Salami

Salami is a salume of fermented and air-dried meat, typically pork, historically valued because it could be kept at room temperature once cut, letting Southern, Eastern and Central European peasants supplement an inconsistent supply of fresh meat. The modern recipe originated in Italy in the early eighteenth century and later spread to other countries, particularly in Central Europe, with locally adapted methods, though it remained a luxury food for a time given the cost of meat. Small salamis are called salametti or salamini, and the English name comes from the Italian plural salame, itself from sale, salt, with a collective-noun suffix; France, Germany, Hungary, Italy and Spain together produce several hundred million kilograms of salami a year.