Over the last couple of day as we walk up to our room via the internal stone stairs worn down over the centuries from boat people " Italian's eager to pay their taxes" so they can go up or down the Po River. There are 3 long flights to take us up one floor so it gives you an idea of how tall the ceiling in Antica Corte are. There is a musky smell coming from the dark stone stairs well below.
You must know me by now and I'm keen to see what under the main villa, as the doors are locked and the security cameras are on it does seam overly fortified for just a cellar. So with a chat to the young Italian man at reception I discover that the guided tours of the farm and veggie gardens that we have already booked end up back here and under the villa.
The tours starts with a tour of the outer farms of Antica Courte and our young Italian man from the Villa reception all suited up drives us it the farm in Massimo BMW and introduces us to the farm manager and proceeded to translate between us. This was an eye opener as the fields of veggie lined up was so much more than the gardens that fronted the main villa and it turns out that they, Massimo and his brother have another family restaurant in the little village as well and the over flow produce is sold at the local food markets. Following the veggie farm we are then taken to poultry farm where they breed the Guinea Fowl. Then to the piggery and this is where they raise 400 black pigs a year + the farm next door raises 1600 white pigs which they slater and make their " famous black pig culatello " the bum cheek bit and + prosciutto and salami out of the other bits and the white pigs.
They have a fortified and security alarmed large brick building shrouded in a vine on a small farm next door and this is where the meat is stored to starts its ageing process.
This building is massive and we are take through the process of how they turn the raw meats into the various products. Well it's more like where they store them and the bacterias and mould in the air of this building and time old traditions does the rest.
The raw culatello, bum cheeks bits are wrapped and sown into pig intestine to seal them then bound with a twine to support and hang them, then it is pricked in several places to let the excess moisture drain. They are stored here for 3 to 6 months where the pieces of culatello go from 7kg down to 4 kg in weight.
I don't recommend that anyone try's this one back home !!!!!!!
The other joints, prosciutto and salami have a process and loose moisture also.
The smell is intense of mould and has a sweet odour and strangely pleasant. The building is covered with a vine so this helps with temperature control.
The meat sections are hung and stacked high on drying racks and are all checked and rotated every month by hand and the white mould is brushed off, if the mould is green the piece it is discarded.
From the farm we are taken back to see under the villa and this is what I have been waiting for. We walk past the internal stair to our suite that I have been seeing and smelling over the past few day. We walk through the 4 beautifully decorated ancient reception rooms on the ground floor with their vaulted high ceiling all painted with amazing frescos and head to the far end of the villa. This time down a very deep stone spiral stair case, my excitement over takes my fear and soon we are under the main villa. OMG is all I can say, it opens up to 100s of meters of brick and stone vaulted cells that firstly support the villa but were made as the cellar and the store areas back in the 1530's to store this age old process of the cured meats. A scene of this also appeared on Master Chef where the contestants had to find their names on a joint, that must have been daunting as there are 1000's of joints hanging. But to actually be in this space was amazing the smell was sweeter and muster than that of the shed and with centuries of use as it history.
The floor also in a brick and had a oiled feel under your shoes as we walked through. There are names on many batches of the joints which are prepaid to make sure the lucky customers get some of the famous black pig culatello, many names on many batches but one stands out more that the rest being Armani and sure enough this selection the Armani's per order each season.
We weave our way in and past the hanging mouldy joints of meat, the vaulted ceiling are only 2.4m high so you actually walk with your eyes right at the hanging meats, not a good place for a vegetarian or for people with confined space issues! So with a spray under the tongue I move forward.
The cellar space only has one window to the south side which over the centuries brings in the fog and humidity from the Po River during winter. The meats stay here for between 18 to 27 months depending on the flavory required.
We come out of the meat storage area of the villa area to another large brick vaulted vast area that is used for large functions and is connected by a dumb waiter to the kitchen us stairs.
Now more of the bigger picture is being revealed they have large corporate function and last night the reason for all the staff upstairs in the kitchen was because of a function for under the villa.
With my typical integration of questions the " famous black pig culatello " works out at 95€ a Kg and down to 75 € a Kg for the prosciutto and salami.
Me with my internal calculator working on overload 2000 pigs so 4000 culatello cheeks at 4 Kg alone = 16,000 Kg
say average 85€ a Kg = 1, 360,000.00 € so add in the prosciutto and salami serious €
So as for the excess staff in the kitchen I saw on day one they are not going to drain the Old Smelly Money bank account too much !!!
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