Name

Bra Sausage

Seal of quality

Prodotto agroalimentare tradizionale (PAT) / Typical Food Farming Product.

Description

The mixture for the preparation of Salsiccia di Bra has to consist of bovine meat cuts such as veal belly, shoulder or other veal cuts provided that the fat has been removed, mixed with pork underbelly at a ratio of 800 g veal and 200 g pork underbelly per kg of mixture (with a tolerance for both components of +/- 100 g).

Added to the mixture is a mix of spices such as Ceylon cinnamon, cloves, coriander, pimento, nutmeg, mace, semi-caraway, and natural flavourings. In special and innovative preparations compared to the original recipe, a supplement of white wine and grana cheese (similar to Parmesan cheese) is permitted. The mixture obtained is obligatorily packed in natural lamb gut. The utilisation of synthetic gut is forbidden.

The product must be sold fresh and can be stored for a period of 5 days at the most in a cold store at 0 – 4 °C. It is usually eaten raw.

The final product comes in a long cylindrical shape, diameter between 2 and 3 cm, smooth outer surface, minimum length 1 metre , but linked, in any case, with the characteristics of natural gut. Internally the cut is pinkish with white fat globules. The mixture must result close-grained, well mixed and tender.

Area of production

The denomination “Salsiccia di Bra” is for the typical product obtained from veal and pork, the production stages of which take place in the typical area of production geographically identified by the administrative boundaries of the Commune of Bra.

Salsiccia di Bra must be produce with fresh meats coming from Piedmontese farms.

History

Salsiccia di Bra (or “Salciccia di Bra”) is a traditional product of braidese charcuterie. In Piedmont , the production of salsiccia – or salciccia, according to its popular name in dialect – is extremely varied according to the local food traditions and customs. One of the most important and singular sausages is Bra sausage, prepared with lean bovine meats and pork fat. It was once prepared only with bovine meat, there being an important Jewish community in nearby Cherasco that bought their supplies from the Braida market, demanding sausages without pork. This tradition seems to have been made official by a Royal Decree issued following the Albertino Statute, which authorised Bra butchers to use bovine meat in the preparation of fresh sausage, the only case in Italy , forbidding the production bovine sausage throughout the territory (INSOR, “Atlante dei prodotti tipici: I salumi”, 1989 ed). Lastly, for the purpose of increasing the value of salsiccia di Bra, the “Consorzio di tutela e valorizzazione della Salsiccia di Bra” was founded, creating and registering a collective trademark at the Chamber of Commerce that can be used solely by local producers who undertake to produce sausage in accordance with the traditional methods indicated in a specific disciplinary regulation.