In this week’s Field Report: A push to improve federal food purchasing heats up, the first food-focused COP kicks off, dust storms accelerate, and new evidence suggests that fair-trade certifications are failing to protect farmworkers.
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August 5, 2008
There is a new meat culture sweeping the country – a culture that delights in an “All American” bologna sandwich, as long as the bologna is made from pastured animals raised with care. In this new tradition, Old World craftsmanship is respected but also used as a springboard for modern meat interpretations. And the mantra shared by all in this society is the desire to eat the whole animal, nose to tail.
The general name for a range of cured and prepared meats is Charcuterie. Charcuterie techniques like dry-aging and curing were originally used for meat preservation, but since the advent of refrigeration remain popular for the unique and varied flavors that these methods produce.
Charcuterie Taste Pavilion curator Marissa Guggiana’s voice lights up when she starts talking about the producers she’s working with. President of Sonoma Direct Meats, Marissa has strong relationships with many Charcuterie producers. “I tried to pick people who were creating a new American tradition, as well as people who are sustainably minded,” she says. But then adds: “It’s coming from a different place – there’s sort of a rebellious spirit about it.”
Part of this rebelliousness comes from creating unexpected synergies of method or taste. An excellent example is Caw Caw Creek‘s Country Prosciutto. Seasoned with classic Southern country ham flavors, then dry-cured like an Italian prosciutto. Producer Emile DeFelice uses heirloom pigs he grows himself, and calls his hams “just ridiculous,” claiming that they last for years and get better with age. This truly is slow food.
Berkeley Salumi producer Paul Bertolli of Fra’ Mani also likes to take things slow. “A lot of stuff happens seemingly by magic,” he says, referring to the curing and aging process that meat undergoes. Like all modern producers, he has the latest in temperature and humidity controls, but adds, “These are stupid tools compared with the stone cellars in Italy that I initially worked with.” It is the intuition and knowledge of the curemaster that really matters.
Charcuterie producers from throughout the United States will be bringing their best to sample at Taste. Producers include:
Marche Provisions (Eugene OR)
eccolo (Berkeley CA)
Bovolo (Healdsburg CA)
Cafe Rouge (Berkeley CA)
Fra’ Mani (Berkeley CA)
La Quercia (Norwalk IA)
Fatted Calf (Napa CA)
Sensuous Farms (Sebastopol CA)
Salumi (Seattle WA)
Black Forest Bison Co. (Colorado Springs CO)
Zuke’s Charcuterie (DurhamNC)
Edwards Virgina Ham (Surry VA)
Caw Caw Creek (Columbia SC)
Col. Bill Newsom’s Country Aged Hams (Princeton KY)
Photos by Aya Brackett and Elizabeth Tichenor
November 29, 2023
In this week’s Field Report: A push to improve federal food purchasing heats up, the first food-focused COP kicks off, dust storms accelerate, and new evidence suggests that fair-trade certifications are failing to protect farmworkers.
November 28, 2023
November 28, 2023
November 21, 2023
thanks for the great questions. the producers are a mixture of chefs and wholesale or retail charcuterie makers. while a third listed above are not strictly cure-masters, i wanted to show that a lot of the great cured meats are being made on a very small scale in restaurant walk-ins. many people may not know that the charcuterie plate they have at dinner was made in-house four months before.
part of the reason for focusing on charcuterie was the logistics of storing fresh meat are much more difficult. more importantly, there is a huge renaissance in cured meats and salumi and it is a form of expression for many people that i feel complements sustainability with its glorification of typically under-utilized cuts.
you can find more meat dishes at 'slow on the go' where there will be 'fast' food with slow principles.
The people who eat highly processed products generally don't care about animal welfare, hormone-free, antibiotic-free, etc. There's no economic incentive for the meat processors to do the sorts of things that you apparently want them to do.
slow food is about sustainability and good, clean and fair practices. but it isnt a certification or auditing body. its a conversation about how to make things better. every single person/company in this event is committed to improvement.
we have done the work of vetting our producers but it is about more than checking off a list of values.
charcuterie improves sustainability by using off cuts or by-products. it also preserves food traditions that are falling by the wayside.
Slow Food doesn't have to be an auditing body, but it can surely present food that reassures its members (of which I am no longer one, being heavily offended by Carlo Petrini's remarks about the "surfing farmer," who is my hard-working friend, Joe Schirmer) are aware of the cleanliness and wholesomeness of their meat. I personally can taste the difference between CAFO pork and pastured pork—because I am fortunate enough to live in Santa Cruz, and have access to Rebecca and Jim's TLC Ranch pork.
This conversation isn't about "checking off a list of values": it's simply to address the issue: are you offering CLEAN meat, or meat from animals who stand in their own urine and feces all day and night? That truly informs the flavor of the meat, and it's grossly unhealthy.
I really encourage you to be more transparent in revealing your producers. Come to think of it, I encourage you to ACKNOWLEDGE the producers—they are working grueling hours doing back-breaking work, while the celebrity chef phenomenon is ballooning to ridiculous levels. (I love chefs: don't get me wrong, but I don't revere them as I do my farmers and ranchers.
But as I understand it, at Terra Madre, at least, the chefs were wined and dined, and the producers (the hard-working ranchers and farmers, etc.) were fed substandard cafeteria slop. I learned that from Rebecca herself. She and her husband had to find restaurants to eat in, so dreadful was the food they were offered by Slow Food.
Well, I guess I know what I'll be blogging about.
It would have been great to have more informational signage about the producers--but let's keep all of this in perspective. The assumption above that the meat was from disreputable sources isn't fair.
im not trying to evade, i just sincerely dont think its my role as a slow food volunteer to be the spokesperson for the producers. it is my role to enjoy them, to open conversations, to create an umbrella under which we can all have these important conversations. and yes, to honor their work.
and clearly we have done that, which is very rewarding.