Visit La Quercia, the meat-eater heaven in Iowa

#FoodTripping Day 23: Norwalk, Iowa

As many chefs and food-obsessed types already know, some of the best Italian-style cured meats in the U.S. have been coming out of Norwalk, Iowa, for the last decade.

Herb and Kathy Eckhouse founded their prosciuttificio in 2005 and named it after the Italian word for “oak,” the state tree of Iowa and the symbol of Italy’s Parma area (home of the famous Prosciutto di Parma), where the couple lived for three and a half years.

In addition to prosciutto, you’ll find all kinds of other porky delights, as we were only too happy to investigate. Who knew we had an inner pork nerd? We learned that there are two ways to think about La Quercia meats — by the cut, like pancetta (belly), or by the varietal, which refers to specific pig breeds, a concept the Eckhouses have pioneered in the U.S. Tamworth hogs, known as “bacon pigs,” are prized for their thick bellies and delicious fat. La Quercia’s Acorn Edition comes from Tamworths fed a diet of wild acorns. Meanwhile the Americano varietal is made from the antibiotic-free meats of California’s Niman Ranch and Missouri’s Heritage Acres. The company’s Speck Americano just took home a Good Food Award this year.

Some meats hang in their curing house for over two years, and there are 4,000 dangling salami aging at any given time. The meat is all ethically farmed, and comes from local ranchers. Molly was a fan: “So many of their meats just melt in your mouth,” she said. “There’s a creaminess to many of them that I don’t regularly taste in cured meats.”

Click here to go behind the scenes at La Quercia and here for more stops on Zagat and The Huffington Post’s #FoodTripping tour.