By Ines Keane
Open a box of panettone in December and you will find a tall, domed loaf, usually wrapped in paper, smelling of butter and citrus. Most people never ask what the word is allowed to mean. In Italy, it turns out, the word is defined.
Where it comes from
Wikipedia’s article describes panettone as an Italian sweet bread and fruitcake associated with Milan. It says the name probably comes from the Milanese dialect word panattón, meaning large bread. The oldest attestation it cites is a 1599 expense register from the Borromeo college in Pavia, listing 13 loaves for Christmas Day. The first recorded link to Christmas in the writings it cites is from the eighteenth century, by Pietro Verri, and the first printed recipe, it says, appeared in 1853.
Two legends
The same article gives two tales about a baker called Tony. In one, a wealthy noble helps a poor baker and the result is called “pan di Tonio”. In the other, Tony impresses a rich noble with panettone and wins both his approval and a bakery. The article does not mention the other stories you may have read online, so we do not either. Our reading: “pan di Tonio” is a neat way to explain a name, and the sources we read give no document behind it.
The decree
In 2005 Italy wrote a legal definition of panettone. The news agency 9colonne, reporting on it, says the panettone rules come from a decree issued in 2005 and the pandoro rules from an interministerial order of the same year. The text we read is filed under the label DM 22072005, which suggests 22 July 2005. That date is our reading of the file name, not a date the pages state.
According to that decree text, “panettone” is reserved for a soft dough product, leavened by natural sourdough, round in shape, with a cracked top crust, a characteristic cut, a soft structure with elongated holes and a typical sourdough aroma. The base dough has to contain flour, sugar, eggs, butter fat, sultanas and candied citrus peel, sourdough starter and salt. It sets minimums:
- egg yolk of at least 4 per cent;
- butter fat of at least 16 per cent;
- sultanas and candied citrus peel together at least 20 per cent;
- natural leavening made from sourdough.
Percentages are calculated on the dough ready to be divided, on a dry-matter basis. Any added yeast may be at most 1 per cent of the dough. The decree lists optional ingredients, among them milk and dairy, honey, malt, cocoa butter, sugars and flavourings. For additions to the loaf, fats other than butter are excluded.
9colonne puts the same points more briefly: butter, not other fats; a set amount of egg yolk; raisins and candied citrus peel making up at least 20 per cent; wild yeast carried over from the previous batch. It says a panettone that does not follow the rules cannot use the name.
What the name does not cover
The decree text allows variants without sultanas or candied peel, or in fantasy shapes, as long as the label states the missing ingredients or shows the shape. Small loaves can use diminutives such as “panettoncino”. Our reading: a loaf with chocolate chips and no candied peel can still be sold as a panettone-style product, but only if the label says what is missing. We have not read the full label rules, and we do not claim to give legal advice.
How it is made
Here Wikipedia and the decree sit close together. Wikipedia says the dough is cured and acidic, like sourdough, very rich in fat, and needs intensive mixing. It says Angelo Motta’s method let the dough rise three times over almost 20 hours before baking, and that the proofing alone “takes several days” in the overall process. The loaf is baked in a tall cylindrical mould and, it says, is not steamed. After baking it is hung upside down to cool so the bubbles do not collapse. It gives the shape as a cupola on a cylindrical base, about 12 to 15 centimetres high for a 1 kilogram loaf.
The article says yeast may be commercial or wild, and that wild yeast gives a longer shelf life. The decree text, by contrast, requires natural sourdough. The two are not quite in contradiction, since one describes what is made around the world and the other what may carry the Italian name, but we show them together.
Dates in order
- 1599: Pavia expense register lists 13 loaves for Christmas Day, per Wikipedia.
- 18th century: Pietro Verri writes of it at Christmas, per Wikipedia.
- 1853: first printed recipe, per Wikipedia.
- Early 20th century: Angelo Motta and Gioacchino Alemagna begin mass production, per Wikipedia.
- 2005: decree defining panettone, per 9colonne.
Side by side
| Point | Wikipedia | Decree text / 9colonne |
|---|---|---|
| Leavening | commercial or wild yeast | natural sourdough |
| Fruit | raisins, candied orange and citron | sultanas and candied citrus peel, at least 20 per cent |
| Fat | very rich in fat | butter fat at least 16 per cent; butter only |
Cousins
Wikipedia lists related breads: stollen, tsoureki, christopsomo, colomba pasquale and pandoro. It says Venice, Turin and Genoa (with pandolce) have claimed versions, and that Campania has a limoncello-flavoured one. It notes Peru calls its version panetón and Argentina calls it pan dulce. It adds that panettone is usually prepared for Christmas and New Year, though by the late twentieth century it was eaten all year in Italy.
What kind of sources these are
Wikipedia (an open encyclopaedia); a news agency (9colonne); and the text of the decree itself, which we read as hosted by a third-party site. We did not read the Ministry’s own page.
Questions a buyer would ask
Does “artisan” mean anything? The sources we read do not define it, so we leave it alone. Can one loaf be Italian-made but not called panettone? Per the decree text, yes, if it does not meet the requirements, though we have not checked how that is enforced.
What we left out
Prices, production totals, brand names, alcohol pairings, and the decree’s technical annexes on process, which we did not read in full.
Roam first. Shop later.