San Daniele del Friuli
Friulian DOP prosciutto from the small town of San Daniele del Friuli. The Parma-vs-San-Daniele debate is the foundational Italian charcuterie distinction.
San Daniele del Friuli is a hilltop town of 8,000 in northeastern Italy where the prosciutto tradition predates the Roman empire. The Prosciutto di San Daniele DOP (regulated since 1996) is the second-most-famous Italian dry-cured ham after Parma and is widely held by Italian charcuterie purists to be the better of the two. Distinguishing factors: only Italian-born pigs from approved heritage breeds; production exclusively within the town's boundaries; aging minimum 13 months; the foot is left on the cured leg (unlike Parma's removed foot); the leg shape is pressed flat (the 'guitar shape' that distinguishes San Daniele visually from Parma's rounder profile).
Flavor is sweeter and less salty than Parma, with a more pronounced sweetness from the longer aging and the specific microclimate. Production scale is meaningfully smaller than Parma (about 2.5 million legs/year vs Parma's 9 million), making San Daniele the artisanal alternative within Italian whole-muscle dry-cure.
Typical products
- Prosciutto di San Daniele DOP