Holsteiner Katenschinken also allows the pigs to be from anywhere, but the whole curing process has to be done in Schleswig-Holstein. They could’ve went ahead and said that the origin of the pigs is crucial to its quality and very likely gotten away with it, but they didn’t want to – Danish pigs are cheap and plentiful.

That Parma doesn’t mandate that all the curing needs to be done there is their own fucking fault and probably greed – of big producers, that is, more interested in cheap labour than protecting local jobs.

Honestly I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if in the future you’d see lab-grown DOP Katenschinken – the stuff has always been about the specific curing method, enabled by our microclimate. The strict ingredient and process regulations will continue (including mandating that a lot of stuff needs to be done by hand) but if synthetic raw ham achieves a quality to what they’re using now heck why not.

Side note: Carbonara with Holsteiner Katenschinken and Holsteiner Tilsiter is way better than with guanciale/pancetta and pecorino. Also show me a charcoal maker who can afford fancy import ingredients, fancy local ingredients are just fine. As long as they don’t include cream, that is.