The first thing to know about speck is that it comes from a pig, one of nature’s finest beasts.  I am lucky enough to be in a speck club.  A private club of friends who join together to rear pigs for our own speck.  This means paying a farmer to rear the pig, feed and keep it well and then comes the time of the cull.  At this point the butcher comes and the pigs are killed. 

Now here you need to be aware that the pig is a big animal.  A big animal!  The pictures above are of one side of a pig, my side of the pig.  This is the half of a pig’s outer skin and muscle.   The butcher will prepare the sides ready for salting.  What’s that?  Well at this point in the club, the male members usually congregate at the farm where the pigs were happy.  Here we will salt both sides with a mixture of salt, herbs and spices.  This is used to cure the meat.  The mixture is usually made to traditional South Tyrolean recipes and prepared by the female members of the group, although there are no defined roles for this.  Once all the sides are salted, wine tends to follow plus maybe one or two homemade schnapps.

Then all we have to do is wait 6 months for the curing to take place.  Once that’s done, collect the sides and hang them in the cold room.  Now this being South Tyrol and my brother-in-law a farmer, of course we have a homemade cold room to hang the speck.  Where there is usually beer and white stored as well because it is a cold room.  Ideally you would then leave it for another 3 months.  

And once you are ready to cut a piece off, well sit back and let the wine or beer flow with some speck, cheese and local Schüttle Brot or Ultner Paarl bread.  South Tyroelan’s call this marend.  Mahlzeit!!