Bresaola della Valtellina

Appearance & taste

The shape of the bresaola follows the muscle it is cut from. For sale it is trimmed and brought into a roughly cylindrical shape, and for special purposes it is also pressed into a block. It is firm and elastic, and the cut surface is compact and free of cracks.

The lean part is uniformly red with a barely defined dark edge, and the fat is white. Bresaola has a pleasant, lightly aromatic smell and tastes slightly savoury but not sour. It contains at most 7 % fat and at most 5 % salt, but at least 30 % protein, and at least 33 % when sliced and packed.

Each cut has a minimum weight: 3.5 kg for the topside (fesa), 2.5 kg for the rump tail (punta d’anca), 1.8 kg for the silverside (sottofesa), 1 kg for the eye of round (magatello) and 0.8 kg for the heel muscle (sottosso). It is sold whole, in pieces or in slices, vacuum-packed or in a protective atmosphere.

Production

Only certain muscles of the beef round are used, from animals that are 18 months to 4 years old at slaughter. The meat is trimmed and dry-salted, then filled into natural or artificial casings.

The bresaola then dries and matures under conditions in which the moisture decreases slowly and gradually. During this time natural enzymatic and fermentation processes take place that give it its flavour and allow it to keep at room temperature. All steps, from shaping through salting, casing, drying and maturing to slicing and packing, take place in the province of Sondrio so that changes in temperature and humidity during transport do not harm the product.

Origin & history

The province of Sondrio comprises several mountain valleys between the Rhaetian and the Orobic Alps; Valtellina runs from east to west. Even in summer it stays relatively cool there, the air is dry, and the temperature differences caused by Lake Como make it windy. These conditions are suited to slow maturing.

Preserving meat by salting and drying was long widespread in Valtellina; written documents record the salting and drying of beef rounds there as early as the 15th century. According to the specification, the name probably goes back to the dialect expression “salaa come brisa”, which refers to salting. This became “brisaola” and finally the Italian “Bresaola”. An Italian dictionary from 1974 describes bresaola as “dry, salted beef typical of Valtellina”.