Aldi is a German-based company with distinctive European sensibilities. The store’s famous quarter cart system, for instance, reflects a common practice in the grocer’s home country. Likewise, Aldi US is known to bring its share of European fare to American shores, whether it’s part of the grocer’s legendary German Week, or through other, smaller entries. We’ve seen Aldi products that represent (or offer an Americanized imitation of) the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, and, of course, Deutschland.
Most of the country-specific fare Aldi sells arrives to the store as limited-time Aldi Finds, only in stores for a little while. However, Aldi is known to shelve a few European products as everyday buys, too. Over in the refrigerated section, the supermarket sells a trio of Italian meats in a mixed case.
We picked up all three.
Priano Speck Italiano, Priano Salame Italiano, and Priano Prosciutto Italiano are all Aldi Regular Buys. You can find each of them in your local Aldi every day. They all come in a shallow plastic clamshell packaging and cost $2.99. Each package is 3 ounces, which comes out right around a dollar an ounce.
All three come refrigerated and should be kept refrigerated. All of them have best before dates printed on the back. In addition, all of them are products of Italy and are sliced and packaged in the United States.
Priano Speck Italiano:
The Speck Italiano is described in the packaging as dry-cured smoked ham that is “naturally smoked with beechwood.” The package boasts that it is “handcrafted in the Italian Alps.”
Our testers thought it had a mild bacon-like flavor. It’s savory but not too strong, a muted meat that we think serves as a good complement to other meats. The texture is thin and a little stringy.
Nutritionally, each 3-slice serving has 100 calories, 7 grams of fat, 3 grams of saturated fat, 30 milligrams of cholesterol, and 410 milligrams of sodium. All of those are high as far as recommended daily amounts go. The meat also has 10 grams of protein. Ingredients include pork, salt, spices, paprika, dextrose, natural flavors, and sodium nitrite.
Speck Italiano: Nutrition information and Ingredients. (Click to enlarge.)
Priano Salame Italiano:
The Salame Italiano describes itself as “dry-cured salami” that is “handcrafted in the Emilia region” as an “authentic Italian recipe.” While not especially thick, it’s a thicker meat than the others in this mixed case, comparable to some pepperoni cuts we’ve seen.
It’s not as sharp a flavor as some other salami cuts we’ve had in the past — like the Speck Italiano, it’s on the more muted side. It’s also salty and a little tough.
Nutritionally, each 4-slice serving has 92 calories, 6.5 grams of fat, 2.5 grams of saturated fat, 30 milligrams of cholesterol, and 485 milligrams of sodium. As before, this is high as far as recommended daily allowances go. It contains 10 grams of protein. Ingredients include pork, sea salt, dextrose, spices, sodium ascorbate, flavors, sodium nitrite, potassium nitrite, and lactic acid starter culture.
Salame Italiano: Nutrition information and Ingredients. (Click to enlarge.)
Priano Prosciutto Italiano:
The Prosciutto Italiano, like the Speck Italiano, is a dry cured ham that the package says is slow cured for 12 months. Like the Salame Italiano, it claims to be “handcrafted in the Emilia region.” This is the thinnest and stringiest of the meats, and it even is separated by paper for ease of application.
Where the Speck Italiano has bacon notes to it, this meat tasted more ham-like to us. It’s got a good flavor in our view and, as thin as it is, almost a melt-in-your-mouth texture.
Nutritionally, each 2-slice serving has 64 calories, 4 grams of fat, 1.7 grams of saturated fat, 20 milligrams of cholesterol, and 672 milligrams of sodium. Most of the numbers are lower than the other meats with the exception of the much higher sodium content. It has 7 grams of protein. This meat contains just two ingredients: pork ham and salt.
Prosciutto Italiano: Nutrition information and Ingredients. (Click to enlarge.)
The Verdict:
In our view, the three Aldi Italian meats are all solid picks. We think they’re at their best as part of a full Italian sub alongside Aldi Specially Selected Italian Bread and Aldi Friendly Farms Provolone. The meats blend nicely together to create a rich, nuanced flavor. Keep in mind, though, that all three meats have high fat, saturated fat, and sodium content, so they’re not for everyone. We see them as a sometimes food, and a pretty good one at that.
Cart deposits in Europe are a Euro, worth about $1.10, and same size as an American quarter, as I recall. UK Aldis require a pound coin, worth about $1.25, and bigger than the others.