Salted tuna lactime, salted tuna lactime, tùnnu salàtu lattùme, tùnnu sutta sali lattùme.
Product included in the national list of traditional agri-food products (PAT)
Typology PAT : Preparation of fish, molluscs and crustaceans
Production area: Coastal municipalities of the province of Trapani: Marsala, Trapani, Erice, Valderice, Custonaci, San Vito lo Capo and Favignana.
Technical data sheet of the traditional agri-food product (PAT)
Area of production: Coastal municipalities in the province of Trapani: Marsala, Trapani, Erice, Valderice, Custonaci, San Vito lo Capo and Favignana.
Brief description of the product: The raw material is represented by the male gonads of bluefin tuna (thunnus thynnus) and / or yellow fin tuna (Thunnus albacares) and sea salt from the Trapani salt pans. The whole product is firm and compact; the surface color is greyish white; when cut, the consistency is compact and soft, the color tending to pink.
Description of the processing and maturing methods: At the same time as evisceration, the gonads are recovered and their ligaments are removed. Salting is carried out by alternating on a wooden or polyethylene table a layer of coarse dried natural sea salt and a layer of gonads, up to 5-6 stratifications of gonads, above which a second table will be placed with the function of a press, above this marble blocks are placed to increase the pressure, favoring the penetration of salt and the elimination of water by osmosis. This process lasts about 20 days.
Then the gonads are washed with fresh drinking water and the laitance is placed to dry in special conditioned rooms at a temperature between 26 and 30 ° C or exposed directly to the sun. It is then stored in cold rooms at a temperature between 4 and 8 ° C.
Specific materials and equipment used for preparation and conditioning: Wood and / or polyethylene boards and blocks of marble from the Custonaci marble basin.
Description of the processing, storage and maturing rooms: In the past, fish were processed in warehouses in the ports and caves carved into the limestone; today we work in establishments recognized pursuant to Reg. CE n. 853/2004 located in the province of Trapani.
Elements proving that the methodologies have been practiced in a homogeneous way and according to traditional rules for a period of not less than 25 years: Fishing and the consumption of tuna have had a significant importance in the history and culture of the Mediterranean basin; However, the improvement of fishing and processing practices with the construction of numerous traps along the coast is due to the Arab domination. The production of salted tuna lattùme it therefore has centuries of history.
Tangible example is the narration of the Duke of Ossada, Francesco Carlo D'amico, owner of the tonnara and of the Castle of San Giorgio, who in his "Practical observations on the fishing, course and way of tuna"(1816) he wrote: (omissis) the milk products are usually sold fresh because they are very estimated, their price, which is sold in tuna traps is 3 ounces and 2.15 ounces for each barrel weighing about 75 rolls. and when they are sold by the minute, the price is tari 1.10 or tari 1. the roll according to the peach, and when it is not possible to sell everything fresh, it is put in brine and then sliced, and placed in the sun (omitted).
Source Pat Cards: Sicily Region
Card insertion: Ignazio Caloggero
Photo: web
Information contributions: Web, Region of Sicily
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