Mortadella

Mortadella Bologna IGP from Italy

Mortadella Bologna IGP from Italy

Mortadella (Italian pronunciation: [mortaˈdɛlla]) is a large Italian sausage or cold cut (salume [saˈluːme]) made of finely hashed or ground, heat-cured pork, which incorporates at least 15% small cubes of pork fat (principally the hard fat from the neck of the pig). Mortadella is a product of Bologna, Italy. It is flavoured with spices, including whole or ground black pepper, myrtle berries, and pistachios.

History

Traditionally, the pork filling was ground to a paste using a large mortar (mortaio [morˈtaːjo]) and pestle. Two Roman funerary steles in the archaeological museum of Bologna show such mortars. Alternatively, according to Cortelazzo and Zolli Dizionario Etimologico della Lingua Italiana 1979-88, mortadella gets its name from a Roman sausage flavoured with myrtle in place of pepper.

The Romans called the sausage farcimen mirtatum (myrtle sausage), because the sausage was flavoured with myrtle berries, a popular spice before pepper became available to European markets. Anna Del Conte (The Gastronomy of Italy 2001) found a sausage mentioned in a document of the official body of meat preservers in Bologna dated 1376 that may be mortadella.

Mortadella originated in Bologna, the capital of Emilia-Romagna; elsewhere in Italy it may be made either in the Bolognese manner or in a distinctively local style. The mortadella of Prato is a Tuscan speciality flavoured with pounded garlic. The mortadella of Amatrice, high in the Apennines of northern Lazio, is unusual in being lightly smoked. Because it originated in Bologna, this contributed to the naming of the American meat "Bologna sausage".

Characteristics

Mortadella Bologna has Protected Geographical Indication status under European Union law. The zone of production is extensive: as well as Emilia-Romagna and the neighbouring regions of Piedmont, Lombardy, Veneto, Marche and Tuscany, it includes Lazio and Trentino.

Similar products outside of Italy

United States

A similar commercial product that omits the cubes of pork fat, called Bologna sausage, is popular in the United States. A variety that includes olives and pimentos is called olive loaf.

Mortadella was banned from import into the United States from 1967 to 2000 due to an outbreak of African swine fever in Italy. This ban was a pivotal part of the plot of the 1971 film La mortadella starring Sophia Loren. The title for the United States release was Lady Liberty.

The ban in the United States was lifted due to the Veterinary Equivalency Agreement that allowed countries to export products that had been shown to be disease-free as part of an overall agreement that would allow products deemed safe in the United States to be exported to the European Union.

Lusitanic and Hispanic cultures

Mortadella with pistachios

Mortadella with olives from Portugal

Mortadella is very popular in Spain and Portugal, where a variety with pepper and olives is widely consumed, especially in sandwiches. Sometimes, in eastern Spain, the standard mortadella is referred to as mortadela italiana (Italian mortadella), because there is a local variant named catalana.

Mortadella is also very popular in Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Brazil, Ecuador, Chile, Colombia, Uruguay and Venezuela, thanks to the Italian immigrants who settled in these countries in the early 20th century. The normal spelling in these countries, however, is mortadela, and its recipe is quite similar to the traditional Italian, with additional pepper grains. São Paulo has a very popular mortadela sandwich sold in the Mercado Municipal.

In Puerto Rico, people consume "smoked mortadella," but some confuse it with commercial salami, or with salami cotto, because cafeterias, panaderias, colmados and restaurant buy the bulk of whole smoked mortadella. While salami may contain pork, beef, veal and small pieces of fat uniformly distributed within the sausage, mortadella has the traditional larger chunks, not so uniformly distributed. Its diameter is much larger than that of hard salami and more closely resembles salami cotto (cooked) in size, hence the confusion of some people. It is smaller in diameter than the traditional mortadella de Bologna because the smoking process causes some shrinkage. It is best served at room temperature to bring out its rich flavour.

Central Europe

In Romania, a similar cold cut is also known as pariser or parizer. It is a type of artisan bologna. In Hungary, a similar product is called, in Hungarian, mortadella and a plain variety called pariser, parizer or párizsi. In Macedonia, Greece – where the size is small, the variety being called Parizaki or Mortadelaki – and in Slovenia, Serbia and Croatia, the product known as mortadela is widely eaten. In Poland, mortadela slices are sometimes dipped in batter, fried and served with potatoes and salads as a quicker (and cheaper) alternative to traditional pork chops.

Russia

In Russia, a very similar product is called "doctor's sausage" (Russian: «Докторская» колбаса). However, this product is normally made from a beef and pork mixture, and does not include pieces of fat (sausages with pieces of fat are called "Lubitelskaya" and "Stolichnaya") or myrtle as a primary spice, being instead flavoured with just coriander and nutmeg. It also traditionally contains eggs and milk, usually absent in traditional mortadella.

Middle East

In several countries, such as Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Israel, halal or kosher mortadella is sold, which is made from chicken, beef, or turkey. The Palestinian Siniora brand is the first in the region, a mortadella with sliced olives, pistachios or pepper. Lebanese Al-Taghziah is a famous brand that is sold around the world. The most popular brands in the GCC are Americana Group and Halwani Brothers. It is also popular in Iran, albeit usually made with beef or lamb, and called commonly kaalbas, from Russian kolbasa.

Pork mortadella is sold in Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and the UAE.

East Asia

Chả lụa or Vietnamese mortadella is sometimes used as an accompaniment to the Vietnamese dish bánh cuốn.

See also

• Mortadella sandwich
• Curing (food preservation)

External links

• Istituto per Valorizzazione dei Salumi: Mortadella (Italian)
• Mortadella di Bologna (Italian)
• Carlo Cantoni and Patrizia Cattaneo, "La mortadella: aspetti attuali tecnici della sua produzione" (Italian)
• Clifford A. Wright, "Sausage Peddlers, Vagabonds, and Bandits: Part 1": types of Italian sausage