The Chianina is the bovine breed raised in ValdiChiana – from which it takes its name -, the area of Tuscany known in the US as Under The Tuscan Sun, from the famous novel by Frances Mayes.
The Chianina was once used in the fields as a working animal: tall, sturdy and strong, it could pull the plow more easily than other animals.
It needs to live outdoors, grazing the grass. For an animal of this size, the stable is truly torture.
Here, I have already said why the steak is so big: because the animal from which it is made is big. It is huge. In our part of Italy it is defined as The White Giant.
The photo of the cover shows well the dimension compared to a man. That is the bull that won the competitin at a fair in Valdichiana.
A beef like this needs a maturation time after slaughter: up to 60 days at a controlled temperature.
The Chianina is not the only one breed in Tuscany: there is the Calvana, autochthonous of the Appennino Tosco-Emiliano, the mountain chain that divides Tuscany from the Emilia Romagna; the Garfagnina ( from the Garfagnana, the area of Tuscany in province of Lucca, in the valley of the river Serchio under the marble mountain Alpi Apuane), the Pisana – the Garfagnina and Pisana are in serious risk of extinction -; the Maremmana, famous for its long horns that make it similar to a bufalo.
Its milk, rare, is sought after for the production of dairy products such as ricotta and mozzarella.
Original from Maremma, in southern Tuscany, these were – and are – the cows held by the Italian cow-boys, the Butteri.
Buffalo Bill in 1890, in a circus competition with horses, was defeated by the Tuscan Butteri in the ability to ride.
Marcella Ansaldo © 2022