Pedrazzoli Guanciale

Founded in 1951, Pedrazzoli is a small, family-run company from Mantua in Lombardy, Italy. Over fifty years later, Pedrazzoli are still renowned for their range of cured meats and traditional sausages. The recipe for the superior flavour and quality of Pedrazzoli salami is simple: top quality own-bred pork meat, good salt, herbs, and natural ageing.

Pedrazzoli are unusual as they only use GSP (Gran Suino Padano) meaning they use exclusively Italian pigs. The cost is 30% more than pigs of other origins, plus unusually, they actually ‘grow their own’. Pigs are not sow-stalled. They are bred according to traditional Italian conventions, with great attention paid to animal welfare and feeding. They are fattened slowly, happily and naturally to a heavy weight. Pedrazzoli make their own wholegrain pig feed which is specially designed to build firm flesh and a quality of meat which is particularly suitable for Italian sausage and meat products.

Their products contain limited amounts of salt and preservatives. Only natural casings are used, and most of the production stages are manual, with all of the salami being hand-bound. All Pedrazzoli meat is gluten-free too. Such a natural approach requires a lot of monitoring of stability and time. The approach of industrial Italian smallgoods companies is much cheaper to achieve, but the flavour and quality is very different. Compare and taste for yourself!