Alpine Market Cure · Air-Dried Ham
Tiroler Speck
Photo: Takeaway / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
It's both smoked and air-dried in the thin mountain air — a double process most cured hams skip, and one that's now legally protected as uniquely Tyrolean.
Pork leg is dry-salted with juniper and mountain herbs, lightly smoked, then hung to air-dry in the cool Alpine climate for months. Market stalls and mountain huts slice it paper-thin and sell it on wooden boards or tucked into bread as a grab-and-go snack.
Why it's made this way: Tyrol's cold, dry mountain air made this curing method practical centuries before refrigeration, and the region now holds EU protected-geographical-indication status for it.
More from Austria
Part of World of Street Food — 690 dishes from 118 countries.
Something wrong here? Tell us in the comments below.
Photo credits.