South Tyrol has been a reliable source of excellent bacon and sausage products for centuries, which is why many professionals in the field of bacon and ham production come from this part of Italy. Especially the ideal air conditions there have always been a guarantee for the optimal maturing of air-dried meat & sausage products.
The R&S own brand MERANO Speck is a product of personal experience. Albert Rauch and his family had often visited the South Tyrolean region of Vinschgau during their holidays and quickly discovered their heart for the area, but of course also for the local meat products.
How could it be otherwise, the experienced butcher and businessman combined his passion with the vision of making South Tyrolean bacon in particular available in Germany. It did not take long before Albert Rauch had his own small but excellent factory built on site in the middle of the Alps. Since then, the factory has been continuously adapted to sustainability – for example, the electricity demand has been increased by photovoltaics for many years and the management of process water and industrial waste-water is exemplary.
This is where the new brand found its home, whereby the fine MERANO Speck – unlike the traditional Italian style – combines both air drying and the art of smoking.
Albert Rauch and his wife invested a lot of time in finding the optimal seasoning for their MERANO Speck. In the end, the mixture now consists of more than twenty herbs, of which wild thyme is one of the main ingredients.
Since then, the bacon has been maturing according to old farming tradition – using only pure sea salt and refined exclusively with herbs from the region – under the motto “Slow Life” for up to five months in the pure mountain air of South Tyrol – and you can taste it!
For smoking, however, there is a small interruption. As soon as the bacon has been prepared, seasoned and slightly dried, it is cold smoked under beech smoke and then hung up again for further maturing. During the drying process, a Hamme loses about one third of its initial weight.
What is a Hamme? In South Tyrol they speak of Hammen when they talk about the fully matured legs of ham from the pig, and of these more than 2 million pieces are currently processed and delivered annually by MERANO Speck.
Ideally for the trade, but also for the domestic refrigerator, the MERANO Speck is deboned and put into a stackable form – so it can be stored and processed well.
A really great bacon, which in my opinion is excellent for preparation with mushrooms or root vegetables and of course also very good for direct consumption.
MERANO Speck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/j1i3KpXXP5M