Pick salami
(Szeged wintersalami): made of pork meat and pork lard on the basis of a century old producing tradition, it is made with secret spices, cold smoking, dry ripening process, in casing filled, it is a product with a special noble-mould on the surface.

The city of Szeged is situated on the bank of river Tisza. The natural bases of the counties on the Great Plain, in South Hungary, surrounding Szeged
(Baranya, Bács-Kiskun, Csongrád, Békés, Hajdú-Bihar) are very favourable for cultivation of plants and animal husbandry. This good geographic situation and knowledge related to this makes it able to improve the husbandry of typical salami pork. From this area comes ripe pork, which has great weight, and which could be used for salami production. The main phases of salami making process are: preparation of living animal, slaughtering, selection of halfpork by quality, cooling, boning, cutting of pork meat and pork lard, seasoning, filling in casings, smoking, drying, maturing, building of mould, packaging. The local conditions give the Szeged wintersalami the very special features, the harmonious smell, typical aroma and unique flavour.
The special base material, the traditional technology of salami production, the climatic conditions along river Tisza, the local existence of the mouldflora, the saved professional knowledge—given from salami master to salami master—contributed to the conquest of the world by Pick salami.

Mark Pick founded his factory in 1869 in Szeged, which he developed and enlarged. He produced salami in a larger amount with workers coming from Italy from 1883. He began salami making in large-scale in 1885. After the death of the founder (1892) his widow and her brother led the factory. They transferred the salami factory to Felső Tisza-part. The always-cool Tisza-air assured favourable climatic circumstances for the maturing process. The eldest son, Jenő Pick—who took part in the leading since 1898—joined the firm in 1906. It was the beginning of a new age in the history of the factory. He bought the bankrupt ‘Tiani’ salami factory in the neighbourhood, so the whole real estate at the Tisza-part belonged to the Pick’s family. Jenő Pick was aspired to get great changes with modern instruments. He had a good sense for the market, he saw the importance of the promotion.
Salami became leader product in the first decade of the 20th century. The Pick factory has become the largest food processing company in Hungary in the interwar period, the Pick salami became a world famous brand. Jenő Pick led the salami factory alone from 1934 under the name of ‘Mark Pick’ until the nationalisation.

Under the leading of the Pick family and later as well famous salamimasters worked at the factory, who loved their job respectfully.
The technology of salami making really demanded that the salamimaster was possessed with his job. The science of the salamimaster needed several knowledge, as the control of composition of salami paste, secret seasoning for example, the most important sciences were smoking and maturing processes.
Quality work is indispensable without technical and technological modernisation.
This effort and ambition are always present at the salami factory of Szeged. As a result of this, cooling technology became able to allow ongoing production throughout the year by the end of the 1950s, whereby the seasonal nature of production was kept only in the name of the wintersalami.
The love of the job, the keeping up of traditions, professional knowledge, the essential suitability, the climatic circumstances, the favourable raw material supply, the technical state of development, the high level production technology together assure the traditionally excellent quality of the Pick salami.