We are mountain people, raised in a valley where long winters and poor land taught the art of making do.
This is where Ciuìga del Banale was born, our cured meat, a symbol of ingenuity and survival. It is said that around 1875 a butcher from San Lorenzo in Banale, Palmo Donati, had the idea of mixing the little pork available with white turnips, sown in July and harvested in October.
Those were hard times: good meat was sold to get what was needed, and only offal and scraps remained. The turnips, cooked and squeezed, added bulk and filled the stomach. And so a simple yet surprising mixture was born, seasoned with salt, garlic, and lots of black pepper, and finally smoked with beech wood and juniper branches, in the sanza camino room made from the old turnaria dairy in Senaso.
The name Ciuìga, our elders say, came from a traveler who, seeing the smoking sausage in a bowl, exclaimed: "Me pàr na ciuìga!" (It looks like a pine cone!). And indeed our Ciuìghe really do resemble those dark, tapered pine cones that fall from fir trees in autumn.
For a long time Ciuìga remained hunger food, made at home for families, never shown off. Over the years, as living conditions improved, we learned to make it better, choosing the best parts of the pig while still respecting the ancient recipe. Originally it was made of 70% turnips and only 30% meat. Today the proportions have been reversed, but the turnips have never disappeared: they are the soul of Ciuìga, what sets it apart from any other cured meat.
In 1995, a local restaurant presented Ciuìga in a gastronomic competition, achieving immediate success. Soon after, the Famiglia Cooperativa Brenta Paganella started production on a wider scale, following safe and controlled methods.
Today Ciuìga del Banale is recognized as a Slow Food Presidium and every year, in November, we celebrate it with its Sagra.
