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GOURMET NEWS www.gourmetnews.com n JANUARY 2019 n GOURMET NEWS 9 8 New Wing Sauces from Bone Suckin' An interview with Patrick Ford, Vice Presi- dent, Ford's Gourmet Foods. GN: Do you have any new products? PF: Bone Suckin' ® Wing Sauces: Honey & Habanero and Garlic & Honey. Honey & Ha- banero has hit the shelves with the perfect combination of sweet and heat, just waiting to smother your game day goods. Mother Nature's most flavorful hot pepper, the ha- banero, adds great flavor to the very first Bone Suckin' Wing Sauce. Not far behind in rivaling debut is the Bone Suckin' Garlic & Honey Wing Sauce. GN: Tell our readers about your com- pany. PF: Ford's Gourmet Foods is a fourth gen- eration, Raleigh, North Carolina-based fam- ily business that creates and distributes some of the world's greatest tasting non-GMO, gluten-free foods, including the internation- ally acclaimed Bone Suckin' Sauces and Fire Dancer ® . GN: How can readers find out more about Bone Suckin' sauces and the new Wing Sauces? PF: Visit www.bonesuckin.com or contact the Ford's team at 800.446.0947 or email sales@bonesuckin.com. Also make sure you are signed up for the wholesale email newsletters. GN: How do retailers make sure they are listed on the Store Loca- tor? PF: Visit www.bone suckin.com and click on Store Locator. Check your items carried, store hours and address to make sure it is current so you are get- ting all the customers coming to your store. GN: What separates you from the competi- tion? PF: Bone Suckin' Sauce is the only barbe- cue sauce rated No. 1 by Newsweek, A+ by Health Magazine, Food & Wine and many others. All of our branded lines are non-GMO, gluten free, no HFCS and no canola oil. GN: Tell our readers about your customers. PF: We have many loyal cus- tomers, young and old. Once they try our sauce they are customers for life. In recent celebration of 25-plus years in the business, we found that some of our customers really have grown up on our products. They love to cook or grill and appreciate great qual- ity. They pay attention to what's on our label. We sell healthy, premium products that live up to their names and prove their money's worth. Many first time buyers have a sense of humor and are lured in by our aisle stopping names. And of course, they all have great taste. For more information, go to www.bone suckin.com, call 919.833.7647 or email sales@bonesuckin.com. This Little Piggy Went to Il Porcellino Salumi By Lorrie Baumann Denver's Il Porcellino Salumi, already start- ing to make a name for itself among the cognoscenti, is ramping up its production fa- cilities. The company has just opened a new U.S. Department of Agriculture-certified processing facility in Basalt, Colorado, about 180 miles west of Denver, where it's begun processing dry-cured and fermented salumi for the wholesale market. Il Porcellino is already known in Denver for its retail store, located in the city's Berke- ley neighborhood, which is anchored by the Tennyson Street shopping district, fairly well known across the city for the artisan shops that make it a destination. The shop com- bines a deli and butcher shop that earns five- star reviews for Charcutier and Owner Bill Miner's Head Cheese and for sandwiches like the Hoggie, which offers Genoa salami Pepperoni and Berkeley Ham and garnishes on a hoagie roll. The real aficionados recom- mend adding an optional portion of Crispy Pork Belly to the Hoggie for the full porky experience. Il Porcellino makes dozens of different dry-cured products, including hams and many flavors of salami. "We make our own bologna. We make our own mortadella," Miner said. "We do a wagyu beef pastrami that's amazing. You name it – we've probably tried it." "We do our own pickled vegetables," he added. "Everything except the bread is made in-house. We make our own mustard." The Berkeley store is only the first of the retail locations that Miner is planning. "Nothing's set in stone yet, but there's defi- nitely going to be something in place next year," he said of his search for another loca- tion in a similar Denver neighborhood. Miner's career as a charcutier is an evolu- tion from his 20-year career as a chef. He learned how to cure meats in the months when business at the catering company he was running was a little slow. "It really stems from a passion for cured meats that I've had ever since being a young chef," he said. "I definitely shared recipes with family and a number of friends who encouraged me to start the business." He continued working on his recipes for another two or three years be- fore opening the doors to Il Porcellino, and he's now putting those recipes to use making products for the wholesale market. "There are two different aspects to the business," Miner said. "We wanted to develop a brand name at the retail store before we developed our wholesale business.... We worked hard on making sure that we had a number of good base recipes before we opened the door, but we're still trying to push the limits, make new things, develop new recipes and not rest on our laurels. We want to be a leader in the industry." As part of the brand development, Miner competed in the 2018 Charcuterie Masters competition in New York City, winning the grand champion's crown among charcutiers from across the U.S. and Canada with his Spiced Juniper Salami, Speck and a new Hot Link recipe. The Spiced Juniper Salami won the Dry Cured Salami category, chosen from more than 100 entries from across the country. Between the two businesses, Miner em- ploys about 15 people who work as a close- knit family along with Miner's wife Elizabeth and their two sons, Alexander and Preston, who are 7 and 4 years old. "They're just as important as everybody else," he said. "They love coming to the shop and seeing the piggies and eating salami. Sometimes they'll help grind meat or wash dishes – not for 10 hours at a time – they come in for a little bit." With the opening of the Basalt facility in June of this year, Miner started making fer- mented and dried salumi for the wholesale market, selling to wineries and cheese shops – any specialty retailer offering a charcuterie platter or selling charcuterie at retail – as well as high-end restaurants. "We're already having a hard time keeping up with the de- mand, because we did develop that brand name before we opened our doors," he said. "We want to be a small, artisanal salumi maker. We don't want to be a big company. We make everything by hand." His current flavors of salami available at wholesale include Black Truffle, a Genoa- style salami seasoned with Malbec wine and fresh Burgundy black truffles; Caccia- tore, a hunter-style salami that includes car- away seed, coriander, garlic and red chile flakes and Diablo, which is a spicy Italian salami seasoned with toasted fennel seeds and both whole and ground Calabrian chiles. The current salami includes a Finnocchiona, the traditional Italian salami that's redolent with toasted fennel seeds and fennel pollen as well as garlic and black pepper. Orange Pistachio is a salami sea- soned with garlic and fresh orange zest and garnished with Sicilian pistachios. Saucis- son Sec is the traditional French-style salami with garlic, black pepper and wine. Miner also jazzes up with Saucisson Sec further in a recipe he calls Queso, which in- cludes Haystack Mountain Queso de Mano, a handmade Manchego-style cheese made from raw goat milk by Cheesemaker Jackie Chang. Miner's Spanish Chorizo is sea- soned with Pimenton smoked paprika, gar- lic and oregano, and his Spiced Juniper, a 2018 Charcuterie Masters Grand Cham- pion, innovates on tradition with juniper berries, coriander and fennel seed with Cal- abrian chiles for heat. The Cacciatore, Diablo, Finnochiona and Spiced Juniper salamis will also be offered for wholesale in large-format sliceable ver- sions. In addition, Miner will be offering Guanciale, which is dry-cured pork jowl sea- soned with garlic, bay leaf and thyme, Pep- peroni and Soppressetta, the classic spicy Italian salami with unctuous amounts of fat for a luxurious mouthfeel and garlic, black pepper, red pepper flakes and Malbec to give it depth of flavor. Once the new facility is approved for the production of whole muscle cuts, expected in early 2019, he'll add his Lonza, Wagyu Beef Bresaola and his Good Food Award- winning Coppa as well as Culatello and Pro- sciutto to his wholesale menu. Like the retail shop, all of the meat used in the facility is sourced from Colorado and neighboring Ne- braska. Miner also has plans to expand the busi- ness further in late 2019 to include cooked products such as Mortadella, Summer Sausage, Artisanal Hot Dogs and Wagyu Beef Pastrami. "We're working directly with farmers and ranchers that are raising the an- imals properly," Miner said. "Working with the best-quality animals helps us to create an awesome finished product." and responsibly sourced pork. The spreadable Pancetta features Pancetta Americana, La Quercia's antibi- otic-free, pork belly, dry-cured with sea salt and spices. The company's pancetta is beloved by chefs around the country for its flavor and versatility. The finely ground pancetta kicks any dish up a notch or three – cooks and novices alike can use it in place of butter on the stovetop or in place of bacon in a sandwich; in grilled cheese, crostino and pizza; and in ragu, meatballs and meatloaf. La Quercia's pancetta can be used with or without cooking. Pesto Bianco is a savory Lardo spread that begins with delicious cured fat from La Quercia's prosciutto – a rich and creamy fat from vegetarian fed, antibiotic-free and family-farm raised hogs. The 9-12 month aged Lardo is blended with sea salt, black pepper, rosemary and red chili flake. It can be used in place of shortening in biscuits or tart crust; melted over a juicy steak or rubbed on chicken before roasting; stirred into warm pasta; or simply spread over warm bread. Both new products offer the same ver- satility as La Quercia's popular Nduja Americana, the spicy prosciutto spread that's gained popularity since launching in 2015. Nduja is a blend of cured pork, three types of dried New Mexico red chiles and sea salt – it packs an umami punch and has developed a cult following from chefs and home cooks around the country. The spreads have no artificial additives, just organic spices, and present an innovative addition for any dietary lifestyle or flavor desire. "Cooking should be fun and food should be delicious – these spreads deliver on both counts," says La Quercia co-Founder Kathy Eckhouse. "Add a dollop to sauteed vegeta- bles or soup, use any one of them instead of mayonnaise or mustard on a meat or cheese sandwich. Try a crusty baguette, split and 'buttered' with any of the spreads, to fuel your next hike!" This trio of spreadable cured meats can be found online at www.mondofood.com and at supermarkets and specialty retailers around the country including Eataly and Hy-Vee. La Quercia (Cont'd. from p. 1)

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