Wild boar (cinghiale)

Wild boar is the wild ancestor of domestic pork and remains a significant game animal in Europe, with stable wild populations across Italy, France, Spain, Germany, and Eastern Europe. The Italian regional tradition of wild-boar charcuterie (cinghiale = wild boar) concentrates in Tuscany, where the Chianti hills and Maremma have produced traditional cured-boar products for centuries — cinghiale prosciutto (cured wild-boar ham), salame di cinghiale (wild-boar salami), and various spalla and lonza preparations. Falorni, the 11-generation Tuscan butcher, is the producer most associated with serious cinghiale charcuterie.

The flavor profile is meaningfully different from domestic pork — gamier, more iron-y, with deeper red meat and less fat than even heritage pork breeds. Cure times are typically shorter than equivalent domestic-pork products because the lean meat doesn't sustain long aging without becoming over-dried. Corsican wild-pig charcuterie (using the semi-feral Nustrale breed grazing maquis vegetation) is editorially adjacent but uses semi-domesticated pigs rather than true wild boar.