Last weekend I found some really geuine stuff, the top specialties in Istria made from pork meat. My uncle knows a family from Juršići, a village near Pula, who still grows their own pigs. They feed them only with the vegetables they produce – mostly pumpkins, corn and beets. For 800 kuna (107 euros) I got 3 kg of istrian sausages and an istrian špaleta of 5 kg. I was happy that this money went straight to the producer!
Istrian špaleta is made of pig’s front leg (it. spaletta) and is small cousin of more famous istrian pršut (it. prosciutto). Both istrian špaleta and istrian pršut are prepared in the same traditional way and are, to my knowledge, the only kind of prosciutto in the world where the skin is completely removed from the leg. Instead, a mix of black pepper, garlic, laurel leaves and rosemary protects the meat from the environment. The meat is not smoked but it is dried only under the influence of bura (it. bora), a strong, very cold and dry wind that often blows in autumn and winter time.
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Weird