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Mastro Enrico
This cured meat is one of the delicacies of this part of Italy and is worth tasting while you are here.
The Caserta breed is the most important autochthonous pig stock of Southern Italy. It dates back to the Roman era, but in the 1950s the Casertano black pig risked extinction. It was only thanks to careful breeders and policies to safeguard the species, that it has been saved.
Also known as 'Pelatiello' due to the absence of bristles on the skin, with a colour that goes from purplish black to slate grey, the Casertano black pig is a rustic animal that is bred in a semi-wild state in the woods of Casertano and Sannio Beneventano. It mainly eats acorns, chestnuts, nuts and wild fruits. These natural foods give the meat its flavours and wild aromas of the past.
The most prized characteristic of the Casertan black pig is the presence of abundant intramuscular connective tissue (noble fat), which gives flavour and softness to the meat. The black pig from Caserta is very sought after, for fresh meat (hams, ribs, tracchie) but especially for fine salami (sausages, capocollo, pancetta, soppressate).
