Violino di capra
Valchiavenna (Valtellina), Lombardy, Italy
Lean, aromatic and mountain-cured, a festive goat leg sliced like a violin.
Overview
Violino di capra is lean, aromatic and mountain-cured, a festive goat leg sliced like a violin. A small bone-in goat leg with dark ruby lean, very little fat and an aromatic pepper-and-juniper exterior. It is carved thin while held like a violin.
Where it's from
Climate. The Alpine valleys of Valchiavenna and Valtellina in Lombardy.
Altitude. Alpine valleys
The cut
How to recognise it
A small bone-in goat leg with dark ruby lean, very little fat and an aromatic pepper-and-juniper exterior. It is carved thin while held like a violin. The leg must be dense and aromatic without a hard shell, rancid fat edge or sour bone area.
- Shape and size
- Cured goat leg
- Lean colour
- Dark red
- Fat and marbling
- Lean
- Casing
- None
- Surface bloom
- Possible
Origins and history
A cured goat leg from the Alpine valleys of Lombardy, Valchiavenna and Valtellina, salted, spiced and air-dried in the mountain air. Its name comes from the way it is served: held against the shoulder like a violin and 'played' with the knife as it is sliced, passed around the table. It is a festive Alpine speciality, lean and aromatic.
Goats suited the steep Alpine valleys and supplied milk, meat and hides to households with limited pasture. The cured leg became a festive food passed around the table and carved directly from the bone. The verified production area is Valchiavenna and Valle Spluga, Lombardy, Italy. Stories and etymologies are retained when they help explain the tradition, but legends are not used as evidence for the modern specification.
Name. Violino, 'violin', from the way it is held and sliced like the instrument.
- Production today
- Small Alpine producers.
- Protection
- Not EU-protected (a Slow Food Presidium exists).
- Tradition vs modern
- A festive mountain speciality.
- Seasonality
- A festive, often winter, speciality.
Compare with. Mocetta, Bresaola della Valtellina
Serving and cultural significance
Hold the cured leg against the shoulder like a violin and shave thin slices with the knife as the bow. Serve with rye bread, polenta, Alpine cheese and red wine. The theatrical cutting method is part of the hospitality, but the lean meat must still be sliced across the grain.
Recipe and cure
This is not a finished recipe. It is a window into how this meat is traditionally cured. Before you follow any process, please run it through one of our curing calculators, so the salt, cure and timings are right and safe for your own batch.
Make this — the measured Curesmith version →The cure below is the traditional reference. “Make this” opens the measured Curesmith home recipe, scaled to your batch.
Traditional or protected production
Violino di capra is a cured goat leg from Valchiavenna. The name refers to the way the leg is held against the shoulder and sliced like a violin. Traditional production uses local goat legs, salt, pepper, herbs and Alpine air, with maturation commonly lasting at least about sixty days.
Sea salt, black pepper, juniper, herbs and a little wine, salt-box method; no fixed percentage.
- Meat
- goat
- Salt (%)
- traditional, no fixed %
- Curing salt
- Sea salt with pepper, juniper and herbs
- Fermented
- No
- Starter or mould
- Possible
- Smoked
- No
- Target aW or weight loss
- ~ weight loss
- Temperature (°C)
- cold salting, then 10 to 15
- Humidity (%)
- 70 to 80
- Maturation
- 2 to 3 months
- Basis
- percentage of green meat weight
- Style
- Traditional dry salting (salt-box)
Method
- Salt and season the leg by the traditional method and rest cold.
- Wash or brush off surface salt.
- Air-dry in the mountain air.
- Age to the target loss.
Notes
- A more efficient way of curing this product is using the EQ Method. No more than 2.5% salt to meat weight is required. To follow the EQ method, please use our whole-muscle EQ curing calculator to work out proper ratios and curing times.
In the Codex
What this product teaches, and where to read more.
Temple. Pillar, Meat Quality