Every year, during the first ten days of May, the Coppiette Festival is held in the town of Marcellina, about thirty kilometers northeast of Rome, in the province of Lazio. Organized by the Committee of the Butteri (mountain shepherds), it reflects simultaneous celebrations dedicated to the Virgen del Ginestre. However, the committee is less concerned with the hunger of the soul and more with the hunger of the stomach.

Coppiettes are dried strips of meat, cured with salt and pepper, then seasoned with fennel and pepperoncino (Italian hot peppers). Southeast of Rome, in the province of Frosinone, locals include garlic and white wine to make coppiette ciociare. This is a simple meal and was part of the staple diet enjoyed in the past by farmers and humble peasants alike. He has some close relatives. Coppiette would have been interpreted as unequal by the pioneers who opened up the American West in the 19th century and by the native Indians the settlers encountered. The Dutch voortrekkers (literally meaning forward shooters) who made the great trek across South Africa to escape the British in the 1830s and 1840s relied on something strikingly similar: they called it a biltong.

Its appeal is not hard to understand. These dried meats are rich in protein and residual fat. They also have high levels of salt added during the drying process to inhibit any bacterial activity. The tired and hydrated Lazian farm worker, after a day in the fields, chewed on coppiette and was quickly revived with a concentrated injection of energy and nutrients. These meat ‘sticks’ were reduced to almost nothing in his pocket; they were also inherently stable because all excess fat and moisture had been removed. Tucked away in the dark corners of a backpack or pocket, they can last for days or even months.

Then and now, the raw material with which the sausage is made depends on the place. Cowboys and Native Americans cut strips of beef and game including buffalo, deer and elk. In South Africa, biltong made from beef remains the most common variety available, but today the Afrikaaner also uses ostrich and game species, such as kudu, wildebeest and springbok. In the Lazio region of Italy, the horse and donkey were the common options available. Today, most coppiettes are made from pork.

However, with their aversion to pork, the Jewish community makes their own version with beef. A good butcher could sell you some coppiette with meat sourced from the prestigious Maremmana, a breed of cattle raised in the Maremma, an ancient swampy area that straddles southern Tuscany and northern Lazio. If you visit the small town of Genzano, the residents can offer you their own rare specialty with donkey meat.

In times past, no part of the animal was wasted; Butchers today, and those who still do so at home, focus on the fibrous muscle tissue that surrounds the ham, shoulder, or abdomen. Strips 10-15 centimeters long and 2 centimeters thick are cut from the carcass and seasoned in wooden vats, before being simmered for half an hour in a wood-fired refractory brick oven. Excess water is drained off and the meat is baked for a further half hour before being left to dry for up to 48 hours in wire racks.

Coppiette, like its South African relative biltong, differs from jerky in this respect. While the latter is sun- or fire-dried, the more traditional biltong and coppiette are air-dried in the cold winter months. Lazio makes its specialty throughout the year and in other months it follows the cecina method and uses a special drying room. In both cases, the dried meat is tied with string in pairs, or coppiette (meaning ‘little pairs’), and left to mature for two months. After a very light final smoking, the finished product is bagged or packed in trays ready for sale in taverns, butcher shops and wine bars.