Prleška tünka

Appearance & taste

Prleška tünka is always sold as meat and minced lard together. The meat is an even light pinkish red, as is typical of cured and heat-treated meat, without grey, dark or other discoloration. It tastes of well-matured, cured and smoked meat, is sufficiently salted and harmoniously seasoned. The minced lard is creamy white, spreadable and has its own typical taste.

Prepacked tünka has no fixed weight, but must contain meat and minced lard in a ratio of 60:40 to 70:30. The label states the cut of meat and the ratio of meat to minced lard; loin and tenderloin may be called “šnita”, the neck “šijak”. Certified products bear a joint logo in the shape of a wooden container.

Production

For the meat, pork leg, loin, tenderloin or neck is used without bone, rind or outer fat. It is cured at 0 to 8 °C with 2.4 to 2.8 kg of curing salt per 100 kg of meat; up to 0.5 % sugar is permitted, and injecting the brine into the meat is prohibited. Pepper, garlic, caraway and bay leaf are permitted as spices. The evenly cured meat is dry heat-treated and smoked.

For the minced lard, hard back fat is heat-treated, put through the mincer into pieces of 6 to 8 mm and salted with 2 to 2.4 kg of table salt per 100 kg of fat. It may only be seasoned with black pepper and garlic.

Meat and minced lard are placed in alternating layers in a container called a “tünka”. There is always minced lard at the bottom and also at the top, and the pieces of meat must not touch each other. Both mature together in this way for at least 30 days; storage is in closed containers or bags at no more than 12 °C. Immediately after maturing, the tünka is packed in the production area, including in vacuum or protective-gas packaging.

Origin & history

The production area is the Prlekija region with the municipalities of Ljutomer, Razkrižje, Križevci, Veržej, Sveti Jurij, Radenci, Gornja Radgona and Ormož. All producers must be located there.

Pigs have always been kept in Prlekija. Farmers began making tünka to keep the meat fresh all year round: they placed it in chopped fat that they had previously partly rendered, salted and cooled, and so “dunked” it. The large container used for this was called a “tünka”, and the name has remained to this day.

According to records from 1487, tünka was already known at that time on numerous church estates and castles in the area. An old written record shows that at the end of the 18th century people in Prlekija knew the minced lard, the fat, dried pork and the special wooden containers in which the speciality was kept. Production has since been modernised but, according to the specification, still follows the original tradition.