunch.

They tie this piece up, sprinkle it with salt, massage it vigorously and put it into the refrigerator for 10 days in order to rest and soak in the salt.  Each of the 10 days they take the meat out and further massage it so that the salt is absorbed as much as possible. 

After 10 days, they remove the meat and season it with more salt, but also add select seasonings.  For example, at Antica Corte Pallavicina they first sprinkle the meat with sparkling red wine (Fontana), rub it with garlic cloves, and then roll in salt and sprinkle with coarsely crushed black pepper.

The meat is then slipped into a pig bladder (interestingly, since you have two culatelli vs. one bladder per each pig, many of the bladders come from the Prosciutto di Parma pigs) and is artistically and tightly sewn together with a heavy string. 

It is important to tie the string tightly because it helps to insure that there are no remaining air pockets. The bladder is then punctured in several places in order to allow the fat and juices to drip out during the drying process.

After attaching the producers’ label on a string, the precious bundle is moved to the next phase where it rests, and begins to dry.  This process lasts for a 30-60 days, and afterwards the culatello begins the phase of “stagionatura,” or period of aging.

The particular climate in the River Po Valley is essential to Culatello di Zibello’s characteristic flavor and perfume.  The salume’s unique aging process is dependent on two distinct seasonal changes in the Parma Lowlands.  In the autumn and winter months the weather is cold, very foggy and damp, while the summer days are unbearably hot and muggy.  Although the temperatures are diverse, the high humidity throughout the seasons is necessary in order to maintain the salume’s soft and slow maturation.

The culatello will receive its PDO stamp on a red string once its quality has been approved by the PDO inspector.  If the culatello has been made by a producer in the Consorzio, a third stamp will be attached by string after 11 months of aging, assuming the culatello has been deemed deserving after inspection.

The Consorzio’s culatello must age for at least 12 months, but depending on the weather, its minimum aging period (the period of time it takes before it is edible) may be longer or shorter.  For example, if the summer was exceptionally hot the culatello may be cured sooner that 12 months, and if it was an especially cool year the culatello may need up to 16 months to cure.  Assuming a typical year however, the producers do not usually age the salume for more than 24 months.  Once fully cured, the culatello will weigh between 3 and 5 kg, which represents a weight loss of approximately 55%.