Time: the essential ingredient of my job. The time to hang, to age, to marinate. The time to learn…
I’ve been working in Peck’s labs for 25 years, during which I’ve learned and improved a lot of things about this craft. I’ve made experience a personal value.
Tidiness, punctuality and cleanliness rule in my lab: they’re always essential to succeed in everything.
Our cold cuts can boast a rigorously controlled origin and a constantly supervised ageing. Many of our cold cuts were being produced far before my arrival; with the passing of time I’ve learned to know the characteristics of each one of them to keep the same original quality unaltered.
The well-known home-made bresaola is one of our iconic products: in these years, we have increased the production to meet the increasing demand for lean and precious meat, and now our bresaola is the star of the salami lab. The care for it begins with the selection of the best fresh beef meat, precisely the cuts of magatello (topside) and punta d’anca (rump) from Bavarian cows no older than 16 months which have never been pregnant. Then follows a period of salting and marinating with a secret mix of spices; in this phase, we overturn and massage the pieces every 5 days, to obtain identical pieces.
The meat is then put into sausage nets by hand and stewed following an artisan method and with a lot of patience.
Every day we inspect every item to check that it’s going through the right maturing; in the years, my team have developed the ability to observe details.
Finally, the crucial moment of ageing comes. It is carried out in refrigerating cells that keep the appropriate temperature and humidity. No room for hurry: every single day we enter the cells, we patiently control, observe, smell and touch.
Ageing goes on 75 days for magatello and 100 days for punta d’anca: it takes this time for them reach the flavour, softness, and refinement of the bresaola we are proud to offer you at the salami counter.
Here in via Spadari, a few steps from the Duomo, we also make Italian swine cold cuts: flat pancetta, aged lard and guanciale, besides 5 regional fresh sausages hand-made following ancient recipes we jealously keep secret.
We also select specialties from territories of excellence, among which Coppa, Culatello and Pancetta di Zibello, Prosciutto di Parma, Salame di Felino and precious Ibérico hams.
Christmas season is the most intense and strenuous time for the lab: classic butchery preparations and salami stand beside other sophisticated specialties, such as veal galantine with truffle, game marbré, meat or game pâté. These delicacies need a long and patient work, but Milanese people loyal to traditions cannot miss them on Christmas.
Discover our salami in the Christmas gift sets: