Home-made charcuterie… it’s what men do (in Italy).

Posted by Sean on September 13, 2011

Last year we were fortunate enough to spend a few weeks galavanting about Tuscany. Like any foreign land, it’s best to know some locals who can show you around, and we were lucky enough to connect with some great people well before visiting Italy. They shared some incredible meals with us, and clued us into some interesting food culture that seems to be a rarity in the US – home-made charcuterie.

While there are plenty of hardcore foodies who’ll get their DIY panties in a bunch because they’ve been curing their own pancetta since they were in diapers, I think it’s safe to say that while home brewing is rampant in every corner of this country, making salami in your bathrobe is a rarity for American foodies. It’s even become difficult for chefs to operate legitimate charcuterie programs in New York City restaurants!

But in Tuscany, and almost certainly across Italia, making your own salume is what men do. It is the Italian equivalent to the home brew craze. Pretty rad, right?

Not only are they making salume, they are making some GREAT salume. Our new Tuscan friend Andrea and his buddies have access to a tiny farm that raises a handful of pigs each year specifically for artisan salume-making, so their ingredients are some of the best you can dream of. Unlike San Diego, Tuscany of course is stocked with old stone houses complete with cellars that provide an ideal environment for curing. Add some charcuterie-nerdiness and a healthy dose of patience (good pancetta takes at least a year and a half, says Andrea), and you’ve got yourself some world-class salume.

Now maybe I misunderstood the broken English of our new friends, since I’m a wee bit unlearned when it comes to the Italian language. And yes, home-charcuterie is undoubtedly more rare anywhere compared with home brewing in the US. And yeah I know that other Italian home-curers probably don’t have access to meat that good.

But either way, there are some people crafting some incredible cured meat in the traditional Italian style, making good on the promise of Slow Food in the country where that movement was born. And of course we at Mother Sponge can’t help but share tasty stories such as this, for we are unable to share Andrea’s hard-earned salume with you in the literal sliced sense.

I hope to see these kinds of food traditions grow in America, and we’d love to hear about anyone out there making salume at home.

Filed in: Charcuterie, DIY, Food, Homebrew, Italy, NYC, Salume, Tuscany Comment →

The Battle for Charcuterie

Posted by Sean on August 25, 2011

One of our favorite local artisan food producers, Knight Salumi, had to close its doors earlier this year. Was it because their product was lackluster, their competition too difficult to overcome, their market uninterested? Nope, nah, and finally… not a chance. The culprit was a broken drain and a clerical error in paperwork.

As reported by Edible San Diego, Knight found itself haulting all pre-holiday season production at it’s Kearny Mesa facility to fix a broken drain pipe as required by the USDA. Without knowing the details, let’s give the benefit of the doubt to the USDA on that one – facilities should be in tip-top shape to ensure healthy conditions.

Knight was able to utilize a client’s facility in Illinois to help fill in during the drain repair, and production commenced. But just when they thought they’d dodged a bullet, the USDA confiscated a 6,000 pound order, all because of a missing signature. Even after Knight had the product tested for safety, the USDA would not release it. The loss of that order was too much financial burden to bear, causing Knight to close.

Again, the USDA has protocol for a reason, and of course that HACCP form should have been filled out correctly. But the real question here is, can’t there be room for a human to determine when a clerical error can be remedied in order to avoid the potential closing of an otherwise thriving small business?

Knight Salumi is not alone in facing sometimes questionably strict food health regulations. It’s apparently become extremely difficult for restaurants to operate legitimate charcuterie programs – in New York City of all places!

While we’re sad to see Knight Salumi go, we have hope for great things from charcuterie producers across America. Perhaps these challenges will only propel this renaissance into a fervor!

Photo by IndirectHeat

Filed in: Charcuterie, Food, NYC, Salume Comment →

El Take It Easy Accolades

Posted by Sean on July 25, 2011

Here at Mother Sponge we are very happy, but honestly not too surprised that our client El Take It Easy has received some excellent accolades to date. To cap off an exciting year of inception, El Take It Easy was named Best New Restaurant in the San Diego City Beat 2010 Readers Poll.

Immediately following that news, El Take It Easy’s Spanish-style house-cured Country Ham was selected by the Good Food Awards as a top 5 finalist for the West, sitting on a list that included Sonoma’s celebrated The Fig & The Girl as well as the folks over at San Diego’s Tender Greens.

Filed in: Charcuterie, Clients, Food, Salume, San Diego Comment →