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Savory Scraps Twin Cities chefs embrace the art of charcuterie. |
by Lori Storm
I
“Instead of getting a charcuterie platter that’s just sliced salami and olives, it’s really artisan, handcrafted stuff.” — erick harcey
28 Artful Living
| Winter 2011
Artful-LivingMag.com
f you like leftovers, you’ll love one of the most popular food trends taking over the Twin Cities. Chefs everywhere are trying to one up each other in the art of charcuterie. Of course, many people can’t pronounce it — or even know what it means. Here’s some background: charcuterie is the method of cooking dedicated to preserving meats through salting, smoking and curing. It dates all the way back to the Romans, but the French truly elevated charcuterie to an art form. The chef ’s muse is typically the pig, but duck, chicken and cow have also made their way into the culinary repertoire. It’s not a new concept to the Twin Cities, so what’s behind the recent foodie fascination? “Now you can go out and instead of getting a charcuterie platter that’s just sliced salami and olives, it’s really artisan, handcrafted stuff,” says Erick Harcey, owner and executive chef of Victory 44 in north Minneapolis. “There are a select few guys in town who are doing it extremely well. They are taking the time to buy a good product and really making something superior in quality.” Using traditional methods, it can take hours, days, even months to turn obscure cuts of meat into fantastic sausages, pâtés and terrines. “I think the best thing to do with charcuterie is to stick with what has worked,” Harcey insists. “It’s one of the oldest forms of peasant food, so there’s really no reason to reinvent it.” Harcey says he’s always had a passion for charcuterie and is a longtime crusader for head-to-tail cooking — that is, utilizing all the edible parts of an animal, including the liver, intestines, even head. “In this country, everybody buys beef tenderloin and doesn’t know about all the great cuts of meat. I think it’s great that a lot of chefs are doing head-to-tail cooking.” Still, Harcey wasn’t sure if customers would share his enthusiasm. At Victory 44, he started out slowly by introducing simplistic dishes like mortadella sandwiches and chicken-liver pâté with bacon and red-onion jam. Now the restaurant serves up a full-blown charcuterie board with five to seven terrines or pâtés paired with condiments. Some days you can even find tongue on the menu. In addition to that offered at Victory 44, culinary critics have hailed charcuterie plates at The Craftsman in Minneapolis and Heartland in St. Paul. Clancy’s Meat & Fish also offers a variety of take-home options. It’s clear that charcuterie — while being deeply rooted in the past — has a future here in the Twin Cities.