The Felino Salami Museum is a token of the exclusive and peculiar relationship formed over time between the unique product that we all know and its territory of origin.
With this museum Felino pays tribute to its most beloved “child”, telling its history within the beautiful 18th century cellars of the Felino castle.
The Museum represents an occasion to get people to know and appreciate not only  the heart of the undisputed Prince of all Salamis but also the territory and community that produced it, from the quality of its ingredients and raw materials to the astonishing skill of the hands that make it still today.
The efforts undertaken to turn the Museum project into reality is the expression of the will to establish a new stop along the road of Ham and Hill Wines, one for experts, tourists or people simply interested in it.

 

The visit’s course is divided in five sections. The first part is about the historical documents about the relationship between Felino and its “emblem”, without neglecting the history of the famous black Parma pig.
The second section, dedicated to cookery and appropriately located in the castle’s kitchens, presents the use of the salami in Parma’s typical cuisine, with a curious example of perfect integration between production and use in a farmhouse owned by the Jesuits.
The next section is located in the Main Hall. Here you will learn about pork butchery and home-made salami production. You will see a slide show of pictures about the “slaughtering” rite and what ensued.
This section also contains a fascinating exhibition of objects belonged to the pork butchers and farmer families, including a ‘butcher’s cape’.
The next room details the production technology, describing its main features from the original process to the pre-industrial days up to the present day technology and the ‘ID card’ of the present day salami. A huge salami making machine towers in the middle of the room.
Another section, dedicated to product marketing presents the documents regarding Felino salami trade from the 18th century.
The last room is used to watch the Museum video depicting some evocative moments of the ancient production techniques followed by a brief sequence on present day production.
Another small section shows all the curious and strange facts including the history of Du Tillot, First Minister of the Duke of Parma and marquis of Felino.

 

The absolute symbiosis between Felino and the pig dates back to the bronze age, as testified by the bone fragments found among the finds of the palafitte village of Monte Leoni, located on the hills that overtop Felino.
In particular, the first document dealing with Salami in Parma dates back to 1436, when Niccolò Piccinino, condottiere in the pay of the Duke of Milan that had one base of operations here in Felino, ordered that 20 pigs to be used to make salami (“porchos viginti a carnibus pro sallamine”) should be collected every year.
Once it was a difficult task to prepare a salami pleasant to taste but not salty, since to avoid unwanted fermentations a lot of salt was added to the salami mixture.
In the Parma area, instead, a new technology developed that made it possible to produce salami with a limited quantity of salt using the area’s peculiar climate: the precious salt, came from the nearby town of Salsomaggiore, while Felino’s position, in a valley at the outlet of the stream Baganza, made it ideal to produce excellent sausages thanks to humidity, temperature and air circulation features.
Sausage making also encouraged the development of pig breeding in this area: the number of pigs increased steadily over the centuries, to the point that in the second half of the 18th century in Felino there were about 2,200 inhabitants, 1,400 pigs and 5 salami and sausages makers-traders.
In the 19th century the situation changed and pig breeding began to concentrate in the dairies of this area, while Felino chiefly focussed on meat processing rather than pig breeding, to the point that in these days, the village had more salami makers than any other town in the Parma area.
In this same period the Parma sausages were often sent to Lombardy and it was about in 1897 when, in Milan, the salami previously called ‘Parma’ came to be known as ‘Felino’, to stress the quality of this product obtained from the meat of mountain pigs fed with acorns.
The increase of production capacity achieved during 20th century has made it possible to increase production volumes up to 8,000 tons per year while preserving Felino salami’s peculiarities.

The Product

The pork meat cuts used to make the Felino salami are accurately selected to form a perfect mix of lean meat (75%) and fat meat (25%) white and pink, as though to form a mosaic that exalts the meats’ qualities and peculiarities.
The spices used are very few: a bit of salt and black pepper grains, with a touch of wine, to enhance the meats’ taste, in addition to the typical pickling ingredients.
The salami is then put into a pig bowel and seasoned for at least one month in carefully prepared rooms where it acquires its typical cylinder shape (slightly bulging at one end) as well as its typical greyish-white outside colour: connoisseurs prefer to have it left to dry for several other months until it reaches the required texture.
An application for Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) for the Felino salami has been submitted to the European Union.
Lastly, the museum shops has locally produced salami, with different seasoning lengths for sale.