Kraški zašink

Appearance & taste

Kraški zašink has a typical cylindrical shape in a natural casing enclosed in an elastic net. The surface is firm but elastic and slightly wrinkled at the ends. A finished piece weighs at least 0.90 kg.

When cut, the meat is evenly pinkish red, somewhat darker at the edges and streaked with the white of the fat. In the mouth, the lean meat and fat feel smooth and tenderly firm and dissolve quickly. A slightly salty taste and a strong aroma without any aftertaste of spices are characteristic. The salt content is below 6 %, the protein content at least 24 %.

Kraški zašink is sold whole in the net, in vacuum-packed pieces or in slices under vacuum or a protective atmosphere. It may only be packed in plants certified for this. The label bears the common logo, a stylised pork neck with the name, and the producer’s registration number.

Production

The pork neck of meat-type pig breeds is used, namely the whole section from the cervical vertebrae to the fifth thoracic vertebra. The meat has no fat covering, is free of bones and cartilage, not cut into and weighs at least 1.5 kg raw. Before salting it is at 1 to 4 °C.

It is dry-salted with sea salt, the quantity of which depends on the weight; sugar, pepper and garlic are added. According to the specification, a small amount of salt is massaged into each neck by hand. Salting takes 7 to 12 days at 1 to 6 °C. The remaining salt is then removed, and the neck is filled into a natural casing and enclosed in the net.

This is followed by seven days of cold drying at 1 to 6 °C, at least twelve hours of drying at 20 to 22 °C and finally drying and maturing at 10 to 16 °C. The whole production takes at least twelve weeks, and correspondingly longer for heavier pieces. At the end the meat must have lost at least 36 % of its weight, and the aw value must be below 0.92. There is no heat treatment.

Origin & history

The Karst is an undulating limestone plateau that slopes down from south-east to north-west. Karst red soil (terra rossa) has formed on the calcareous bedrock; rocky areas predominate. Here a mild Mediterranean climate meets cold continental air, which breaks in as the bora (“Kraška burja”). The rugged surface and the closeness of the sea provide constant wind and fairly low humidity, which are good conditions for drying meat.

Farmers stored hams, pancetta, pork necks and sausages alternately in different rooms of their solidly built Karst houses, to find the right humidity and temperature for each stage of maturing. Records from 1820 mention dried meat as part of the farmers’ diet. Unlike in other parts of Slovenia, where brine is used, the people of the Karst, according to the specification, only dry-salt.

Originally the necks were dried on the bone, but they dried out too much and became hard and cracked. People therefore switched to drying them boned in a natural casing: at first in the pig’s bladder, later in natural gut, held together on the outside with string.