CORSICAN COOKED PORK MEATS

Charcuterie is a traditional production from the inner regions of our island.
Many years ago it used to be an essential and rather banal item of the daily meals, but today, it has become a genuine luxury product, sought for its flavour and delicacy which are due to an extensive farming "of runnning" pigs as well as a tried savoir-faire.
Despite numerous attempts, no label, nor any trade name yet succeeded in thrusting itself upon that realm as it has been the case in Italy or Spain for example.
That led to a certain confusion beween the different "qualities" of goods that are found on the market: Corsican charcuterie, Corsican type charcuterie, traditionally made, free-range or industrial charcuterie.
The traditional differences found in the different regions of our island added to that confusion. Indeed, traditional charcuterie is made throughout Corsica, but only in the regions of medium altitude where holm-oaks and chestnut trees grow.
These two trees provide Corsican pigs with the basis of their food. In those regions, each valley, even each village has its own recipe, its own way of making charcuterie and that can singularize a yet homegeneous production taken in its whole.
The composition of such products as figatellu (pork liver sausage) may considerably vary from one region to another, especially from North to South: different seasonings (garlic, wine, herbs.), changes in the length of smoking, variations in its very composition (In the Prunelli region, the Bastelica fittonu is exclusively made with liver).
The different European regulations, unduly severe in the realm of animal origin products, led to an even greater increase in those differentiations and also to a production that is like that of all regions with a strong personality: the goods from our land which benefit from a tradition of quality and from a perfect adaptation to the soil are progressively substituted to asepticized products of a standard quality which have lost the original flavour and nevertheless still benefit from their brand image.
Let's get straight to the point: we do not pretend here to issue quality and authenticity labels. Establishing strict internal regulations was a way to set some protective measures that the Group (GEI) could guarantee:
A producer from the group is bound to present a product issued from his own animals, - bred in a traditional way -, and not from imported carcasses (which usually makes the difference between the Corsican charcuterie and the "Corsican type" charcuterie). We have also decided to use the specific articles and conditions established by the former Cilaccia Fair (Taravu valley): on the Fair grounds, goods with no other additives but salt, pepper and garlic used to be imposed.
These specifications are quite in contradiction with certain European norms which demand the integration of preservatives. The producers belonging to the Group do not have the necessary agreement to sell their goods to remote customers (and thus through internet, since the instructions of the Ministry of Agriculture must be strictly applied while further precisions regarding the cyber-commerce are awaited): that explains how it is impossible for them to solicit orders on this web-site. They nevertheless belong to the Group and can sell their goods at home or on the fairs and markets of the valley. If you go and see them, they will take great pleasure in welcoming you and show you around their work premises.