I recognise our speck instantly because of its distinctive taste,” says Inge Rauch.
Inge Rauch has no intention of retiring. She has always worked in “Merano Speck” the family company which her husband founded 26 years ago, and her favourite food of all is - and how could it be otherwise - their own speck.
Every occasion is a good one to serve speck at the Rauch family’s table. “We eat it from morning to night,” laughs Inge Rauch. “And if we feel peckish through the night, we get up and cut ourselves a few slices of speck.”
Inge Rauch is the owner of Merano Speck, a family-run company who set great store by tradition. Born in Germany, Inge is still fully involved in the company: She has always managed the German export side of the business, and regularly travels between the Ruhr region of Essen and Naturns/Naturno.
Inge’s husband Albert Rauch founded the company in 1989. “He always said that with a surname like Rauch, he had to produce a product which was smoked, and cured over a long period,” says his smiling wife - by happy coincidence, the German ‘Rauch’ means ‘smoke’. In 1964, the qualified master butcher founded the company Albert Rauch GmbH, laying the foundations for the sales group R&S. which Merano Speck belongs to today. Albert Rauch was a great lover of the local countryside, the traditions and the people of South Tyrol. When he discovered that there weren’t many suppliers of rindless speck in Germany, he put his plans into practice and went on to become one of the pioneers in the field: The production of retail-ready, rindless speck.
In Germany, hams are generally machine-sliced into ultra-thin slices, as Inge Rauch herself once did. “Today, however, I do as the South Tyroleans do and cut thicker slices from smaller cuts of speck, preferably from a speck with a hearty portion of ‘white meat’ or lard,” she says.