Salted, wind-dried mutton, boiled with cabbage in winter and eaten at Christmas. Kotor and Dubrovnik traded it around the Adriatic for centuries, and it is the dried meat of the Boka Kotorska.
It is a whole-cut cure that depends on the bura’s cold dry wind blowing steadily for months; without that airflow the meat spoils inside while the surface hardens.
What goes into it
- mutton, in whole legs or large pieces
- coarse sea salt
- the bura wind
How it is made
The mutton is salted heavily for a week or more, then hung in the open where the bura — the cold dry wind off the mountains — reaches it. It dries for one to three months until it is hard, dark and intensely salty, and it must be soaked and long-boiled before it is edible.
How long it takes: one to three months of wind-drying
How it is eaten
Soaked, then boiled at length with cabbage and potatoes, at Christmas.
History
Dried mutton of the Boka Kotorska and the coast, eaten at Christmas; Kotor and Dubrovnik traded it around the Adriatic for centuries.
Frequently asked questions
What is Kastradina?
Kastradina is a charcuterie & cured from Montenegro: salted, wind-dried mutton, boiled with cabbage in winter. Dried mutton of the Boka Kotorska and the coast, eaten at Christmas; Kotor and Dubrovnik traded it around the Adriatic for centuries.
How is Kastradina made?
The mutton is salted heavily for a week or more, then hung in the open where the bura — the cold dry wind off the mountains — reaches it. It dries for one to three months until it is hard, dark and intensely salty, and it must be soaked and long-boiled before it is edible. It takes one to three months of wind-drying.
Can I make Kastradina at home?
No, and the atlas gives no method for it. It is a whole-cut cure that depends on the bura’s cold dry wind blowing steadily for months; without that airflow the meat spoils inside while the surface hardens.
What goes into Kastradina?
Mutton, in whole legs or large pieces, coarse sea salt, the bura wind.
How is Kastradina eaten?
Soaked, then boiled at length with cabbage and potatoes, at Christmas.
