Hampshire Salami is one of the UK’s leading salami makers and meat curers
The Hampshire Salami Co’ is an artisan maker of Salumi, the Italian collective for salami and cured meats. We use fresh local ingredients from as close to Hampshire Salami Co’ HQ as we possibly can. We work with local producers, farmers and small holders in and around the Hampshire area that are rearing exceptional livestock.
We only use prime cuts of meat, predominantly pork and in true artisan fashion we cure one pig at a time, from nose to tail. And when every part of the animal has been cured, we cure another. We are also other meats including beef, lamb, goat, venison, and game when its in season.
All our products are based on Italian recipes, which in true style have been developed over many hundreds of years, as well as being passed down from family generation to family generation.
Barry Walker the ‘Chief Salami Wrangler’, travels extensively in Italy seeking and sourcing new recipes and then replicates them back in Hampshire, where the Hampshire hog is our prime focus as well as helping local producers create added value products.
Our customers include chefs and restaurants in the UK, local butchers, delicatessens, farm shops as well as you the lovely public who buy our products at selected markets across the south.
We cure it, we sell it, we eat it, we teach it and we write about artisan salumi and salami making in the heart of Hampshire.
About Salumi
Salumi is the Italian collective for cured meat products, predominantly made from pork. Salumi include bresaola, which is made from beef, and also cooked products such as mortadella and prosciutto cotto (cooked), with salami being a specific type of salumi. The word salumi comes from the Italian word salume, pl. salumi ‘salted meat’, derived from Latin sal ‘salt’. This is where the word salary comes from, as soldiers of ancient Rome were paid in salt.
This collective is broadly speaking split into three groups:
Whole cured muscle – such as Pancetta, Prosciutto Crudo (we know as Parma ham), Lonza (cured loin of pork), Capocollo or Coppa (cured collar muscle) and other smaller cuts.
Insaccato – anything that is chopped and stuffed into a skin, such as a natural casing or a synthetic casing which is then cured, dry aged and becomes what we call salami.
Cotto – any combination of the two above which is then cooked, such as Mortadella or Prosciutto Cotto (baked ham) to name but a couple.
The Hampshire Salami Co’ draws influence from Italy, from recipes that are tried, tested and handed down from generation to generation. Like the regional differences from region to region in Italy and from even family to family, our recipes are very much in the Italian style.
The Salami Man:
Barry Walker – Chief Salami Wrangler and Foodie
Barry Walker is a real foodie, pig rearer, forager, hunter, sloe gin maker, wood fired oven baker, smoker of foods, Salami Wrangler, and a lover of all things Italian plus is keen to get as close to the source of great produce wherever possible. Barry is obsessed with food.
With a love for all things Italian, over the years Barry has travelled from the ‘heel-n-toe’ of Italy right up to the north; probing the undiscovered Italy, steering off the beaten track and re-defining the culinary ‘Road Trip’ with Italy as the focus foraging out the best wine makers, cheese makers and salumi makers as well as the best markets and places to eat.
An enthusiastic self taught cook, Barry started meat curing Italian style in 2011 on the kitchen table, seeking those parts of the house where conditions may be right for hanging and curing salami. Eventually, with a house full of hanging and curing salami, an all consuming passion began and still holds true to this day.
With scant information available on the art of curing, Barry bought books from America and Australia written by second and third generation Italians, because Italy was slow to give up its secrets. In true Barry style, the ultimate forager that wished to get closer to source, Barry sought books on Salumi making from Italy which he has now translated to English, getting closer to source yet again.
Now establishing The Hampshire Salami Co’, Barry wants to ‘cure’ Hampshire, one pig at a time! working with producers of local livestock and helping farmers add value where ever possible.