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Welcome to the "Prosciuttificio Borselli" web site. We are able to offer you a vast range of products, subdivided into various product lines, in order to satisfy all market exigencies.
"Our dry-cured ham is a refined, tasty product with a rosy colour and an intense aroma suitable for any type of dish at any time of the day. When combined with a top quality red wine, its particular characteristics are really brought out …" Gianfranco Iazzetta (CEO prosciuttificio Boselli)
"Prosciutto Boselli S. r. l.", located in Rovereto di Guà (Verona), a cheery town in the Veneto, was established far back in 1940 in the form of a general partnership, on the wishes of the entrepreneur Bruno Boselli. The company's production activities have always stood out for the careful, attentive and craftsmanlike processing of a limited quantity of dry-cured ham. Without sacrificing any attention to the quality of the product, Prosciutto Boselli reached an annual production of 30 000 products (domestic hams with DOP certification, and bacon) which were regularly distributed both on the domestic market and abroad. Furthermore, the prosciuttificio also carried out, right from the very beginning, production processes on behalf of others (among its best clients it counted both the Uzzauto and Iazzetta company and Ital Food Spa).
Partners "Uzzauto & Iazzetta S.r.l.", based in Afragola (NAPLES) who had, as mentioned before, previously been clients for many years, took over the prosciuttificio in 1996, transforming it into a limited liability company. The new partners, thanks to their 30 years of experience in the meat sector, and to the fact that they were pursuing precise, pre-determined objectives with strategy and devotion, brought winds of change, especially when it came to the quality of the production process. They set up a distribution channel of Boselli Dry-Cured Ham, Ham from the Veneto - both in EUROPE and in the USA, where the product is much appreciated for its quality and sweetness.
To this end, having set about restructuring the factory according to EEC directives required by the USDA (a norm still in force in the USA), and having gained UNI EN ISO 9002 certification (Certification number: IT - 12301), the Uzzauto & Iazzetta company opened its own distribution office in MIAMI (USA) in order to increase sales of its ham overseas.
Thanks to appropriate and successful commercial, advertising and product placement operations, a notable increase in production of around 70% occurred: from the initial 30 000 hams produced yearly, the Prosciutto Boselli today, in fact, boasts a productive cycle of around 200 000 hams per year. Careful selection of legs of pork, coming only from highly qualified and certified butchers, processing using traditional production techniques, backed up by constant technological innovation, along with the patient treatment required to reach a suitable level of maturity for the type of product (minimum 400 days) all add up to make Boselli dry-cured ham DOP a product of the highest quality and flavour.
Dry-cured ham is certainly the most important and oldest of Italian charcuterie products. A delicate food product which is obtained from selected legs of pork that come from livestock with a weight between 160 and 180kg. The intermediate product becomes dry-cured ham after a long and expert salting process and maturation.
Perhaps not everyone knows that, apart from being an exquisite food product, capable of satisfying the most demanding of palates, dry-cured ham is also, according to the most recent opinions of nutritionists, thoroughly dietetic and rich in protein, vitamins (B1, B6 and PP), mineral salts (phosphorus, potassium and zinc) and iron.
After careful selection, the leg of pork is partially covered in salt. The ham, undergoing its first salting, is laid down inside a cold room where temperature and humidity are controlled by a fully automatic system. The hams mature in modern, conditioned rooms with characteristic facing windows that allow the influx of natural air and which, therefore, allow a perfect maturation and drying process. This is indispensable for obtaining the inimitable aroma of Italian dry-cured ham. The boning takes place inside the establishment, so as to allow more rational and efficient process management and tighter controls on the produce sent out.
In the trimming process, any excess fat is removed, for which the ham loses 24% of its weight. Having established that the meats are hardening, the muscular part of the surface and the outer edges, known as the "noce" are massaged with medium grain dry salt. Once they have been salted (see photo above), the hams are laid out flat on racks with several horizontal shelves, and put in special thermoregulated salting rooms. After a few days, the hams, removed from the racks and set out on special tables, are cleaned of any residual salt, are untrussed to lend the meat elasticity and permeability, and are finally given another light coating of salt.
The repose phase is very important because it allows the ham a gradual but sufficient process of dehydration. The repose takes place in thermically regulated rooms, well-suited to making sure that moulds and yeasts, commonly called "moliga", don't form. After 70 days, the hams come out of repose and are scraped, spread out and smoothed out around the area known as the "noce". They are then washed. This is done by brushing and was once carried out by hand, but is now done mechanically by rotating brushes or in a washing tunnel.
Drying occurs in ideal climatic conditions, in the open air, or in dryers in which temperature, humidity and ventilation are properly regulated. The long maturing process to which Boselli hams are subjected, along with careful monitoring of the quality of every stage of production, lend the product its own particular organolectic characteristics, a rosy colour and a delicate flavour suitable for any type of dish and especially for children, thanks to a perfect balance between sweetness and sapidity.
Boselli hams are released for consumption after the tenth month when the product has already taken on its own particular aroma, colour and sweetness.
The first written trace of dry-cured ham is to be found in the history of ancient Rome. In fact, in the 2nd century B.C., Cato the Censor was already describing the preservation of legs of pork by means of abundant salting before moistening them with a little oil and leaving them to dry. But even before that, in the 5th century B.C., in Etruscan Padana, trade in legs of pork preserved in salt was being done with the rest of Italy and with Greece.
The salting technique was used a great deal by the Romans, who described the whole leg of pork, dried by salting and then given a long period of maturation, using the adjective "perexsuccus", meaning "very dry" and from which the modern day term "prosciutto" is derived. The pig is a very valuable animal in terms of human alimentation, in that it provides safe, nutritious meats which are low in cholesterol. It is precisely for these characteristics that we find it on both the lavish tables of the bourgeoisie, as well as on those of the common people of every period and every era. At the end of the 19th century, the processing of ham was organised into little productive units of craftsmen, and the product began to be traded more systematically. After the war, entrepreneurial activities took on more marked and consolidated characteristics and the market expanded beyond the confines of the areas of production into the rest of Italy and, after that, into the various continents.
to contact and visit us:
Prosciuttificio Boselli srl
via Cicogna 2/a
37040 Roveredo di Guà - Verona - Italy
tel + 39 0442469001
fax +39 0442468072
email: bosellisrl@tin.it
email: gianiazz@tin.it

prosciuttificio Boselli: ham made in Italy; the ham from the Veneto of age-old gastronomic traditions