norcina

The people of Norcia in Umbria were renowned for their cured meats in Roman times. By the Middle Ages they were also famous surgeons, since they had the best knives and knew how to use them.

So renowned in fact, that even today around Italy, alla norcina means 'with cured meats; a shop selling salame is often called a norcineria, and the man who owns it a norcino. Up in Norcia they're still at it; the town centre is full of norcinerie where you'll see strange and wonderful things. 'Five years old and never been in a refrigerator!' boasted one sign by a boar ham still covered with bristles.