The lumberjacks in northern Italy know how to keep warm. Centuries
ago--even before salame was a widespread Italian tradition--the tree huggers of
Udine along the Slovenian-Italian border needed a way to keep meat on their
bones...and to keep their recently butchered harvest from spoiling.
In
their cool cellars, they cured pork belly and silky back fat under a splash of red wine spiked with garlic,
salt, and whole black peppercorns. Both sides went into a cool smokehouse so the
sweet smoke permeated the cured slabs but didn't render the fat.
The
lot was finely chopped and blended with crushed sweet onions to make a paste
that could be sealed in jars or rolled into logs. Kept cool and covered, the
flavor-packed schmear would keep for months as the lumberjacks moved through the
northern Italian forests.
To warm up from the inside out, those ancient
foresters only had to toast a slab or two from their hearty loaf then spread on
a thick layer of the sassaka. On top of hot toast, the "bacon butter" warms and
begins to render for an addictive snack layered with sweet, smoky,
salty flavor.
Come into the Goose soon for your allotment of bacon
butter! We've revived this traditional recipe with all-natural, pasture-raised
Duroc pork from Gunthorp Farms in LaGrange, Indiana.
Prep at your table
is simple. Squeeze the sassaka out of the its package and let it come to room
temp, about 20 minutes. Cut slices of crusty bread (we've always got local
Amelia's loaves at the Goose!) and
slather on the bacon butter while the toast is still hot, red plaid flannel
optional.
Any leftover sassaka can be kept tightly wrapped in plastic
wrap in the fridge. If properly stored, it'll keep till New Year's. But with
flavor like this, we wager there'll be a need for seconds before 2013, Mr.
Bunyan.
