FermenteaWhere food goes to change
Equipment · Barrels and casks
terzigno · terzigni
A terzigno is a small wooden cask used in Cetara’s anchovy colatura tradition. A wooden follower and weights press its contents; the 2024 specification describes withdrawal through a hole in the cask’s bottom.
Terzigno names the small wooden cask used in the Colatura di Alici di Cetara DOP process. The 2024 production specification glosses the word as one-third of a barrel and distinguishes the vessel from its cover. A circular wooden disc called the tompagno sits over the alternating anchovy and salt layers; weights rest on that disc. The tompagno is therefore a separate follower, not another name for the cask.
The specification lists 20 kilograms as the fish-and-salt load for a terzigno. That figure describes contents, not volume: it cannot be converted into a litre capacity without additional evidence. The document does not give a standard height, diameter, stave thickness or universal wood species. The local association describes oak in its account of the example; the official specification itself says wood.
In this protected production context, the cask holds the salted anchovies while the weighted follower presses the contents during maturation. The 2024 specification says maturation lasts nine months in cool, ventilated rooms. It then describes a small opening made in the cask's bottom with a vriale so the liquid can be collected. This is more precise than calling the vessel a barrel with a side tap: the source locates the opening in the bottom and does not describe a fitted tap.
An association photograph shows one upright wooden cask with a visible rim hoop, round follower and stone weight. Those visible details help identify the traditional form, but a single photograph does not establish that every terzigno has identical hoops, dimensions or construction. The generated image on this page is an editorial reconstruction of those documented elements, not a photograph or replica of a named surviving vessel.
Cetara, on the Amalfi Coast in Campania, is the place named by the protected product. The DOP specification defines a wider production area covering municipalities in the Province of Salerno. This records where the food is made, not where all casks are built. The sources establish current use of the terzigno in this regional tradition but do not date its first use, give a general cask-making recipe, or state where a reader could buy one.
The term is useful for this specific small cask, while barrel-and-cask is the broader equipment family. The tompagno, the stones, the fish and salt, and the bottom opening are associated components or contents rather than alternative names for the vessel. Avoid inferring a litre rating from the 20 kg product load or assuming that the photographed hoop and the association's oak example apply to every cask.
The inspected official sources describe current protected production and a continuing local association, but do not date the first use of the terzigno form.
The specification gives 20 kg as the product load in a terzigno; it does not give litre capacity or universal dimensions.
Source →The same specification locates the extraction opening in the bottom and names the vriale as the tool used to make it. It does not describe a side tap.
Source →The protected product specification places production in municipalities of Salerno province; it does not establish where every terzigno is made.
Source →Cetara is named in the protected product and regional overview. The specification allows production across municipalities of Salerno province and does not identify the manufacture place of the cask.
Jars, barrels, skins, leaves, pits and whole rooms decide much of what happens to fermented and cured food. This is how a container works on its contents, and how people in different places chose theirs.
Six ceramic dolia at Pompeii’s Garum Shop held fish-processing remains. They are vessels, distinct from masonry fish-salting vats; the evidence does not establish whether these specimens were portable or fixed in place.
A Roman dolium was a very large ceramic storage and processing jar. In some wineries its heavy body was set partly into the ground; Pompeian evidence also documents dolia used for fish sauce.
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Regione Campania; Gazzetta Ufficiale della Repubblica Italiana, no. 276Construction · Form · Capacity · Geography · Documented use
Disciplinare di produzione della denominazione di origine protetta «Colatura di Alici di Cetara»Article 5 describes alternating anchovies and salt in wooden vessels called terzigni, glossed as one-third of a barrel.
The specification lists 20 kg as the load for terzigni; a wooden disc called tompagno covers the layers and weights are placed on it.
The specification describes maturation and states that a hole is made in the bottom with a vriale to collect liquid.
The protected production area is the municipalities of the Province of Salerno.
Cited in: A small cask with a separate follower; How the documented form works; Geography and limits of the record
Regione CampaniaGeography · Form · Documented use
Colatura di alici di CetaraThe regional product page associates Colatura di Alici with Cetara and describes the wood cask, wooden disc, weights and extraction opening.
Cited in: Geography and limits of the record
Associazione per la Valorizzazione della Colatura di Alici di CetaraForm · Materials · Documented use
La produzione della colatura di aliciThe association describes a terzigno as a wooden cask with a wooden tompagno and stones; it identifies oak in its account of the example shown.
Cited in: A small cask with a separate follower; How the documented form works