Mortadella - A Classic Italian Sausage Meat from Bologna

Sausages of different kinds in a freezer
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Marco Pauvert is a master butcher-charcutier who was based in Paris for many years and oversaw production at a well known meat company. Now maintaining a Maryland consulting firm, Marco Pauvert leverages his comprehensive knowledge and experience of smoked and cured means towards working with meat companies, chefs, and ranches.

One of the classic Italian sausages, mortadella is made from cooked and cured pork meat, following a recipe codified in the Bologna area in the 17th century. Its preparation involves the use of machines in chopping the pork’s lean and thick parts finely, with cubes of fat taken from the throat. Then, the meat is mixed together with different herbs and spices. 

Once bagged, the mixture is cooked in a dry-air heater for several hours, and sometimes up to a day, with the core temperature kept above 158 degrees Fahrenheit. After cooking, cold water is used to stabilize the sausage. The result is an easy-to-slice deli product that is uniformly pink in color. 

Since the late 1990s, the name mortadella has been designated by the European Union as a Protected Geographical Indication, which requires Italian companies that produce the sausage to follow strict ingredient and production rules.