Sudi Piggott

The Cure | 9 April 2011

Continental Europe has a tradition of curing meats stretching back centuries, but the Brits have only cottoned on to the possibilities much more recently. Sudi Pigott assesses how far we have come and, opposite, our tasting panel puts a few of the pioneers through their paces

issue 09 April 2011

On the continent, the creators of cured meats can draw on a tradition imbued in the genes (in the case of Parma ham, for example) since the time of Hannibal. Can a much newer generation of British charcutiers possibly hope to compete, boosted by the surge of interest in hand-made food with clear, local provenance and with a potent mix of bloody-minded determination and passion?

Of course, there has long been a tradition of British hams — think Cumbrian or Carmarthen — but somehow they’ve never quite enjoyed the recognition and kudos of their European counterparts. But now at last we’re seeing British coppa (air-dried pork collar) and culatello (taken, as Antonio Carluccio once put it, from the plumpest part of the arse) jostling for position.

Newest on the scene is Tim Matthews, who was given a home smoker by his wife several years back and got utterly hooked.

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