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Coppa, Lonzu and Figatellu
Authenticity and Traditions
The killing of the pig [Ph.
Desjobert]
The pig's breeding
From the domesticated hog or in the natural state but in being watch over, living
in groups which sometimes have ten or so animals, passing by the small breeding,
as a complement of an other activity, hog has always been part of the natural
setting of the country life in Corsica and it is not unusual still today to see
one on the way during a stroll or a ramble.
Each corsican countryman was in the past in the habit of breeding for the
consumption of his family and with particular care one or two hogs - certains
were as guard dogs, tied not far from the place of living -, the biggest part
of them being shut up in a stone- shelter which was basically built ( u purcile
).
Some shepherds bred, as a complement of their activity and in the same time
of their flocks, a few hogs for their own consumption as for the sale of piglets.
These ones bred in a semi-natural state, fed twice a day by the shepherds,
generally lived on good terms with goats or sheeps. But it is in altitude,
in the countries rich in chestnut groves mainly inCastagniccia,
in Bastelica, in the Haut Taravo,
or in the région of Quenza
, that the intensive breeding was and still is the practice.
There, far from the cultivations of low altitude, like vines and cereals, hogs
can freely walk in the undergrowths, finding themselves their food : chestnuts,
acorns, roots, insects, fruits fell from the trees.
It is also there that, thanks to a very developed sense of smell, they satisfy
their big apetite by digging about the soil in search of slugs, big larvas or
tubers.
This freedom is nevertheless regularly watched over by the pig-keeper - u purcaghju
- who generally sets near a watering point called u pozzu, a big trough hollowed
in a trunk of alder or of poplar, in which every evening, he tips out corn,
damaged apples, scraps from garden or domestic scraps that animals come to greedily
swallow at the appointed time.
The Cooked Pork Meats
It is from this meat fed with the savors of nature, associated to the precious
know-how of the breeders which are proud of their traditions that are born the
tasty Prizuttu - raw ham -, the Salamu - slicing sausage -, the Coppa - sirloin-,
the lonzu - filet steak - all the products that some like to enjoy with fresh
onions - and finally the delicious Figatellu - sausage of liver - that it has
to be enjoyed, in winter, grilled on wood fire.
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