EN Official Journal of the European Union C 48/23

Publication of an application pursuant to Article 6(2) of Council Regulation (EC) No 510/2006 on the protection of geographical indications and designations of origin for agricultural products and foodstuffs

2012/C 48/10

This publication confers the right to object to the application pursuant to Article 7 of Council Regulation (EC) No 510/2006 (1). Statements of objection must reach the Commission within six months from the date of this publication.

SINGLE DOCUMENT

COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 510/2006

‘KRANJSKA KLOBASA’

EC No: SI-PGI-0005-0764-24.03.2009

PGI ( X ) PDO ( )

1. Name:

‘Kranjska klobasa’

2. Member State or Third Country:

Slovenia

3. Description of the agricultural product or foodstuff:

3.1. Type of product:

Class 1.2. Meat products (cooked, salted, smoked, etc.)

3.2. Description of product to which the name in (1) applies:

‘Kranjska klobasa’ is a pasteurised semi-durable sausage which is produced from coarsely minced pork of categories I and II (leg, shoulder, neck) and pork fat (back fat). The filling for ‘Kranjska klobasa’ is salted by adding nitrite salt, seasoned with garlic and pepper and then stuffed into a pig’s small intestine, the ends of which are closed and skewered by a wooden dowel to make a pair of sausages with their ends joined together. The sausage undergoes hot smoking and pasteurisation.

It is eaten warm after brief warming in hot water, when it acquires its organoleptic characteristics and its excellent gastronomic qualities. The sausage has a reddish-brown surface and a mildly smoky smell; the meat inside is pinkish-red in colour and the fat is creamy white and unmelted; the texture is taut, crisp and succulent and the aroma is strong and typical of salted, specifically seasoned and smoked pork.

The chemical composition of the unheated sausage is as follows:

— : total proteins : min. 17 %, — : fat : max. 29 %.

3.3. Raw materials:

The raw materials are pork meat and fat.

3.4. Feed:

—

3.5. Specific steps in production that must take place in the identified geographical area:

Selection of the meat and fat

‘Kranjska klobasa’ is produced from good-quality cuts of pork of category I or II (leg, shoulder, neck) and back fat. The meat is fresh and chilled (0 °C to 7 °C) or frozen (T < – 18 °C) and properly defrosted. The back fat is skinless, chilled (0 °C to 7 °C) or frozen.

Mincing of the meat and fat

The meat is broken up by a 12 mm mincer.

The fat is cut up into pieces of a size of 8-10 mm.

Preparing the filling

The broken-up meat and fat is mixed in proportions of 75-80 % minced meat and up to 20-25 % of hard fat.

Up to 5 % of water is added to the overall filling weight (in the form of crushed ice).

The filling is seasoned with up to 0,3 % milled black pepper and up to 0,3 % dried garlic or a proportional amount depending on the type of garlic used, and 1,8 % to 2,2 % of nitrite salt is added.

Mixing the filling

The filling containing all these ingredients is mixed manually or mechanically until it becomes homogeneous and well-bound.

Filling the casings

The filling is stuffed mechanically or manually into a pig’s small intestine with a diameter of 32-34 mm. The filling must be stuffed compactly into the casings.

The ends are formed and closed by skewering the intestine (not the filling) in such a way that the ends of the sausages are joined together and a pair of sausages weighing 200-250 g is formed.

Sausage skewers are made of wood; they are 2,5-3 mm thick and 3-6 cm long and are broken off or cut.

Drying of sausages

Before the sausages undergo heat treatment, their surface must be dried in order to ensure rapid and even penetration of the smoke.

The drying process takes place in a special room or in a smoking chamber at a temperature of 50-55 °C.

The process of salting and stabilising the filling takes place during the drying process.

Heat treatment with hot smoking

The sausages are hung on a rack with the skewer pointing upwards. Heat treatment lasts for at least two hours, during which time the temperature gradually increases until a core temperature of 70 +/– 2 °C is reached. Smoking forms part of the heat treatment and lasts 20-30 minutes. Only beech is used in the smoking process. The sausage must have a moderately intense reddish-brown colour; a sausage whose colour is excessively dark, tending towards blackish-brown, or excessively light (‘anaemic’) or greyish is not acceptable.

Once the heat treatment, including smoking, has been completed, the sausages are cooled with cold air or by spraying them with cold water.

Process monitoring and labelling

After cooling (before storage) the sausages are examined and their external appearance is assessed (colour, relief, skewer).

Conservation — storage of sausages

The sausages are kept at a temperature of no more than 8 °C.

They may be marketed packed or unpacked.

If unpacked (individual) sausages are marketed, each pair must be labelled.

3.6. Specific rules concerning slicing, grating, packaging, etc.:

—

3.7. Specific rules concerning labelling:

Each ‘Kranjska klobasa’ must be labelled in the same way:

— each product (pair) must bear a uniform self-adhesive band,

— each packaged product must bear a label.

The uniform labelling of ‘Kranjska klobasa’ includes:

— the ‘Kranjska klobasa’ logo,

— the producer’s logo,

— the corresponding EU and national quality symbol.

All producers that have obtained a certificate for the production of ‘Kranjska klobasa’ must label products with the ‘Kranjska klobasa’ logo, irrespective of whether they are members of GIZ ‘Kranjska klobasa’ (the Kranjska klobasa Commercial Interest Association).

4. Concise definition of the geographical area:

The geographical area for the production of ‘Kranjska klobasa’ comprises the area within Slovenia which lies between the Alps and the Adriatic Sea, which is delimited in the west by the border with Italy, to the north by the border with Austria and to the south by the border with Croatia, and which opens up to the east towards the Pannonian Basin, stretching as far as the border with Hungary.

Under the German Empire, and subsequently the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the region of Kranjska was the only completely Slovenian region, which is why the term ‘Kranjec’ (Carniolian) used to be used as another name for ‘Slovenian’ and is still used today in everyday language to designate part of the population of Slovenia. Numerous other word combinations and designations containing the adjective ‘kranjski, kranjska’ are also still used today in Slovenia.

The name ‘Kranjska’ comes from the Slovenian word ‘krajina’, which meant ‘country’ (first recorded in 973 as the popular name ‘Creina’ for ‘Carniola’). The Slovenian form ‘Kranjska’ (‘Krain’ and ‘Krainburg’ in German) predominated after the 13th century. From 1002, Kranjska was an autonomous margravate (border province) with its own margraves. Administratively, Kranjska was part of the Holy Roman Empire. In the 14th century, most of present-day Slovenia belonged to the Habsburgs. Slovenian territory was divided amongst the following lands: Kranjska (Carniola), Trst (Trieste), Istra (Istria), Goriška (Gorizia), Koroška (Carinthia) and Štajerska (Styria). Following the break-up of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, Kranjska ceased to exist as a separate entity. Slovenia is a relatively new state, having become independent only in 1991 when it broke away from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The present-day Republic of Slovenia is therefore the geographical successor of the former land of Kranjska, as it includes the whole of what used to be Kranjska.

5. Link with the geographical area:

5.1. Specificity of the geographical area:

The definition of the geographical area is directly linked to the history of ‘Kranjska klobasa’.

The natural conditions for food production, as well as the climate, have been a key factor in the development of the characteristic culinary culture, with agriculture being geared mainly towards subsistence farming. On very rugged terrain comprising mountains, valleys, basins and plains, the inhabitants have managed to preserve arable areas which have been set aside for growing feed for pigs. Pig-farming has gone hand in hand with the production of pork and pork products. Accounts of the production of pork and pork products, including sausages, date back a very long time, as shown by the excellent portrayals on medieval frescos and in certain written documents in the archives (for example the 17th-century note written in the Slovenian language by the guardian of Vrbovec castle to the lord of the land). However, all these accounts talk of pork, pork products and sausages. One of the typical products was a semi-durable sausage which, owing to the skill and know-how of the people of its region of origin and because of its specific identifying features (taste), came to be known as ‘Kranjska klobasa’ in the early 19th century, during the Austro-Hungarian period.

5.2. Specificity of the product:

A key factor distinguishing ‘Kranjska klobasa’, as it is found in Slovenia, from other similar sausages is that the traditional recipe of the Slovenian author Felicita Kalinšek (Slovenska kuharica, 1912) has been adhered to and used, adjusted only to accommodate modern technological food safety requirements (use of nitrite salt and pasteurisation). Another distinguishing characteristic of ‘Kranjska klobasa’ is the filling made from top-quality cuts of salted, coarsely minced pork meat and fat, seasoned with pepper and garlic and mildly hot-smoked. Only sea salt is used. The filling is stuffed into a pig's small intestine, which is shaped to form ends; the intestine is then skewered with a wooden dowel so that the ends are joined together and a pair of sausages is formed. A further characteristic of ‘Kranjska klobasa’ is the wooden skewers that are 2,5-3 mm thick, 3-6 cm long and are broken off or cut.

‘Kranjska klobasa’ does not contain any technical auxiliaries, e.g. meat paste, or other additives, e.g. polyphosphates, that are present in other varieties of sausage. The filling is stuffed only into casings made from pigs’ small intestines, and the sausages are skewered in pairs with a wooden dowel. Steaming and hot-smoking (the sausage is a pasteurised product) give the surface its characteristic moderately intense reddish-brown colour. Lastly, ‘Kranjska klobasa’ also differs from other sausages in the ways in which it is consumed, or is recommended to be consumed, so as to achieve the best combination of flavours. Before serving, ‘Kranjska klobasa’ is simply warmed up in hot water rather than boiled, thus acquiring a very specific, somewhat coarse though succulent and crisp texture, with a pale pinkish-red colour when cut and a specific aroma of salted pork accompanied by an aroma of garlic, pepper and smoke.

Only beech is used in the smoking process.

5.3. Causal link between the geographical area and a specific quality, the reputation or other characteristic of the product:

The reputation of ‘Kranjska klobasa’ dates back to the multinational Austro-Hungarian Empire. ‘Kranjska klobasa’ is definitely one of the most original and internationally renowned Slovenian meat products, as shown by the number of ‘hits’ on the Internet, where ‘Kranjska klobasa’ is mentioned as an original Slovenian product in the majority of cases. Recent specialised literature (‘Meat products handbook’, Gerhard Feiner, CRC Press, 2006; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kransky) also mentions ‘Kranjska klobasa’ as being a typical unfermented sausage from Slovenia.

The properties of ‘Kranjska klobasa’ are the result of the skills and know-how of the people who lived in what is now Slovenia when it was the Austro-Hungarian crown land of Kranjska (Carniola). Its quality was also determined by the use of top-quality cuts of meat and the consistent use of sea salt, which in the former Kranjska was a permanent, even strategic, competitor for rock salt (J. Bogataj, ‘The Food and Cooking of Slovenia’, Annes Publishing, London, 2008).

The oldest instructions for the production of ‘Kranjska klobasa’ (also under that name) can be found in two cookery books, namely ‘Süddeutsche Küche’ by Katharina Prato (1896) and the sixth edition of ‘Slovenska kuharica’ by Felicita Kalinšek (1912). While Katharina Prato cannot really be said to provide instructions for the production of ‘Kranjska klobasa’, her reference is probably one of the oldest written references to this type of sausage (1896). Felicita Kalinšek, in her book ‘Slovenska kuharica’ (1912), provided instructions on how to produce ‘Kranjska klobasa’.

There is a series of accounts in Slovenia, especially oral accounts, which talk of ‘Kranjska klobasa’, its areas of production and its reputation among the other regional types of sausage. There are numerous folk accounts claiming to state the real place of origin of ‘Kranjska klobasa’ or the place where it was supposedly first produced. Mention is frequently made of the village of Trzin, which is located between Ljubljana and Kamnik, where numerous butchers are said to have been plying their trade since the 19th century, supplying the market with ‘Kranjska klobasa’, which could be found as far away as Vienna. According to certain oral sources, this sausage took its name from the town of Kranj, while other oral sources state that it was produced in all major towns and market towns in the territory of the former land of Kranjska. There is also the picturesque tale of Emperor Franz Joseph who, while travelling by carriage from Vienna to Trieste, stopped in the famous Marinšek coaching inn on the main road in the village of Naklo pri Kranju. He wished to have something to eat and asked the inn-keeper what was available. ‘We only have ordinary house sausages, nothing else’, he replied to the Emperor. The Emperor ordered a sausage and, when he tried it, exclaimed enthusiastically: ‘But this is no ordinary sausage, it is Carniolan sausage!’

A culinary feature of Slovenian regions is that ‘Kranjska klobasa’ is produced and sold in all regions, which shows that it is part of the heritage of the whole of Slovenian territory. The reputation of ‘Kranjska klobasa’ can also be seen in the typical Slovenian speciality of ‘Kranjska klobasa with sauerkraut’.

The reputation of ‘Kranjska klobasa’ has also spread across frontiers, as shown by the translations of the name into the various languages of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire (J. de Moor and N. de Rooj/ed., ‘European Cookery, Tradition & Innovation’, Utrecht 2004).

A Kranjska Klobasa Festival has been held in Slovenia since 2003, with a national competition to find the best ‘Kranjska klobasa’.

Reference to publication of the specification:

http://www.mkgp.gov.si/fileadmin/mkgp.gov.si/pageuploads/Varna_hrana/zascita/KranjskaKlobasa_spec.pdf

(1) OJ L 93, 31.3.2006, p. 12.