CHEESE AND SALUMI (CHARCUTERIE) COMPLEX CHEESE PAIRINGS

By: Allison Noel Roxanne Keeping Julia Bannister

INTRODUCTION

Salumi, charcuterie, cured meats and cheese boards. Every restaurant's menu boasts some sort of resurrection of the time tested art of meat and milk preservation. Diners are taking home the knowledge that putting together a cheese and meat board can be more sophisticated than rolled lunch meat and cubed cheddar. Excellent cured meats and fine cheeses are accessible and affordable. So what's to stop anyone from quickly throwing together an impressive board with products found at your local finer food store? A simple and important question; “what cheeses and meats go together?”.

Rather than casting the pairings net wide, and hoping to catch international and obscure matches, we've focused today on Italian cheese and Salumi. This is in favour of Italian style cured meats and cheese being some of the easiest to track down and forgiving in substitutions.

Our pairings are as follows: Spicy Pork Coppa (capicolla) and Ontario Burratta (Quality Cheese) Venison Cacciatore and Ontario Smoked Scamorza (Santa Lucia, International Cheese) Wild Boar Proscuitto and 30 month Parmigiano Reggiano, spring milk (DOP)

PAIRING SELECTION and ANALYSIS

Final selection of paired products:

Spicy Pork Coppa (capicolla) and Ontario Burratta- cow, past. (Quality Cheese) Venison Cacciatore and Ontario Smoked Scamorza-cow, past. (Santa Lucia, International Cheese) Wild Boar Proscuitto and 30 month Parmigiano Reggiano, spring cow milk, raw (DOP), Plum &Grape Moustarda

Note: pork Lonzino, lamb Pancetta & picante Gorgonzola were eliminated from initial selections

Our method of selection and assessment:

Intellectual: Our initial product selections were born of the common cultural & regional histories of Italy's north and south. Sensory: These products were chosen for similar body and persistence of taste as well as our primal attraction to salt and sweet for survival.We used a -2 to +2 point scale in evaluating the taste, texture and flavour impact of each pairing.

From the initial round of tastings, we ruled out the overpowering Gorgonzola,the distinct Lamb pancetta which didn't necessarily play well with others, and the milder pork lonzino to focus on the following three favourable combinations for our Sensory analysis.

1. Spicy Coppa prosciutto (salt cured pork neck/shoulder) with Ontario Cow's milk Burrata (salted) +2

The Coppa's magical salty, sweet and fatty carpet ride was expanded and rounded by the lightly salted and sweet rush of the creamy Burrata. The Coppa was framed with herbaceousness,and seasoning, unified in light to medium intensity, allowing the delicate, lactic, bright burrata in, to heighten both meat and cheese in sweet, salty bliss. Salting the Burrata kept it's sweetness in balance and heightened the herbaciousness/spice of the Coppa.Burrata means "butter" and the buttery soft and supple texture of both meat and cheese melded well on the tongue and mingled to a medium finish. 2. Venison Cacciatore(hunter's salami-spiced with cumin) paired with Ontario Smoked Scamorza +2

This spiced & smoked pairing is perhaps the most striking in flavour intensity. The Venison relies less on salt, and more it's natural earthy, animal, gamey flavour, laced with cumin in the salami's mix, and therefore needed a strong partner. Trying both blue and smoked cheeses , the smoked Scamorza proved a more balanced and suitable match. The savoury salami is earthy from the toasted cumin, sweet from the bits of fat and slightly salty . The Scamorza's medium smoke level complimented and rounded out the cumin and didn't add unwanted salt. The nice chew and limited moisture level of both meat and pasta filatta cheese matched perfectly on a textural level leaving a medium finish.

3. Wild Boar Proscuitto (means to dry/salted) with Parmigiano Strevechio and Mostarda +2

The deceptively soft, delicate slices of the Wild Boar Prosciutto, give way to a blast of salt, sweet and ultimate savoury. The addition of the crumbly,crunchy caramel shards of aged Parm reveals an unmistakably strong and classic flavour combination born of years of cultivation and careful tweaking. Both deliver solid wollops of salty, sweet and savoury which support,strengthen and enhance each other. The Boar's richness,medium gamieness and herbaciousness holds up to the brown butter and soy notes of the mighty Parm, leaving them to play off each other in perfect balance. The soft chewy Boar is enlivened by the crystaline crunch of the cheese, both melting into a heady mix that finishes long after the swallow.

When we added the sweet, spicy tangy Moustarda to the pairing, it added further sweet and floral notes that brightened the pairing, making it feel a bit more physiologically balanced,added a pleasing colour element to the earthy meat and cheese pair and helped to sweep the tongue of residual fat.

HISTORY

As we have learned, (in our Introduction to cheese course), Italy has a very long history with cheese making, rivaling that of neighbor France. The Phoenicians and Etruscans began using the rennet in calfʼs stomachs to coagulate milk for the first time. Two thousand years ago the Roman Empire reached its fullest extent and agricultural technology became more complex. Large trade networks were developed and Latifundia (small- scale industrial Roman farms) mixed with smaller family-owned farms. At this time, production of olive oil and wine were also driving the need for more efficient farming equipment. The Roman army was in desperate need of large quantities of non-perishable food for its expanding army. The new, giant, "aged" cheeses, such as Luna, became staples of the army diet. In 25 BC, Roman gourmet Marcus Gavius Apicius wrote extensively about cheese and its importance to soldiers.

Two centuries later, Italy enacted the Denominazione di Origine Controllata (D.O.C.) to protect the names, origins, and characteristics of certain cheeses. There are only 26 cheeses safeguarded by the D.O.C. today.

Our study concerns meats and cheeses from two different areas of Italy. Emilia-Romagna in the north gives us Parmigiano Reggiano and proscuitto, and the regions of Apulia, Basilicata, and Calabria in the south provide Scamorza, Burrata, Coppa and Cacciatore.

Our tour actually begins in Campania, where water buffalo have lived since the second century AD. In the hills behind Salerno, mozzarella was born. Mozzarella di Bufala continued to be made from the milk of water buffalo until the 1940's when they were destroyed in the Second World War. Buffalo have since been brought from India to replenish the milk supply. Scamorza is the cousin of mozzarella. Originating centuries ago in Basilicata, the smoked variety used in this tasting and sold in stores today probably came from Lombardy in the north. The un-smoked scamorza is still widely produced in Basilicata. Scamorza means literally "beheaded" as illustrated by the shape formed when the pasta filata is tied with a string and hung to dry.

The next stop is Apulia where we meet Burrata. This cow's milk cheese was first made in the early 1900's on the Bianchini family farm in Andria. Beginning as a typical pasta filata, the still-hot cheese was then formed into a pouch and filled with mozzarella scraps and panna (cream) before closing. Traditionally, Burrata was wrapped in the green leaves of the asphodel plant and tied to form a top-knot. The leaves turned brown after 3-4 days, indicating the freshness of the cheese.

Neighboring Apulia to the west we find Calabria. This region brings us the salume Coppa and also the chef who provided the superb quality, house-cured meats used in our study. Ted Corrado is the Executive Chef at the Royal Ontario Museum, which includes C5 Restaurant and Food Studio. Teds biggest love is charcuterie. After years of diligent testing and tweaking, Ted is able to provide a cured meat program that has been entirely made in house, from butchering the animal, to seasoning, curing, smoking, and aging. Even though the product is 100% Canadian, the essence of Italy remains intact.

The Coppa we tried was seasoned with chili and cured in salt, then aged for three months. Coppa, which means "nape" (of a pig), is a typical dish in Piacenza and very popular across the border in Switzerland. It is also called Cappacollo, where Cappa means "head", and Collo means "neck". Two varieties have protected P.D.O. (Protected Designation of Origin) status: Coppa Piacentina, and Capocollo di Calabria.

Cacciatore, while not strictly from the south, is a cured sausage made with fermented, dried meat. The one we used is made from venison (deer meat). It was flavored with cumin and aged for two months. Cacciatore evolved as a staple for hunters to carry with them on long journeys, or "la caccia"--the hunt.

This brings us to the north. The region of Emilia-Romagna contains the districts of Parma and Reggio Emilia, the birthplace of both Parmigiano Reggiano and Proscuitto. Romans aged pigʼs thighs that were dried in the sun and called them "Perexsuctus". This meat was sold in Roman shops and markets with panis (bread) over two thousand years ago. The Proscuitto in our project is made with wild boar, and aged with salt and chili for one year. The word proscuitto means "to thoroughly dry".

Cheese making and Proscuitto have a long history together as pigs for meat and cattle for milk often shared farmland. Parmigiano (from Parma) Reggiano (from Reggio Emilia), is strictly controlled by the P.D.O. The cheese may only be made from the raw milk of one day--the evening milk is settled overnight and then added to the whole morning milk. It is only made from April 15 to November 11. A single Parmigiano Reggiano requires 145 gallons of milk, and the finished cheese is 7.1"-9.4" high, 16"-18" in diameter, and weighs 84lbs! We used a cheese made from spring milk, aged 30 months. Parmigiano was created in Bibbiano in the Middle Ages and has a recorded history beginning in 1348. It is particularly interesting to note that in traditional production the whey leftover from making Parmigiano Reggiano was used to feed the pigs being raised for Proscuitto di Parma, whose barns were usually just a few feet away!

And finally we come to the end of our journey in Lombardy, near Parma with a local condiment called mostarda. Though now enjoyed throughout Italy, mostarda evolved in the north, with Mostarda di Cremona being the most famous. Mostarda, as well as French mustard, evolved from a common jam made in wine- making countries by boiling grape must and adding seasonings (ground mustard). The Italians began adding fruit to this mix, then eventually replaced the grape must with syrup. Mostardas are made throughout the year with whatever fruits are available locally at the time. The one we are using was made last August by Alida Solomon, chef and proprietor of Tutti Matti restaurant, and contains a variety of fruits including plums and grapes.

CONCLUSION

You may not be able to find venison cacciatore, but it's a “hunter's” salami, so you may find something special to your own region or if all else fails there are beef or pork variations in every grocery store. The same applies to our proscuitto pairing. If wild boar isn't available then pork would also stand up to the lactic nuttiness of an aged reggiano. A substantial amount of the traditional methods used in curing the meat attributes to the flavour of the product as well as the quality and species of the meat that used.

The same forgiveness and accessibility goes for the cheeses we've selected too. Burrata, Parmigiano and Scamorza are easy to find and will appeal to most pallets. Should scamorza not be available, most cheese shops will carry a smoked variation of a “pasta filatta” cheese. The Parmigiano doesn't have to be 30 months old and made from the spring milk. No one will complain if it's only 18 months old and from summer milk.

In our research we met with varying palettes and preferences, as well as the problem of “how to taste”. Our pairings had to be able to stand up to a reasonable degree or variance in the order in which you ate the food, and the ratio of meat to cheese.

On a retail level, these pairings could be useful in cross merchandising, suggestive selling and buying in products that will sell well together. Julia found the pairings useful when talking with restaurant patrons about the menu. Our pairings can be used as stepping stones to suggest to a customer who feels the task of pairing meat to cheese is daunting. It's an extension of “what grows together goes together”, a strong theme to tie a cheese and meat board together and pairings that are not necessarily earth shattering and unheard of, but a relatively new experience to most people.