Marble Cask for Lardo

polkachef74

So as I'm reading a story/recipe by Michael Ruhlman for making lardo in Colonnata Italy (which supposedly has the finest marble quarried in the world), it said that the lardo was cured in huge marble casks.  The story doesn't say why they use a marble container but only that the finally product was the best he's had.  My thought was that the marble enclosure is quite frankly the perfect "cool dark place".  Is there a reason you couldn't build a small marble box from marble tile to achieve this environment?  Am I over-simplifying this?

Chris_Young_80640

@Keith Pietranczyk I have always been skeptical of the importance of the marble, and believe that the value is mostly due to the enormous mass that will tend to dampen daily fluctuations in temperature. This is the same reason that wine cellars benefit from being buried into the ground. 

Some have argued that the marble and salt react and that this is critical to the creation of lardo. While I agree reactions do indeed occur, the chemical rate of these reactions and the physics of diffusion work out such that this cannot possibly matter. But I'm considered a heretic for even suggesting such a thing.

So I wouldn't worry about the marble, instead I would focus on creating a very stable, cool environment.