Cinta Senese is a Protected Origin Designation (DOP) on the national list approved by the Ministry of Agriculture And Forestry, whose requirements are regulated by the production discipline of the Tuscany Region.

Features

Cinta Senese must have the following characteristics:
– water content: no more than 78%;
– fat content: not less than 2.5%;
– pH45: 6 to 6.5;
– color: bright pink and/or red;
– weaving: fine;
– consistency: compact, slightly infiltrated with fat, tender, succulent with aroma
fresh meat.

Breeding

The pigs that can be used for the production of the Cinta Senese are exclusively derived from the coupling of subjects both registered in the Registry and/or Genealogical Book of the genetic type Cinta Senese.
These must be identified no later than 45 days after birth, by affixing the appropriate badge (band or ear button) on the ears indicating the identification code of the suitable person.

Those destined for slaughter must be bred in the wild/semi-wild state from the fourth month of life.
Animals must stay daily in plots of land both fenced and not.
A possible hospitalization for the night hours and/or for unfavourable weather conditions can be used.

Food is provided by grazing in the woods and/or in bare soils sown with forage essences and cereals.
It is allowed to use a daily food supplement of no more than 2% of the animal’s live weight.
In addition, the constituents of the integration must come for at least 60% of the total weight given to the animal from the geographical area of production.

Slaughtered animals must be at least 12 months old; the half-holes should be marked in heat in the following parts: ham, loin, bacon, shoulder and gota. At the sectioning, each cut intended for consumption must be marked.
The marking must be placed in focus and/or marking respectively in the slaughter and/or sectioning plant.

After slaughter the meat is refrigerated and dissected to obtain the cuts and portions for consumption or to process the traditional Tuscan charcuterie.

History and curiosity

The link between the Cinta Senese and the geographical area bounded is justified precisely in relation to the type of breeding and nutrition that characterizes the Cinta Senese breed.
The cradle of origin is the area of Montemaggio and subsequently this breed has spread to Chianti and throughout Tuscany. In this area there are mixed forests, rich in oak species suitable for the production of acorn and/or marginal arable land. These pastures, often poor and clay, are usually cultivated for grazing fodche, such as lupinella, gymina, clover, etc. and are all typical of the Tuscan pedo-climate environment.

The Cinta Senese breed is bred in this area precisely to exploit the forest plots, usually due to hardwoods with prevalence of oak species and Mediterranean scrub. The difficult environment and the use almost exclusively of spontaneous food resources, has selected over time, pigs possessing characteristics of rurality, frugality, adaptation to the environment and resistance to diseases that are not found in the other commonly bred pig breeds.

It is worth remembering that today, cinta Senese meat is directly associated with its region of origin also because in 1998 it was the subject of an important activity to enhance its qualities as an expression of the Tuscan food tradition. Thanks to these interventions carried out by the regional administrations, from 1998 it was possible to see a return to the market of Cinta Senese meat.

The historical evidence of the breeding and processing of the meat of cinta Senese sinks into the past. In the Civic Palace of Siena is famous the fresco of 1340 by Ambrogio Lorenzetti in the allegory of the “Good Government”, where the pig of the breed Cinta Senese is represented.