first Meatsmith butchery in 2017. There are
to the tradition of charcuterie. There’s an
team specialising in making small goods for
artisans to everyday people have contributed overwhelming variety of pork-based products alone — prosciutto, pancetta, guanciale,
capocollo, salami, ’nduja and mortadella are
just a handful of the most popular. Despite the diversity, most use just three things: salt, time and the right breed.
Hospitality speaks with The Agrarian Kitchen’s
Rodney Dunn and Meatsmith butcher Troy
Wheeler about the ins and outs of working with the whole hog.
Rodney Dunn wears a number of hats on any
now three outlets across Melbourne, with the restaurants. “If a restaurant is looking for a
customised product, whether it’s a particular salami or a different type of ham that’s
not commonly found in a marketplace, we accommodate that,” says Wheeler.
“For me, it’s about utilising everything, so
nothing goes to waste. My customers really
enjoy pork racks and rolled loins, but legs aren’t as popular, so I need to use different methods
and techniques to turn them into something so it’s not wasted.”
given day at The Agrarian Kitchen. He co-owns
As with any area of cooking that has a long,
Demanet, with the concept now encompassing
is complex and Dunn is quick to acknowledge
the Tasmanian venture with wife Séverine
a five-acre farm with a cooking school and an eatery alongside its many gardens. On
the roster of classes at The Agrarian Kitchen
Cooking School & Farm is a lesson in whole pig charcuterie led by Dunn.
The style leans Italian, but according to Dunn,
the fundamentals are consistent across cuisines.
“If someone wants to go away and do something that’s more German, French or Polish, it’s all much of a muchness,” he says.
Dunn’s childhood in Griffith on the New South
multicultural history, the subject of charcuterie he doesn’t know it all. He does, however, have decades of experience curing and fermenting pork. For beginners, he recommends starting with salami. When curing a whole muscle,
there’s nowhere to hide. “With salami, you can
play with ratios and add extra fat in,” says Dunn. “Whereas with a prosciutto, if you don’t have enough fat, it’s just going to be dry and very
just have a shorter window that you need to be
There are differences, yes, but those
differences are mostly in flavour not technique.
they’ll take red capsicum, blend it up and add it into the fermented sausage.”
The point is differences in outcome are less
a result of the curing or fermentation methods
and more a result of what other ingredients are
added or the pork that’s used. The upshot? Chefs who can master the basics will have a host of options for their charcuterie menu.
Troy Wheeler isn’t a chef, but he’s definitely
mastered the basics and a whole lot more in
his 18-plus years as a butcher. Together with
chef Andrew McConnell, Wheeler opened the
another 15 minutes,” says Wheeler. “All the fat is soft: it coats your mouth and enhances all the flavours.”
your eggs in one basket.”
Wheeler agrees prosciutto is at the more
a good place to start. “Prosciutto is a little more
paprika,” says Dunn. “Go across to Hungary and
left out on the bench for
a prosciutto and something’s wrong, you’ve put
pepper to make salami. Travel through Italy
must. “Further south, there’s garlic, red wine and
the same as it will be if it’s
looking out for stuff. If you wait two years for
difficult end of the spectrum, however he thinks
and you’ll find villages where fennel seeds are a
and the texture isn’t quite
an eight- to 10-week cure time,” says Dunn. “You
Many of the Italians in Griffith are from Calabria, Dunn points out, and they’ll only use salt and
“When it’s cold, the flavour
Salamis also have a shorter curing time, which
salami, pancetta, capocollo, lardo and prosciutto. Dunn. “Everything else is a progression of that.”
14–15 degrees Celsius.
buy it from the deli.”
means sinking fewer resources. “Salami is about
“Griffith is where I first got taught to do it,” says
Serve smalls goods at
salty; you might as well go to Woolworths and
Wales Riverina, a well-known Italian enclave, is behind the lean toward products including
FEATURE // Charcuterie
ACROSS THE EUROPEAN continent,
other types of whole muscle charcuterie can be difficult because there are a couple of points
within the ageing process where things can go
wrong,” says Wheeler. “But things like guanciale and pancetta are really good places to start
because they are whole muscle curing: it’s just
salting and giving it time to mature to the point where it’s ready to eat.”
Dunn agrees there are easier whole muscles
to start with. His pick is pork neck: “I would encourage them to start with capocollo.”
Salami, Wheeler suggests, requires extensive
training. “I think that you need to be taught by
somebody who knows safe practices for making fermented products,” he says. “You need to
know a lot about the different types of bacteria and mold spores that are harmful to you and
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