Fatty.

Dry-cured salumi, like soppressata, typically contain a ratio of roughly three parts lean muscle to one part fat. 'Nduja inverts that ratio: Its composition is three parts fat for every one part lean muscle.

“We're using jowl. We're using the belly, the top of the shoulder. And then sometimes there's going to be leg in there,” Reilly told me. “Calabrians actually do grind the leg more often than other areas of Italy because they don't generally make prosciutto,” he adds. Prosciutto-curing requires cool temperatures and a humid environment, making its production better suited to more northern regions of Italy, like Reggio Emilia. Calabria's hot and arid environment requires a different approach to cured pork.

To make 'nduja, fatty ground pork is mixed with varying amounts of ground Calabrian chilies (roughly 30% of the total weight of the sausage) along with salt. In the most traditional Italian preparations, the mixture is stuffed into a hog middle cap—a durable portion of a pig’s large intestine, known as an orba. 'Nduja cased in orba can weigh upwards of seven pounds ..

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