Salami and Salumi: are two different terms "Salumi" refers to any food which is preserved in salt, athough nowdays this term is used to denote suts of pork preserved in salt. Whereas, "Salami" instead refers to any "insaccato" (incaseds) containing ground meat. There are many varietes of "insaccati", or foods in a casing, regardless of whether the casing is an intestine, cellulose or synthetic.
Each insaccato requires a specific method of production. But salt and pepper are used in all of them. Other common ingredients are cinammon, nutmeg, cloves and mace.
he casing is one of the most important parts of the insaccati: they must be strong, flexible and pourus enough to allow the meat inside to age without rotting or becoming moldy. Furthermore, for cooked or smoked Salami, the casing must be heat resistant. Every region has its own delicasies giving way to a wide variety on a national scale.
The Salumi are all made with pork, mixing 3 parts of meat with 1 part of fat. Salt and pepper are added in different quantities. The most common seasonings, other then the ones mentioned above, are garlic, fennel seeds, chili pepper (peperoncino rosso) and coriander. In good quality aged salumi, the filling must be compact and bits of fat must not separate from the bits of meat when sliced. The various preparations differ mainly in the proportion of lean meat to fat and sesonings used.
