Speck
Some say it was because of a lack of salt in Alto Adige, the mountainous region near Austria. Others claim that the region’s climate wasn’t quite right for curing. Either way, centuries ago, families in Northern Italy started hanging pig thighs rubbed with salt and seasonings like juniper berries and bay leaves in their chimneys, letting wood smoke perfume and preserve the meat. After months of air-drying, the result was speck—a garnet-colored, fat-rimmed ham with a smoky edge. Nowadays, the at-home method has given way to larger-scale cold-smoking—a technique that uses smoke but very little heat. Drape the real thing, which became available in the United States three years ago, on butter-slathered black bread or serve it alongside pungent soft cheeses.

WHERE TO ORDER IT

At these restaurants, chefs spring for the seriously good stuff—or make their own exceptional cured meat.

Perbacco (San Francisco)
More than 20 types of cured meat—like salami made with Barolo and rosemary-rubbed lardo—come out of Swedish-born Staffan Terje’s cellar, thanks to the 300-pound pigs he gets from a farm in Northern California.
230 California Street, 415-955-0663, perbaccosf.com

Luca D’Italia (Denver)
Chef Frank Bonanno marinates beef in wine, rosemary, and thyme, then air-dries it for weeks. He pairs the resulting sweet-salty bresaola with arugula, strawberries, and Gorgonzola vinaigrette.
711 Grant Street, 303-832-6600, lucadenver.com

Boqueria (New York City)
Chef Seamus Mullen serves some of Spain’s best-loved cured meats at his tapas place, including fuet—a salami-like dry sausage from Catalan—and, occasionally, the mythic jamón Ibérico.
53 W. 19th Street, 212-255-4160, boquerianyc.com

Cafe Juanita (Seattle)
At her polished Northern Italian restaurant, Holly Smith matches salami from Fra’Mani with traditional accompaniments like lambrusco and more unusual ones like panna cotta.
9702 NE 120th Place, Kirkland, WA, 425-823-1505, cafejuanita.com

Osteria Mozza (Los Angeles)
To go with the salumi from his dad’s Seattle operation, Mario Batali fries up little puffs of dough called gnocco fritto, a classic accompaniment borrowed from Emilia-Romagna.
6602 Melrose Avenue, 323-297-0100, mozza-la.com

AMERICAN MASTERS

These three artisans might just turn your local deli counter into a place where the cold cuts rival anything Italy has to offer.

Armandino Batali (Salumi)
Although he studied with butchers in Tuscany, Armandino Batali (yes, Mario’s dad) is no strict traditionalist. Shortly after leaving a 30-plus-year career as a Boeing engineer, he opened a Seattle storefront to sell salami. In 2003, he expanded the operation and began making coppa and culatello, a sibling of prosciutto that’s extremely rare outside Italy. Armandino’s daughter, Gina, now runs the business, and her husband, Brian, oversees the curing.