Plumluvfoods on WICC ep 42 Matt Browning Oui Charcuterie

Its all about the salami on this episode as we chat with Matt Browning from Oui Charcuterie! Plus Chef Plum gives us a recap of National Prostart this past weekend in Baltimore!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Coming Number storming, a World of Sound, Chef pull on
the mic, making Hotstown the Jeff Jeff Brown a Shotguns
my Son Life, Chef Dead in the background, making nut meats,
found Song, Girls of Peace They Must Down any Night,

(00:23):
The conversation song Daylight from boll Mads Issues the Street
foot Stale Side These Chef Springmates, Mutio Guys Shut, sound
of Bob test fading out, Sessjeff many part be s you.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
All for dead?

Speaker 1 (00:46):
The very conversation, so on the fastest say sound number
knee shep fun and.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
The least.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
And the rest. Oh yeah, ladies, Jenaen, what's happen? And
happy Saturday to you.

Speaker 4 (01:04):
I hope your weekend's off to a great start. I
hope your springtime is off to a great start. I
know it's been a little rainy. I know it's been
a little humid, but we're gonna get there, I promise you.
April showers, bring May flowers, Jeffrey and May showers, bring
June peonies?

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Is that a thing? Uh? Sure? Doesn't mind when when
P and E's come in, I think they're called Pa.

Speaker 5 (01:24):
And E's not pe andies peonies. Well maybe it's my
sothern accent peonies.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
I can't say. I can't say a lot of words.
It's true.

Speaker 4 (01:32):
I've witnessed this even on this program.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
We've heard this. Well, we might hear it again shortly.

Speaker 4 (01:36):
Oh that's okay, all right, fair enough, fair enough. Welcome
to Plumb Love Foods.

Speaker 5 (01:40):
It's your boy, Chef Plumb, of course, joined by my
good brother, Chef Jeffy. Hanging out with you guys today
on a Saturday, and Jeffy, we're gonna talk one of
my favorite things to talk about today and last week's
show was fun gardening. Right, we talked about vegetables. Take
it to another level and we're gonna talk about telling them.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
Jeffy, we're gonna talk about salami. Yeah right, that's right. Friends.

Speaker 4 (01:59):
You can do a whole plot out the word you
were thinking I was gonna say, is it Nope? But
it's okay. It a whole worked out for you.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
Did a great job. Say it first so I can
try to repeat it. Got it?

Speaker 4 (02:07):
Got it? Well, yeah, I was hoping you would say
it for me. Charcuterie, charcuterie, sharkoot. Jeffy's always like char
COUCHERI har sharcucci, Sharcucci charge Kichi charcucherie.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
It's it's terrible. I I read things phonically in my mind.

Speaker 5 (02:21):
And well, yea, it's funny. Because you're on the radio.
You should have a radio voice and be able to
phonetically say things.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
Well, I think I have a buttery radio voice. I
just think it's my my uh you know.

Speaker 4 (02:30):
I can't renunciation? Yeah, okay, can you say that word?

Speaker 2 (02:35):
Enunciate?

Speaker 4 (02:37):
Okay, fair enough, fair enough.

Speaker 5 (02:38):
We're gonna be joined by our friend Matt Browning from
we Charcuterie here in a few minutes, and his company
is growing my leaps and bounds, and I'm pretty sure
Jeffy is might bill last time ever talked to Matt,
because as much as he's growing, he's gonna grow out
of us, not want to talk to us anymore.

Speaker 4 (02:49):
I gotta feel like it could happen.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
People grow out of us. But that's okay. I love people,
and I love Mattson.

Speaker 4 (02:55):
I always say, we catch them on the way up,
and we catch him on the way now when they're
at the top, they won't deal with us.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
I don't think that's true at all. Come on, We've
had we've had huge people with us. That's true, that's true. Matt, Matt,
who is going to be huge. I think he's going
to rock with us forever.

Speaker 4 (03:10):
I hope so, I hope so. And also we'll spend
a little time later in the show.

Speaker 5 (03:14):
I just got back from doing the National Restaurant Association
Education Foundations Pro Start National competition. You might have heard
the ones happening here in Connecticut where these high schoolers
come and cook against each other, with the winner going
to the national tournament in Baltimore for over two hundred
thousand dollars in scholarships to go to culinary school and college.

(03:34):
And I am humbled and honored to have been yet
again a judge for this competition. And it is man,
it's intense and it's so fun and this year was
pretty heavy and we'll talk a little bit more about
that later on. I want to tell you guys about
it because it's just such a great experience.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
So, Yeah, you said something on your Instagram that I
thought was awesome. You said, it's like the real food sport.
Real it's the real culinary sport. It really is, really
it really it really made me think of it like
that and the way we talk about it all because
obviously you called me from there because you can't live
without me. But and you told me all. I mean,
it was awesome, like somebody some of the stories and
like how pumped you were too about it, Like you

(04:09):
were talking to me like it was pro wrestling.

Speaker 3 (04:11):
It is.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
I love that he knows that plump when he talks
about pro wrestling. It's there's a fire in his eyes.

Speaker 4 (04:16):
Let's go.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
I can hear it about this sport. It was amazing.

Speaker 4 (04:20):
Shot to Joe Hendry, I believe. So here's the thing,
here's the thing. It really we'll get more into it
later on, but I want you to experience it one day, Jeff,
because you're gonna be like, oh my god, I can't
believe this is a thing.

Speaker 5 (04:30):
This is like real, this is like it's like college football.
It's insanity. There's ten thousand people there. It's nuts.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
Just the way you describe it. I'm telling you. I
want to go. I really do. It just hasn't lined
up for me scheduling wise. But it's going to happen.
I hope going to happen. I hope so, I hope.

Speaker 5 (04:44):
So, So before we talk about that, Befer, we talk
about that, I want to talk to one of our
favorite people in the state. This gentleman and I became
friends several years ago during a project we worked on
with Edible Magazine.

Speaker 4 (04:56):
We've kept in touch ever since. He makes some of
the best charcooterie and the plan it his salami is
one of my favorite salamis in the world to put
in my mouth.

Speaker 5 (05:04):
Ladies, John, please, welcome to the program our good friend
from we Charcuterie, Matt Browning.

Speaker 3 (05:09):
You guys.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
What's up, Matti? How you doing? Brother?

Speaker 3 (05:13):
All good things, brother, how you been.

Speaker 5 (05:15):
We are fantastic happy to see your smile and face
here and talk to you for a little bit about
charcuterie and what you do. And your company's blowing up.
Like I said, so, we're gonna get you on the
way up and catch you on the way back down
when you're falling apart.

Speaker 3 (05:26):
We're in for the whole ride, man, I hope so.

Speaker 5 (05:29):
And I'll tell you what, man, it really is some
of the best charcuterie, some of the best salami on
the planet. Now, when I say charcuterie, people just so
they understand what that is, or maybe it may be
more fun for you to describe or or define that
word for people who don't know what charcuterie means.

Speaker 3 (05:43):
Yeah, so charcuterie comes from the French. It's really kind
of a celebration of salt. It's using salt to preserve foods,
and we happen to use meat, which is kind of
how it's become almost synonymous with meat. But all of it, pickles,
all of all of those things are all parts of charcuterie.
That's why you find some of them on charcootery reports.
So it's the art of preserving with salt, and we

(06:03):
apply it to pork.

Speaker 4 (06:05):
And make amazing salami with that. And you got started
a small farm, You've gotten so big now you had that,
You're gotten much much bigger now, I mean, you're gonna
be in every big why store.

Speaker 5 (06:12):
There's just so much going on with you, guys. But
before we jump into all of that, sure tell me
the story. How did you start doing this? Like what
I mean, because you were I mean you were you
were a nurse. I mean you you were partner of
a brieve done everything.

Speaker 3 (06:25):
Yeah, we I used to laugh. I was twenty eight
with twenty eight jobs and now it's you know, double that,
and uh, it's just it's crazy how many things look.
If it's fun and has a good crew of folks,
I'm willing to give it a shot. So salami, the
lay of salami started. As you mentioned, I was a nurse,
nurse practitioner and going through school, did a master's degree

(06:47):
in nursing at one point. And as I was going
through school, it became really obvious that you know, diet, exercise, sunshine,
you know, the basics are what really kind of drive
our health and diet man in America is definitely a
tricky topic. Yeah, half the food in the stores isn't
really food.

Speaker 4 (07:04):
You know.

Speaker 3 (07:04):
I laughed. We're the only salamie I know of right
that's made with AI. And it's like, a, I, how
do you use AI for salami? Well, authentic ingredients. I mean,
it's oh, we sh man And so that's what we did.
So my kid, he's now seventeen, but he was five
at the time, and I walked downstairs at our new farm.

(07:26):
We had just gotten a farm in Woodbridge, Connecticut, and uh,
I walked downstairs and I said, how you doing? Get it?
He's good, I said, He said, can we make bacon?

Speaker 4 (07:34):
Dad?

Speaker 3 (07:34):
I said, sure, it's I don't even know what you're
doing up at five in the morning on a crappy
winter day. But all right, sure, let's go make some bacon. No,
I want to make it from the bellies, I said,
hog belly, pork bellies, what do you what do you watching?
That's where you make the bacon, right, I just saw
a guy make I said, yeah, we can do that.
So we built a spot on a farm and we
went to look for a pig or two and we

(07:55):
ended up out the at the Wamugo School out in
Litchfield and they have a Future Farmers of America program
out there, and they have really really good hogs. Actually
came from a rolling hog farm, and so you know,
real prize genetics. And she was getting rid of some piglets.
And I went and I was going to get a
pig or two and try it. I never done it,
you know, I mean, I didn't grow up on a farm,

(08:18):
so this was all kind of new for us. And
we went, we were going to get a pig or
two and she goes, you take these three. I'll give
you these three for free. It was coming on a
Christmas break and she didn't want to deal with them over.

Speaker 4 (08:29):
The break and you went for two and you got.

Speaker 3 (08:32):
My wife looked at me and she's holding mind now
thirteen year old in her arms, you know, rocking them
and she's like just shook her head. She's like, that's
my kind of deal. I'm going to say. Yes. So
we had built a huge space, we'd you know, much
bigger than you would normally build for a pig or two,
and we brought home six and one of them wasn't
the nicest of pig. So he was, you know, nipping

(08:53):
at the kids and nipping at the others. And we
had a pig roast for January with him and a
friends came over and they all were like, I would
take half a hog, but I still didn't up. I
had like three and a half hogs that were going
to be left in the spring, and uh, where do
you put that much? Yeah, you know, so we were
really constrained just on storage space, and so I joined
this group on Facebook called the Salt Cured Pig and

(09:15):
we started learning how to make all of the dry
cured products, you know, every you know, all of it.
Panchetta and Lonzo and Go went through. You saw the
pregudos we were making.

Speaker 2 (09:25):
Yeah, not with Ryan.

Speaker 3 (09:26):
We were making what fifty pound legs, which are way
too big, but we went for it. And you know,
you flip a coin for failure rate, right, And so
it started with my kid wanted to make bacon, and
we started making all this stuff. And our kids were
in school with some great chefs from New Haven area,
and the chefs would come out to our you know,

(09:47):
the kid's birthday parties or whatever we were doing, and Matt,
you got to sell this stuff. And I'm like, come on, guys,
I'm a nurse. Here we are twelve years later, we
are the salami guy and we make bigger than ever. Yeah,
and we make our Ai salamire right, authentic ingredients. We
don't take any junk. We add no nitrates, gluten, soy nuts, fillers,

(10:08):
food dies, and that all came out of the nursing part.
It's easy to make a standardized thing full of nitrates
and a synthetic casing and just have you know, normal units.
But our ours is handmade. Every single stick, you know,
it's dried still for twenty plus days, twenty seven twenty
eight days. It's all done by hand, and it's a
I call it a one byte time machine, you take

(10:29):
a bite, you close your eyes. You're back with your
aunts and uncles or your grandma and grandpa. The red
wine spilling, the cigarette ash falling off on the floor,
And that's the salami we make. I mean, you try
it and you can't hide it. It's what it tasts like.

Speaker 4 (10:42):
It is delicious stuff, no doubt about it. But it
almost is like going back to the way it used
to be done, the way I mean, listen, we talk
about all it's like a novelty that you do it
the way you do it.

Speaker 5 (10:50):
Well, that's the way it should be done. That's how
I thought it's been done for eons. I thought it's
been done, you.

Speaker 3 (10:55):
Know, thousands of years. Man. I tell my kids all
the time, if it's the easiest way to do it,
it's the wrong way, right. We don't do it the
easy way. We do it the hard way.

Speaker 4 (11:04):
So you ever had any problems with getting in stores
with because of the way you make it?

Speaker 3 (11:08):
Yeah, So you're talking about us growing, growing, growing, right, Well,
they're never going to be one of the big you know,
household names full of all the weird stuff in all
the stores. That won't be us. We're in the household.
I always say we aren't for everybody. We're for people
who are discerning, who are looking for highest quality. So
being handmade, every single stick is different. Every single case

(11:31):
of our product has a different weight to it. So
it's not like you know, whoever pick one of the
little snack sticks and you're going to go and it's
they're all, you know, three ounces, and there's thirty of
them in a box, and every box is the same.
That's not us. We make three flavors. We have sweet,
we have medium, we have hot, and that's probably the
most standard thing about our product. They're all made the same.

(11:55):
They'll taste the same from month to month, but they're
hand made and so they vary in size and weight
and we're not going to change that. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
I love that.

Speaker 4 (12:03):
I think it's the best thing. Jeff, you've tasted this
is the great stuff?

Speaker 2 (12:05):
Yeah, no, I have tasted. I think it's amazing. I
had it at the Mohican Sun Food and Winefest for
the first time and I just remember being like, this
is it's just such a great The spicy one is
my absolute favorite.

Speaker 4 (12:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (12:18):
I mean they're all really good, but it's like not
too spicy. It's just got just enough heat to just
like make you.

Speaker 4 (12:23):
I just like it.

Speaker 2 (12:24):
But the thing I really love about it is there's
like five or four ingredients.

Speaker 3 (12:29):
Yeah, I believe it's five ingredients. Yeah, poor sugar. I
mean there's nothing.

Speaker 2 (12:33):
It's all stuff you recognize.

Speaker 3 (12:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (12:35):
So when you say, like you don't do it the
easy way, I was kind of like wow, because it
is kind of like it seems. I mean, it's five things.

Speaker 3 (12:42):
Well, and that's one of the things about it. And
so this is part of that education thing. Right when
you go you look at stuff and go to the
store and they'll have uncured it'll say or no nitrates,
and then it has a little asterisk and you go, oh, asterisk.
I love to see what the asterisk says on anything, right,
celery powder. So as you start they're doing your homework
on celery powder, you realize it's full of nitrades. And

(13:05):
it's really the USDA allowing the big companies to kind
of you know, you got to watch your language and stuff.
But frankly it's deceiving the consumer that hasn't had loads
of nitrates at it, whereas they actually add more celery
than they need because it's not really standardized, so you
better add a little to cover yourself. And we don't

(13:27):
use any of that, and it was kind of cool.
We just got a nutrition label back, which is our
first time doing a nutrition label. So send it to
the lab going through the process. There's quite a process involved,
and we got it back. It has zero carbohydrates. So
even though we add the sugar, we get a lot
of yto people that look at the ingredient lists and go,
wait a minute, hold on, it's got sugar. No, we

(13:50):
feed our starter culture, so the bacteria eat all that
sugar and then they when it's all gone, they die
and they create an acidic environment that makes the salami
shelf stable, our stuff shelf stable for a year. We
have this whole We have this whole group of like
elite athletes that are endurance folks and they take it
rock climbing and backpacking and mountain all over biking, all

(14:14):
that stuff because it's keto, it's got great protein. It'll
keep you going for a long time.

Speaker 5 (14:20):
So talk about the process here because I want to
talk about process of how it dries, Like how does
that work?

Speaker 2 (14:24):
And how's that?

Speaker 5 (14:24):
I mean, we see how it's different than other people
doing it, but talk about the actual like, because in
the end, it's simple chemistry.

Speaker 4 (14:31):
We're not changing the world.

Speaker 3 (14:31):
Here, right, it is simple chemistry. So there's a couple
of things. One, you got to have high, high grade pork.
It's got to go and clean. If it doesn't go
and clean, it comes out. I always say, if it
goes in dirty, it comes out deadly. Because we take it,
we grind it, we put in our cure, and then
we ferment it for forty eight hours at really pretty

(14:53):
high tempts.

Speaker 4 (14:54):
This is the part I mentioned it. And so you
ferment it, talk about what that process is and how
it happens.

Speaker 3 (14:58):
Yeah, So we mix it and because we andoculate it
with our starter culture, we really can overcome any negative
bacteria that might be in the environment. Our bacteria take
over and swarm the entire product. So they eat the sugar.
They create the tartness that you get in the salami.
But they also create that acidity, so you get that

(15:18):
bite to offset the salt. Right, I mean, it's all fat,
acid salt when you come down to it, right, And
so for forty eight hours we keep it at relatively
high temperatures. It's you know, over seventy degrees. I don't
want to go into it too much because it's proprietary,
but we ferment it and then we take it and
cool it back down, and then we really have to

(15:39):
adjust for temperature and humidity, which in Connecticut is a
fun game, man, because we can be freezing outside and wet,
or we could be hot outside and dry, or hot
and wet or cold and dry, and man, the amount
of we run heaters and dehumidifiers and humidifiers all in
the same room to keep it in this really tight

(16:00):
and we run it for as long as twenty seven
twenty eight days, depending on what the environment outside is doing.
And then when we have determined that what's called the
water activity, when the amount of moistu're in the product
is low enough that it's now shelf stable, it's really
hard to contaminate it because if you've got a piece

(16:20):
of bad bacteria on the outside, there's not enough water
to move it through the product. So then it becomes
what's called shelf stable. So we use salinity the salt,
We use acidity from the bacteria who create the acid
and lower our pH for us, and we use decreased
water activity, which makes it dry enough, so we can't
put it in backpack if it's too wet, because you

(16:42):
create a bad environment. So when all of those things
are right, then we take each stick, we put them
in our bags, we vackpack them individually, and then label
them individually. And I got to tell you, out of
making salami, the most onerous and labor intensive process is
actually the packaging of it.

Speaker 4 (17:00):
It's sure you have do it individually, right, each.

Speaker 3 (17:03):
One, we pull them out, we get them, we can backpack.
I think we're up to ten at a time or
something now, But it's it's slow. It's it's again we're
all handmade. It's it's a craft product. We are an
artisan salami producer and have no intentions of replacing that
with machinery.

Speaker 4 (17:20):
And so you went from doing this whole process by hand.
It all sounds great.

Speaker 5 (17:23):
So now all of a sudden, you know you're recently
you're even every big WI store and you're moving up
to the big wives in Boston. That's mental and that's
not that's just one outlet. There's so many more that
you do. Talk about how do you grow that? How
do you scale of what you were.

Speaker 2 (17:36):
Doing to this now?

Speaker 4 (17:38):
And is I mean, don't want to get too deep
in the money probate, but I'm curious, is it is
it worth the expense?

Speaker 3 (17:44):
I'm I'm not sure enough, are you? We're growing So
on the back of our shirts it says prepared with passion,
And I gotta tell you, without the passion, there wouldn't
be any We share coutery between the farmers' markets, the
brewery events, the wine events, all the places we show
you got some crazy guy on the corner hand and
out samples of salami, right, and the crowds just go wild.

(18:06):
They absolutely love it. But production, man, I gotta tell you,
production is uh, you got to be tight on it.
So we're learning a whole new business. As you said,
I came in it from the nursing background, so this
is entirely new. You know, having a food commodity business
is a whole different game. So and then we dance
with the USDA, and they're rags, right, and we're kind

(18:27):
of like the raw milk of salami. They're not real
fans because we don't add the nitrates, even the you know,
the hidden nitrates with the celery. We just don't add them.
And so everything's a little more meticulous, and the lab
testing of the product before it goes out, and the
quality control of it and all of that stuff. So
you learn the rags you go through to stuff. But
we're gonna end up being space constrained at one point,

(18:48):
and then it'll be labor constrained. And we're what do
you do? You say yes, can we you know, can
you do ten stores? We say yes, and then we
start with the ten stores and we hustle and try
to make make it make ends me.

Speaker 2 (19:01):
You said testing, Do you test in house? Like do
you have to do your own testing and monitor or
do you have to use an outside source, like send
it to an outside lab to have them test it,
Like how is it?

Speaker 3 (19:11):
So when we were on just doing it on the
farm and it was kind of a hobby, we used
to joke and say it was black market meets, but
it wasn't because you couldn't buy You couldn't buy it.
The only way you could get it is I would
give it to you as a gift. And but so
you have to be really stringent in house, so cleanliness, sanitation,
all of the process, just the process has to be meticulous.

(19:32):
You know, we have what's called a hasset plan which
you have to file and it's all the points you know,
where you could have a breakdown in the cleanliness the
sanitation or areas you could get infection. So we've ironed
that out really well. We've been doing this. It's almost
twelve years now.

Speaker 4 (19:49):
That's awesome, you know what I mean, figure it out.

Speaker 3 (19:51):
I used the big kid, my seventeen year old as
the as the you know, the calendar. It's like, okay,
here we are. It's been you started at five, you
were five, even now you're seventeen, so twelve years of
doing this. So our testing is all done under so
now to sell to the public, everything has to be
tested by the USDA. So they sample our product all

(20:12):
the time. They check our temperature REGs, they check our
hass to plan, our process, they look though, they inspect
to finished product. Yeah, it's it's a yeah the food
safety thing. For folk folks who don't think the USDA
is doing their job, let me tell you they definitely
do their job. You know.

Speaker 2 (20:30):
I'll tell you.

Speaker 5 (20:31):
I was I was talking to Jeff about I was
recently in France again and it's just so different. It's
just so so different, and like you know, I always
think that it's glad to I'm glad to hear that
keeping us safe and.

Speaker 2 (20:40):
All that good stuff.

Speaker 5 (20:41):
But I also feel like, man, they're just trying to
get money from everybody. Like it just doesn't make any sense.
It's crazy how much we get the food regulations and
how hard they make it for people trying to have
a small business.

Speaker 4 (20:50):
You know, it's just it's out of control. So, you know,
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (20:53):
I hope that they're doing a good thing, I guess,
but maybe just lighting up just just a touch, just
lighting up a touch.

Speaker 3 (20:58):
You know, it's a real barrier to entry. If you think, hey,
I make swami at home and I'm gonna go sell
this all of a sudden, I say, I wish you
all the best. Yeah, onerous process, it's I'm consuming.

Speaker 4 (21:15):
There, it is, absolutely And Jeffy tell everybody where they
can find our good friend Matt before we're under break here.

Speaker 2 (21:20):
Well, if you're gonna check them on Instagram, that's we Chartrudery,
and I think it's we Chartrudery dot com or Charcuterie
either one shark couterie.

Speaker 4 (21:29):
There you go.

Speaker 2 (21:30):
I said it was a slight accent that I put
on it.

Speaker 4 (21:34):
It's not an accent. That's not a word. You're making
words up now, Jeffrey.

Speaker 2 (21:37):
No, it was like a like a I just put
a little a little uh you know, fan on it.

Speaker 4 (21:42):
That's not a thing.

Speaker 5 (21:43):
Stay right there, you're check out Blumbo Foods right here
on the voice that like at w I C C.
With Cheflam and Chef Jeff.

Speaker 4 (21:47):
We're talking Shark Houterie with our good friend Matt Brownie
from We s Charcuterie. Stay right there, We'll be right back.

Speaker 6 (21:53):
Hill Halls through the Grinder's embrace.

Speaker 1 (22:15):
Matt Brownie force bath left, the copper, replaced steel and
fire ambition unchanged.

Speaker 2 (22:24):
He shot you to be a legacy.

Speaker 1 (22:26):
Name unal behind night Place Spring glory and yielding.

Speaker 2 (22:39):
Sign from the healthcare.

Speaker 1 (22:44):
A safer sway, help to the Salomy thing and favoring
nice incnescent nice Butcher's Arla Hell to the Salonic.

Speaker 5 (23:30):
The Thelami King Reigns Eternal from our house band, the
Flames of Course, writing a song for our good friend
Matt Browning from We Charcuterie's joining us here today.

Speaker 4 (23:39):
You can get more information by going to we Charcuterie
dot com. You can order.

Speaker 5 (23:42):
Online half things brought to you and check out this
fantastic product as a Connecticut main product that we're very product.

Speaker 4 (23:47):
We like to use it all the time. Matt, that's
your song, brother, Hell yeah, that rocks. I'm pretty sure
they worked the word fervor in there. I've never heard
that in a rock song on my life.

Speaker 2 (24:00):
Awesome, amazing. Jeff, do you have the stretched out Connecticut?
I was like whoa, I was really and that double
bass like dry was incredible and excited. My heart was pumping.
I wanted to jump around.

Speaker 4 (24:18):
I was like, jump around and eat sticks with salami exactly.

Speaker 3 (24:23):
That.

Speaker 4 (24:23):
Jeff will send it over to you so you have it.
You can do whatever you want with it. Brother, that's yours.

Speaker 3 (24:26):
Thank you. That's so cool. I love it.

Speaker 2 (24:29):
It's the whole other verse, I think too. That's even crazy.

Speaker 3 (24:31):
There you go.

Speaker 5 (24:33):
Yeah, it's in say you're checking out a plumb love
food's right here on the Voice of Connecticut w I
c C. We're excited to be hanging out with you,
chef plump Chef Jeff, and we're joining by Matt Browne
from WI Sharcuterie. Matt and then the first break and
if you're miss any of that first break. You can
check the show out of course, of this podcast and
everywhere you get your fine audio entertainment that you want
to be in your ears. You can get there even
on Alexa or you gave me any place you can

(24:54):
get it, which is fantastic podcasts.

Speaker 2 (24:56):
Yeah, stify what the other ones?

Speaker 3 (25:00):
What?

Speaker 2 (25:02):
iHeart, what spreaker, what tune in what? I don't even
look at that.

Speaker 4 (25:08):
I know you're still around anymore. I was just saying it.

Speaker 3 (25:10):
You were. You were talking about how we've grown over
the time we've known each other. But dude, you are
just a dynamo. You're everywhere. Appreciate I appreciate it. Rock star.

Speaker 4 (25:20):
Life is too short. Got to take advantage the opportunity.

Speaker 5 (25:22):
My wife was just telling me to slow down because
I was getting a little crazy the past two weeks,
and like we're getting into my busy season, which is
even crazier, and I've been working with Jeff a Ton
two doing stuff with him, and uh.

Speaker 4 (25:30):
Yeah, it's great that I'm just dude, I'm lucky. I'm lucky.

Speaker 5 (25:33):
I lived the dumbest life of all time, and I'm
so proud of it and happy to do it. And
it's awesome, and you know it's it's all we can do.
Just have a great time, you know, listen, I'm gonna
have fun with it. And you said to yourself, what's
the point?

Speaker 2 (25:42):
Right?

Speaker 3 (25:43):
Proud to know you man, you're a rock star. You work,
you work, you earn everything you've done, and uh, A
lot of people love what you're doing, including me, and
I appreciating.

Speaker 4 (25:53):
Thank you, buddy, I appreciate that. But you know it's
all because of Jeffrey.

Speaker 2 (25:56):
Jeffy.

Speaker 4 (25:56):
Jeffy's my uh, he's my fire, in my in my
eternal flame.

Speaker 2 (26:00):
Yep, how it.

Speaker 3 (26:04):
Nothing happens without Jeffrey.

Speaker 2 (26:06):
Baby, that's right, that's right, that's wings. I'm over flowing
hot air keeping them out geese.

Speaker 5 (26:11):
Oh geez, Matt. So let's talk a little bit more.
I want to cover one more question before we went
change the subject. We were talking about actual production of
uh of your salami and how it's made. Do you
have particular cuts of pork you like to use or
is it just kind of whatever you can get? You
try to go for fattier cuts, like are you putting
when you're grinding it up? Are you putting pork belly
into it? Are you putting towels into it.

Speaker 3 (26:32):
No, So big part of our problem with uh, you know,
our pork production is we have to go with a
larger hog that's a little bit older, that has real
development of the backfat. And so the specs on our
pork are definitely different than what you're getting at most
of them market stuff. Our loins are being pulled off,
you know, we have chefs that like to use them,

(26:53):
and the bellies are either going to bacon or to
you know, hold bellies to people who know how to
use them. But you really need a leaner muscle meat
mixed with a real solid back fat. Backfat's much preferred.
Any of the other fats on it are just too
to mushy. They when you cut our salami open. So

(27:14):
one of the things we really pride ourselves on is
we do not try to homogenize the meat. I'm not
trying to make a slurry going into a casing. I
want the chunks to be very distinct. So when you
slice oars, you'll see the little globules of fat, the
little round parts, and the little you know, definition of
the muscle meat that's been used. And that's a real,

(27:36):
real sign of quality. Salami. I tell people we trim
our pork really well so we don't have to grind
it till it's minuscule and you can't tell what it is.
And that also, you know, it just helps with the
entire process. But no, soft fat is not what you
want in your salamis.

Speaker 4 (27:54):
So do you do like a ratio? Like, is there
a set ratio for all of them?

Speaker 5 (27:57):
Is I think like seventy thirty you know, lean th
percent fat when I'm making like a you know, a
force meeting.

Speaker 3 (28:02):
Yeah, there there is, and uh, yes there is.

Speaker 4 (28:06):
Okay that that's proprietary.

Speaker 3 (28:08):
I want to tell us that a little bit. Yeah,
it's any great, you know it's it's like mom, you
know Grandma's bread. You do some things. There's just a
little twist too, and our ours has a little twist
with it.

Speaker 4 (28:18):
Great, listen, I love that proprietary stuff.

Speaker 3 (28:19):
That's it.

Speaker 4 (28:20):
That's what makes it fun, That's what makes it your own,
which is awesome. We talked about the actual process of
doing this and the trimming of it, you know when
you go to a store. And so people understand when
I say that you were talking about the you don't
want that that that watery type fat. Right, you were
talking about using a firmer fat. Right, talk about what
that means. I think that's an interesting thing to say
that people don't really understand. I mean, you know, just

(28:41):
just to clarify a little bit.

Speaker 3 (28:43):
Yeah, So some fats are really soft, pork belly, bacon, right, Bacon,
you kind of get it. You put it in a pan,
just gets translucent. It's kind of a soft and you
end up with a lot of lard ad on the side,
which is soft. The soft fats, right, The harder fats,
they kind of you can they they maintain their their
integrity through this entire process. So when you cut the salami,

(29:05):
you can see the little globulus, the little chunks of
the fat that are in our product. But more importantly,
or as importantly as you can taste it, and more
than the taste, is the mouth feel and experience of
eating it. These harder fats, you have to get them in,
you have to get them heated, and then they start
to soft, and then as you're chewing it becomes whoa.

(29:26):
That's another flavor note within the product, not a background
like if you poured oil in it, right, which is
almost the same as if you put lard in it,
it wouldn't it just be this greasy, messy instead of
this culinary delight, you know, I mean, you know we're
a work of art. Art is in salami, and every
bite should be an experience, and that's what we shoot for.

Speaker 4 (29:50):
Yeah, I think that's what makes a great product right
there as well. I think it goes to anything. Anything
you're cooking, you should you should try to make an
experience in every bite, which is that should be on
your T shirts, Jeffy.

Speaker 3 (29:58):
But commercially, it's about the pennies, and so every penny
counts and so all that's why so many commercial salamis
are ground so finely because you're using off cuts, you're
using parts you normally would not put in it because
you can hide them, and we refuse to do that.

Speaker 5 (30:18):
So the thought of, like so when you go to
buy pork or get the pork that you use from
your your farmer friends and things that used to make
this product. Every thought of like saying, okay, well we'll
take the bellies you We're gonna use the bellies too,
and we're gonna make you know, we charcuterie bacon. You
know you're already curing things, it's not much harder to
do well.

Speaker 3 (30:33):
So you know, I guess this would be kind of
a cool place to mention this. So before and after Farms,
it was our farm, and we created a frozen line
of products, and I think what we have just subsumed them,
brought them into the we SHARCOUTERI labels, so now you
can get it. Still we're still labeling as before and
after farms, but you can get sweet Italian, Hot Italian

(30:54):
breakfast sausage, fresh killbasa, bacon, our own smoke bacon, pork chops, racks, ribs.
We have a medium hot seas and parsley Italian. We
have a hot maple we make. We made it for
Liman's kind of as an exclusive, but we we've brought
it into the market as well. And so all of
these products when we're at the farmers' markets, and there's

(31:16):
a few of the stores Linman's Bishops a Limon's Orchards
Bishops Orchards Candle would market down in Fairfield river Ridge
farm Market up, I believe it's Middletown. We have a
few places that are carrying our frozen at this point
in time too. But it so after we finish get
stabilizing the new growth and the salami we're going to

(31:37):
introduce I think the we Shark Gooodery label onto those
products as well.

Speaker 5 (31:41):
It seems like a smart thing just combined the brand.
I mean that's the charcuter is like, what's gotten you
the biggest you know, attention, So stick with that and
go That's what I would do for sure.

Speaker 3 (31:50):
I think that's where we're heading and combine it.

Speaker 5 (31:52):
And how hard is it when you start getting into like,
you know, doing ribs, are doing a shelf stable I'm
not shelf sale, but the doing ribs or doing a
you know, sausages that you freeze. How long can you
keep in the freezer? How long does a whole? Then
does FDA play a role in that as well?

Speaker 3 (32:05):
Whole different ball game, right, So USDA would be the one.
It's okay, no, it's they have some overlap in what
they do, so the USDA. So we use a one
year I mean a six month shelf stable, not shelf
stable freezer backpack.

Speaker 4 (32:23):
I think we were thinking the same thing, but I
said shelves able to I meant like, yeah.

Speaker 3 (32:27):
So our salamis really unusual in that it's one year
shelf stable. Actually I have a two year approval, but
I sell it as one year shelf stable, so you
can have it, you know. I always say I keep
one in the glove box of the yacht, one in
the jet, one in my chalet. But what I really
do is I keep one in the in the in
the middle box of the suburban. When the kids are
arguing in the back, I'll throw one stick just to

(32:49):
see who's going to win the fight to get it. Sure,
So it is shelf stable for a year, but the
frozen food as a six month We use a little
thicker package on it. We have a good backpacker that
we used and uh so it's six months in the
freezer with no problem. And because we're already getting the
best pork you could possibly get. For the salami, I

(33:12):
have all the other parts of the hogs that I
can use as well, So it's a no brainer. But
transporting a bunch of frozen stuff as a whole bunch
of dish, transporting a bunch of boxes a shelf stable salami.

Speaker 4 (33:24):
Whole different world, that's for sure. Go ahead, Jeffy.

Speaker 2 (33:27):
So you keep talking about the quality pork, Is there
a breed of pork you're using. Is there a breed
of pig you're using? Because I've gotten pigs over the years.
I've had Magdalista pigs that people have raised for me.
I've had red wattles that people have raised for me. Uh,
definitely different fat contents, you know, a Magdalista has you know,
I would think it's forty percent fat, that pig. You know,
it's just like got It's got a six inch.

Speaker 3 (33:49):
Layer of baha. It's all about fat. Right, So that's
actually what they call a lard pig. It's actually created
for the fat. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (33:57):
Yeah, the lardeaux off that pig. It might have been
the most one of my favorite things that I've eaten
in my life. It was just it was like pork
butter after it cured and it was just it's amazing.

Speaker 3 (34:09):
You know.

Speaker 2 (34:11):
Can you talk about that a little bit?

Speaker 1 (34:12):
Is that?

Speaker 2 (34:12):
Sure?

Speaker 3 (34:12):
That's what the word unctuous is for. Right. It's like
eating the lardo off of a manga. It just melts
in your mouth, it fills. This is incredible. Yeah. So
tam Worth Burks is where we started out, and so
what our requirements are heritage hogs. We pushed really hard

(34:33):
for outdoor raised.

Speaker 2 (34:35):
Yeah, and uh.

Speaker 3 (34:38):
Yeah, it's you can't use some of the stuff that
comes in commercially, that that soft pink Yorkshire pork. If
they're raised right, Yorks are just fine, but boy, when
they're raised commercial confinement, they're as bad as soft fat.
You're making mush, which again is part of the reason
the big guys are grinding, you.

Speaker 4 (34:58):
Know, so small Yeah right, yeah, that's interesting, but.

Speaker 3 (35:02):
It does matter. And then we go yeah again longer, older,
and larger, and all of that brings I remember when
I took one of my first large hogs down and
had it processed. You know, the the de Herring machine
had a problem with it because you know, who's bringing
in four and five hundred pound pigs. They all want
two hundred and twenty pound hanging weight market hogs. And

(35:24):
it's just different than what we do.

Speaker 2 (35:26):
Yeah. Well yeah, because it's easier to check boxes and
predict numbers when you're using the same thing over and
over and over.

Speaker 3 (35:33):
But or don't care.

Speaker 2 (35:34):
Yeah, yeah, you know, which is even do it? So
like you say, artisan, you know, it's like I would
imagine it starts at like picking the pigs, you know,
looking making sure that it has exactly what you're looking
for otherwise you can't use it right.

Speaker 3 (35:46):
It's just and raised right to spec because you know, again,
a two hundred and twenty pound hog doesn't have enough backfat.
It barely does, but not not quality backfat.

Speaker 4 (35:59):
How often are are you actually like like butchering hogs
and stuff? Is it on a pretty regular basis?

Speaker 2 (36:04):
Now?

Speaker 3 (36:04):
Yeah, we're we're making stuff weekly so we need me constantly.

Speaker 1 (36:09):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (36:09):
Yeah, we've grown. We've grown where we're making batches weekly.

Speaker 4 (36:12):
Wow. That's great And that's got to feel pretty good though,
to see where you came from and now we're doing
it weekly.

Speaker 3 (36:17):
It's amazing. It's amazing. We moved with just this month,
we moved more cases of salami then we moved our
first year.

Speaker 4 (36:24):
That's amazing.

Speaker 3 (36:25):
That's great, man, it's hard to believe.

Speaker 2 (36:27):
Holy caw, your workday has got it went from like
busy to it busy to incredible.

Speaker 3 (36:32):
Yeah, Like you've got to be like when.

Speaker 2 (36:35):
Do you sleep? Do you sleep well?

Speaker 3 (36:38):
Plenty of time to sleep when you're Dead's what I
always say. And I'm in over. So we'll just keep going.
We'll just check the boxes and to make sure the
customers are good. We try to set up systems. You know,
we make our calls and emails and then we take
out and we have a week for delivery. Never works
that way. There's always everybody needs it whenever they need it,
and we just make it happen.

Speaker 5 (36:56):
So you talked about having three different flavors, the process
itself to make them, it's all generally the same. I
would assume it's just kind of the ingredients, but I
can't imagine the ingredients are all that different in each one.
Like for licly, when you just kind of add little
heat to it, you just kind of, you know, the sweet,
maybe you add a little you know, sweetness to it.

Speaker 4 (37:12):
How does that work?

Speaker 3 (37:13):
Is it just they're identical? Are sweet? Isn't sweet? It's
an absence of heat. And so it's just a variation
in the amounts of pepper. Our nutrition labels are identical.
Our labels have the identical ingredients, but it's ratio and
how they're handled.

Speaker 4 (37:28):
That's great man.

Speaker 3 (37:29):
And even I mean even source and spices, you know,
the off the shelf frankly, crap spice isn't what we
are looking for. We source higher grade spices. Even I
love that.

Speaker 5 (37:41):
And so now you've been doing this for so long
have you thought about actually getting some formal education when
it comes to this, like going to some charcuterie classes,
going to security and classes. I mean, listen, you got
you obviously have the process down. Pat Now when I
say the same thing, even as a chef, you know,
I can always keep learning more and more. And he
thought on like just trying to continue the education and
learn more about it from professionals, I mean your professional August,
but do you know what I mean?

Speaker 4 (38:00):
People who teach it. Well, what's really funny is that's
how we learned was taking classes.

Speaker 3 (38:05):
We learned from the professionals. The Salt Cured Pig sounds
so funny, face, how'd you learn this? Well? Facebook? How
of hell to learn it off of Facebook? Well, there's
this group called the Salt Cured Pig on Facebook. It's
worth checking out. And when we started the company ten
twelve years ago, it was really an impressive group. Now

(38:26):
it's kind of cool and hobbyist, and but when it
started it was the lunatics and so we had Ali,
you know, Olive Era from Ali Salami was part of
the group. You know, Francisco who is the old timer
that you know multi generations of salami knowledge, charcuterie knowledge,
and he was the Columbus Salami you know guru. He

(38:47):
was the one sorting out all their stuff out and
you know in San fran Wow and uh and so
all of those boys. And then we got invited to
the Charcuterie Masters competition down in New York and we
were the only Connecticut company that showed up. But all
the boys, everyone, every brand you see and eat, were
standing at our table and eating the more they love

(39:09):
the spicy. The spicy is not what you normally get commercially.
It's got a kick to it, a slow ban stuff.
And so we actually did learn from the experts, which
was kind of impressive. And then as far as continuing
with it, you know, when we make sharkooterie at the farm,
it's it's nuts. Some of those stuff we made. I
mean we've dry cured you know, backstraps from venison and

(39:30):
done it with you know, an under a forest kind
of themed cure and it was some of the best
stuff on the planet.

Speaker 4 (39:37):
Well, it's funny, I was just about to go to
that because I was curious to ask you kind of
just you know, we talk about this.

Speaker 5 (39:43):
We've been talking so much focus on pork. What about
things like, you know, can you cure chicken? Can you
cure like curing beef and things like that, turkey, Like
you know, it's something you've ever done?

Speaker 4 (39:53):
Is it possible?

Speaker 3 (39:53):
Is it?

Speaker 4 (39:54):
Because I know there's a lot of like you know,
rules with that stuff.

Speaker 3 (39:57):
Yeah. So the best that I've had is pork based
that with the exception of those venicson backstraps were something
very unique and they were delicious. People are making people
are making charcootery with anything. There's a seafood I saw

(40:18):
a seafood salamia out there, and it's like, whooa, not
my style, not what I'm doing, And you really gotta
be careful. So even just adding like we were talking
with the frozen line, adding anything more to your inventory,
it just creates logistics nightmares, to be honest. Yeah, we're

(40:38):
keeping it simple. I'm sticking with the three.

Speaker 5 (40:40):
The three are not even not even not even professionally, man,
I just mean in general, like like playing around and
toying with it, like doing it that way.

Speaker 3 (40:45):
Yeah. Absolutely, we play with it all the time. People
have new stuff pop up and we make it and
my kids so I both hunt venison and my kids.
Their favorite thing is we make a homemade terry aki
and then make jerky with the venison. Sounds great, yeah,
and it's so it's another form of sharkootery and it's
as good as you can possibly get.

Speaker 4 (41:06):
About ten ten years ago or so, I was I
was consulting with this company that was for me, that
was trying to do protein snacks, but they wanted to
make a shelf stable cured chicken protein snack.

Speaker 2 (41:16):
Right.

Speaker 4 (41:18):
It's it's that's a that's a that's a lot to ask.

Speaker 5 (41:20):
And I got to where I was actually I would
poach the chicken and it would it would cook first,
and then we'd mix it up almost like a like
a I don't know, like because I was piping out
with a gun on the drying racks, you know, and
then it would dry out and it would it would work.
It was pretty decent, you know. I had someone with
kale and spinach and all kinds of crazy things in it.
But definitely a little bit harder to get something like
that to market, you know, that many years ago?

Speaker 4 (41:41):
What about now? Like, you know, if you're gonna if
you're going to cure chicken, how would you do it
or make a chicken jerky.

Speaker 3 (41:46):
You're dancing with double devils there when you play with
beef and you play with poultry. So beef you got
to worry about the equal eye sight of it, and
then on poultry you gotta worry about the salmonella side.
And I tell you what. It's just so I don't
make that as a hobby for.

Speaker 2 (42:04):
Me to use.

Speaker 3 (42:05):
I'm not going to use it as a commercial product.
But it can be done. And all those need to
be cooked. They all have to be brought to one
sixty five or high and that's why, and that changes
a lot of the process, the texture. And yeah, I
have a hard time even calling it charcootery, but I'm
not gonna If you can pull it off, and somebody
can do it, God bless them, it's just not our niche.

Speaker 4 (42:26):
Once it's cooked, it's really charcuter anymore. Right, a different game.

Speaker 3 (42:30):
It's then it's a dried, cooked product, which is fine,
which could be a thing. You know.

Speaker 4 (42:34):
Listen, I made some great flavors with it, but the
company never came to fruition. But you hate it, hate me, Well, it.

Speaker 3 (42:39):
Was fine and protein snacks are the thing. Now we
were just at a conference with one of the bigger
players in the Big Wise Big Wise Conference, and protein
snacks are one of the fastest growing products. Yeah, kind
of pool that. We just got our you know, we
just got our nutrition.

Speaker 2 (43:00):
And no doubt about it.

Speaker 4 (43:01):
We're joined by Matt Brownie from We Shark Food right
here on wi Jeffie, Uh, I'm waiting.

Speaker 5 (43:09):
I want to talk with Matt when we get back
about how people can start doing this at home. How
can they test it for themselves, What can they do
at their house to try to do it, to try
to just see how they, you know, try their hand it.

Speaker 4 (43:18):
Curing stuff. You cure stuff all the time, don't you.

Speaker 2 (43:20):
Yeah, yeah, I have a I have a dry aging
racks and curing booths and and things like that. I
love to I love to play around, you know. Yeah,
you can get it.

Speaker 5 (43:27):
You can get a curing thing off Amazon for like
thirty five bucks, I mean, or a dry excuse me,
not curing, but it's easy.

Speaker 2 (43:32):
You were curing.

Speaker 4 (43:33):
You can get a box of salt. That's all you
gotta do is six bucks. Get a box of coach
of salts. That's all you need.

Speaker 2 (43:38):
You can cure on a rack.

Speaker 4 (43:40):
In your up and right.

Speaker 2 (43:42):
Yeah, no, like you can take it like a like
a pan rack and and throw a cover over it
and put a heater in there, and and a.

Speaker 4 (43:49):
Fan will jump on the on the way to do
it the house. When we get back, you're checking out
plumb Foos the wy You see the Voice of the
Connecticut stay right there.

Speaker 2 (43:55):
We ran back.

Speaker 4 (44:19):
One of the foods right here on the Voice of
Connectic at w I c C.

Speaker 5 (44:22):
It's Chef Plump Chef Jeff hanging out with you here
on a lovely Saturday afternoon in May, getting ready for
that summertime. Everything's looking greener outside, Jeffrey, things are starting.

Speaker 2 (44:32):
To pop up.

Speaker 4 (44:33):
It's my favorite time of year, buddy. I love when
it's warmer outside.

Speaker 2 (44:36):
And I didn't used to.

Speaker 5 (44:36):
I used to love the cold, But as I progressive,
gotten older and lost weight, now I get cold, So
I like it warmer. Something to do with it, I
don't know. Maybe maybe it does right. Maybe my layer
of insulating fat isn't great anymore.

Speaker 4 (44:48):
I mean that's what it is.

Speaker 2 (44:49):
Yeah, Yeah, I like I like the cold. I just
like the I think I like the not sweating as
much in the kitchen. That's fair. That's fair.

Speaker 5 (44:59):
We're joined by Matt from we Shcharcuterie hanging out with
us today, talking all about charcuterie and making a salami.
He makes some of the best salamlie in the planet,
not just in our state, but it's all homemade right here.
Well I want to say homemade, but that's the wrong word.
But it's all made right here in our state using
a homemade recipe. Matt has grown this company from just
hanging out in the backyard to now delivering to every
big y and so much more. You can check them

(45:20):
out at Weishcharcuterie dot com and of course we Charcuterie
and that's we owe youI like we're French.

Speaker 4 (45:25):
We we on Instagram of course as well. Matt, such
fun conversation. I always love talking to you, buddy. You
do such a great job out there with your stuff.

Speaker 5 (45:33):
But I want to talk a little bit about I
don't know, like veer away from what you make and
just kind of talk a little bit about the process
itself and how people can play around with us at home,
because you can make some pretty fun stuff at your
house pretty easily.

Speaker 3 (45:45):
Absolutely, it's easy to add value to some of the meats.
Of course, some of the meats have gotten, you know,
pretty expensive now.

Speaker 5 (45:52):
It's crazy how much stuff costs it. Really, it's out
of control. Don't get me started. That's a whole other thing.

Speaker 4 (45:56):
I get. I get on my high horse about a.

Speaker 3 (45:57):
Whole other thing. But it's actually a one of the
reasons to get into sharkootery, right, you start going, wait
a minute, maybe we could try making some of this
stuff ourselves. An easy entree into it, really is. The
beef jerky's probably the easiest place to start. Homemade bacon
is another place that's relatively easy to start. Now with

(46:18):
the Internet, there's so much stuff. I remember back when
I was starting this thing, you weren't sure what direction
you were going. And I still own a domain name
called swinesellar dot com.

Speaker 4 (46:29):
That's hilarious, kind of awesome.

Speaker 3 (46:31):
Yeah, it's gonna be a wine cellar you could bring home,
and they have them now. So funny how it finally
catches up to what you were thinking, you know, ten
years ago, right, but you know, a little climate controlled
environment where you could maintain temperature, humidity and all that
stuff to be able to dry, like your own pepperoni
or whatever you were gonna make.

Speaker 2 (46:47):
Hey to be favorite.

Speaker 4 (46:48):
Just talk really quick about what not the process, but
what someone might need their house. Like I'm gonna go
I'm gonna make jerky for the first time. What are
the ingredients I might want and any kind of special
tools I might need.

Speaker 3 (46:59):
Sure, so you need a flavor profile that you're chasing.
If you're just going to do it basic, you can
pretty much get away with, you know, salting in the meat.
I mean, think about all the old you know Native
American and then you know Eskimo and all those folks
that preserve fish. And you were back to what you
were talking other flavors. So salt is the primary. You

(47:20):
need a good clean meat and you need salt. And
then after you've salted the meat, you need to be
able to take it, hang it, and dry it. That's
really the basic fundamentals of making a charcootery from a
meat product. So soy sauce is used. There's some different marinades.
You can buy it. Some of the sporting good places,

(47:42):
you know, they'll have products to make, especially jerky. Jerky's
gotten pretty pretty standard and easy to make. You can
do it from slices. You can slice it real thin
and then salt it or marinate it and then dry it.
You can grind it like you were mentioning the jerky gun.
You can take and use a ground product, spice it, flavor,
and make sure it's salted. It needs a little time

(48:03):
to marinate and let that salt penetrate the meat because
you don't want to start drying it if it is
and been actually salted. And then take it and most
people will overdry it to start, and you'll get to
where you understand it can be a little bit softer,
or they'll underdry and then throw it in a zip
bloc bag and it ends up being moldy. You know.
So it is a process of learning and experimentation. But

(48:27):
the cool thing is there's people like you know myself,
or more importantly than people who have mentored and taught me,
that can help guide you a little bit. So you know,
that group, the Salt Eured Pig on Facebook still is
going and it's probably a usable resource. I'm not as
involved with it anymore, but I just saw a post
from them today or yesterday.

Speaker 4 (48:46):
Yeah, I was just looking here on Amazon too. You
guys want to pull up to sea, like what the
cost would be and you can get a food dehydrator here,
which you can use to make jerky and lots of
other things too. Thirty nine bucks sure, just to get
your started, like you know, you figure can probably start
doing this whole process for one hundred bucks to give
your first try. I see how it comes out.

Speaker 3 (49:00):
You know, we started ours. My wife will tell the
story we started ours. She'd open up a closet and
there'd be, you know, twenty pounds of clothes. They're over
in the corner on the couch or the bed.

Speaker 4 (49:14):
You know, why does everything smell salami?

Speaker 1 (49:16):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (49:17):
Funny how it gets to be, you know, it's it's funny.
People say that a lot about our product. God, this
is really good. What do you smoke it with? It's
like no smoke. It was just hung and cured correctly. Right.
But ovens our oven here has a drying cycle on it,
and it can run a little were run runs a
little high sometimes for my tastes. But and it's probably

(49:40):
more food safe running as high as they're running it.
But you can take in wedge, you know, a paper
towel roll or something in there to keep the oven
cracked a little bit. And that's another part of how
you use it to dehydrate the old timers, you know,
sun dried and air dried, but you know kind of
flies and all the insect Oh. Yeah, there's a lot
of variable so just be safe with it. If it

(50:01):
smells funny, looks funny, don't don't. Yeah, you know, that's
the biggest one. It's same thing I tell my kids.
If it smells funny, it looks funny, don't eat it.

Speaker 4 (50:12):
Well, it's it's it's it's funny.

Speaker 5 (50:13):
How the culinary world in the food world, man, even
just you know, I was telling these kids at this
pro Start event that I was at, like, you know,
if your nose is one of the best things you have,
you can use it when you're cooking. You can use
it when you're preparing things like it could tell Your
nose can tell you a lot, like taking a moment
and relying on your other senses. Really it makes a
big difference your ears like hearing how things cook anyway,
just but your nose really can make a big difference.

Speaker 3 (50:35):
Absolutely, And some of the stuff that's most deadly you
can't really see smell it, you know, and or taste it.
But you know, if you use good food preparation processes
and again start with clean product. I would say, again,
if it goes in dirty, it comes out deadly.

Speaker 2 (50:51):
I like that.

Speaker 4 (50:51):
I like that, So you don't even But jeff Youlwrey
mentioned before, like you don't need to have a food
dehydrate or you can do this on a rack, just
on your on your caunratop.

Speaker 2 (50:58):
Well, yeah, no, I've used I've made like a quick
I've made quick fermenters and quick you know drying racks
out of speed racks, you know, like a speed rack
where you put your sheet pans and I've just taken it.
I put a little heater on the bottom, plugged it
into the wall, have a little fan to circulate the air.
I have some sheet pans that are you know, have

(51:19):
holes in them. Yeah. Yeah, put everything on there and
let it for avent for a little bit. I made
a for an event years ago, mean, my brother did.
I did a Chinese kind of like a style sausage
that was fermented and it had to like get to
a certain temperature for like a week, you know, and
then it just hung in there at room temperature. You know,

(51:40):
it got hot. I had to heat it up and
then I had to leave it for room temperature, and
it shrunk from like about the size of a regular
It looked like a regular sausage you would buy at
the store to a little bit thicker than a slim gym.

Speaker 3 (51:54):
Yep.

Speaker 4 (51:54):
Interesting. Yeah, it's crazy, that's fun. It's so simple to do.
I mean, it really is.

Speaker 5 (51:57):
I mean I'm feeling a speed rack like it more.
Find something the food dehydrator. But if you've got one
lying around, you know, I guess I'm talking to people
who are in the culinary world. Sorry, if you're at home.

Speaker 2 (52:07):
The speed rack is an essential thing in most kitchens,
but not at home, I'm sorry.

Speaker 3 (52:14):
One of the things you want to watch if you're
doing a sausage type dehydration, you know, I'm making like
a like like you're saying with the Chinese style, or
if you're making like a pepperoni. Humidity is a big
part of it. If it's too dry, the outside dries
fast and we call that case hardening, and then the
inside can actually rot because it doesn't get rid of

(52:34):
the water. Yeah, So it's temperature, humidity, salinity, acidity are
all important things. So if you have a kind of
an acid based salty marinade, you can even smoke like jerky.
You can throw it on the smoker, and I got
to say that that buys some safety margin as well.

Speaker 2 (52:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (52:53):
Use that smoker makes a big difference on it too,
and it adds a lot of flavor. You've got a
lot of flavor to it. I mean, I'm big into
smoking things now. I have a pellet grill.

Speaker 4 (52:59):
I have actually have more than one, and it's the
greatest thing ever.

Speaker 2 (53:02):
I love it.

Speaker 4 (53:02):
I can't conn And Jeff, you've got one too. It's
the greatest thing.

Speaker 2 (53:04):
Yeah, no, no, I love it. You set it and
forget it. I'm the processcure and some beef belly right
now there and throwing the smoker.

Speaker 5 (53:11):
For a little bit. That's great. Yeah, it really is fun.
It really is a fun, fun way to do it, man.
I think it's delicious and things come out amazing.

Speaker 4 (53:18):
So you can try to. You can even do a
smoker at your house too.

Speaker 5 (53:20):
You have a little kettle grill, a little Weber kettle grill,
or even a small grill on your patio or something
like that. Just try putting a making a small fire
on one side of it and try to control that
temperature as best you can.

Speaker 4 (53:29):
It doesn't have to be a big fire.

Speaker 5 (53:30):
It can just be a little corner of it, or
a little like section where you keep the heat and
keep heat off the other side and put some wet
wood in there so it lightly smokes.

Speaker 4 (53:38):
You'll see what you can do with that's pretty fun.

Speaker 3 (53:41):
When we were doing this early on the farm, we
made a cold smoke generator out of a three liter
olive oil can and aquarium pump for air, and would
cold smoke inside of a wooden frame wrapped with brown
paper or cardboard and actually would hand I hung forty
pounds slabs of bacon in that thing that were triple

(54:04):
you know, three days smoked. You could smell it through flass.
It was so incredibly powerful, awesome. You can improvise quite
a bit.

Speaker 4 (54:13):
That's great. That's great. And how hot did that? How
hot was it to get in there?

Speaker 3 (54:16):
Like what would the temperature be under one hundred? Under
one hundred degrees? Cold's great? You don't want to melt
the fats cold smokings really like you can cold smoke cheese,
you know, things that actually melt because the tempts so though.

Speaker 5 (54:30):
That's what I was gonna get to have you ever
done any any kind of dairy and cold smoking cheese
or stuff like that, I believe or not. We did
a smoked milk at this hotel years ago, which is
kind of crazy to make a sauce out of it.

Speaker 3 (54:40):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 4 (54:40):
We got that. You can smoke it.

Speaker 3 (54:42):
We have and we have we have access to some
of the best cheeses on the planet because we're in
a bunch of the really good cheese shops, you know,
so everywhere from age you know, pick them all, they're
they're all great shops or New Morning Market has to.
Some of these people have gray cheese, cato corn. We're
the Salamia Gate of corner. Yeah, yeah, and oh just amazing.

(55:05):
Mark is just a genius out there. And so the
ability to get all those different cheese is well, when
you have them and they're kind of you know, either
bartered or you know, affordably priced, you can kind of
mess around with smoking them and using them a lot
of different ways. So we've tried a.

Speaker 1 (55:19):
Lot of that.

Speaker 5 (55:20):
Yeah, I mean, it's good stuff, I'll tell you, because
I mean even like a good smoked blue cheese. And
you can do it at your house too, Like you said,
you can build a small smoker. You can do it
on your smoker on the grill. Just keep the heat down.
It it's it's it's really good stuff. I'm telling you.
You haven't had smoked blue cheese on your steak yet.
You're missing out.

Speaker 2 (55:34):
Hey man, listen, this is my low brow throw in.
But smoke cream cheese. Yeah, forget about it.

Speaker 3 (55:41):
It's possibly a whole different flavor profile.

Speaker 2 (55:44):
Right. Oh yeah, rub, Throw it on your your favorite barbecue.
Rub just roll, roll the cream cheese in it. Throw
it right in your smoker, a piece of foil, low low,
low heat. Let it go until it browns up a little.

Speaker 3 (55:55):
Throw that on your charcotery board.

Speaker 2 (55:57):
Absolutely, you're welcome.

Speaker 3 (55:58):
Yep.

Speaker 5 (55:59):
Absolutely, I'm kind of I'm kind of an all right now,
what a great idea, Jeff, I mean, oh my gosh,
what temperature would it melt like?

Speaker 4 (56:06):
I'm worried about when you say, like, like ninety most
it'll go.

Speaker 2 (56:10):
I go aslo as it'll go.

Speaker 3 (56:11):
Old smoking's under one hundred degrees is kind of what
it's considered to be.

Speaker 2 (56:15):
If you have a smoking gun, you can take a
smoking gun and just stand there and keep filling your
wood chips. Poke a hole cup, poke, a few holes
in the back of a plug ziploc bag and then
put the hose in there, put your cream cheese in there,
pull it all the way up tight so that the
smoke is filling the bag. It'll fill the bag and
slowly filter out, and just keep dropping in smoke, and

(56:35):
keep dropping in smoke. You'll it'll taste delicious after an hour.

Speaker 4 (56:40):
That sounds incredible. You think an hour?

Speaker 2 (56:42):
Huh eh, I mean I like to go heavy. I
liked a lot of smoke.

Speaker 4 (56:45):
Yeah, that sounds great. I want to do that. What
a great move right there.

Speaker 5 (56:48):
I was just in France, Matt, and we were talking
about cheeses and I had one of my favorite things
I had there. It was the simplest, simplest dish you
could have ever had. It was it was amazing. It
was a just a it was a bree cheese that
was roasted right and it topped it with honey and
a little bit of salt and a little lavender and wow,

(57:10):
and it was just so it was. It was amazing,
so simple, it was just so delicious. I'm like, man,
do something like that and smoke it.

Speaker 4 (57:15):
Come on, let's go. I love all these things. I
want to make all this stuff.

Speaker 3 (57:20):
Yeah, we try to talk ourselves all the time out
of a retail or catering or a restaurant spot. That's
you know, charcootery cheese based. It'd be fun to do,
but I'm not doing it.

Speaker 4 (57:31):
Just another lot a lot of overhead in that. Man,
there's a lot of overhead in that. But yeah, I
mean I love the idea in the smoked cheese. That's
pretty good. That's that's a great one right there. You know,
one of the dishes I like to make with with
Matt salami in the summertime. I'll make a delicious tomato
salad out of it. And I think I've made it
for you before actually at the uh at the at

(57:52):
your house when we were there doing the thing with
Edible magazine, where I cooked down that salami and then
hit it with tomatoes and onion, like fresh tomatoes, like
went specialst tomatoes season little chivez, a little grog escape
uh and then finished it with a little sherry vinegar
and to serve with some bread to dip in. Man,
it's so delicious because that fat renders out of the salammy.

(58:12):
It's so good, wasn't it. I Mean, that's that's an
easy one.

Speaker 3 (58:14):
Delicious, wonderful.

Speaker 4 (58:16):
That's ay. What's the recipe you like to make.

Speaker 2 (58:18):
With a slamy?

Speaker 3 (58:19):
And sometimes we'll run a knife through it and I
throw it in a pan, and so I'll tell you
a little bit till the oil is coming out, and
then crack a few eggs on it.

Speaker 2 (58:25):
Oh there you go.

Speaker 3 (58:26):
That's absolutely delicious. I like mixing it. I was telling
I think maybe the last time I spoke with you,
I was told, you know, we had used apple slices
as the cracker. Oh yeah, with a strong cheese in
the in the salami, And I tell you it was
really remarkably good man. We have a bunch of board
I call them the board chicks. You know, they make

(58:46):
charcouterie boards, and they use our product and cheeses and stuff.
Like a Katie at new curds on the block. She'll
do it. And there's a there's quite a We have
quite a few. And you look at what they're mixing
and putting on the boards and it's just so cool.
All the different flavors that you get to combine. That
just still somehow, our soalami's bold and care it can

(59:09):
stand up to a real interesting array of contrasting or
complimentary flavors.

Speaker 4 (59:15):
Yeah, your your stuff's on any board I make because
it's just one of my favorite things to use.

Speaker 5 (59:18):
It's delicious. It's literally on every board I make. I
think when I was making Jeff.

Speaker 4 (59:22):
Any any salami recipes you like, buddy before we jump
into boards.

Speaker 2 (59:26):
Uh yeah, I add salami to everything. But I think
salami goes great in or on bread or on pizza
I love too. I would definitely take the the moor
and slice it really thin and then at top my
pizzas with it, and you know, as I'm making them,
I think it would be delicious.

Speaker 4 (59:43):
Stuff fat comes out, uh yep.

Speaker 2 (59:45):
Or the other thing I love to do is I
love to dice it up really small and dice up
some presciudo and add it to my sour dough like
I'll fold it into my final fold of the salar
dough and then bake that off, and it's like it's
just such a good I think they call it like
that bread. It's an Italian like kind of Pashuto bread
is what it used to be. But I like ussolami too,
it's so good.

Speaker 3 (01:00:05):
Yeah, stuff breads work really well with it too, and
then Pat Pass Guerrilla from a was Sugo down in
New York. He's moving to Atlanta now, but he loved
our stuff on pizza and so he still gets it
in the Vana for You has a couple of places
down there.

Speaker 5 (01:00:19):
Yeah, yeah, that's fantastic. I mean, do you find you
a lot of restaurant people using the product?

Speaker 3 (01:00:25):
Oh? Yeah, in the restaurant, So it's kind of again.
So this is one of the downsides of not being
a standardized product. I firmly believe we'd be in every
Barcelona that they have. But because we're not the same diameter,
you can't say I'm putting six slices or ten slices
on this charcootery board and it's going to be two
ounces or whatever it is. You have to be able

(01:00:48):
to vary and go with it. And they set it up,
you know, systems and restaurants, you know it's ten slices,
and if you get ten big slices, it's great, but
if they're ten little slices, it's not as great from
the customer's experience. So we just don't fit with some
of the larger operations to be able to just you know,
make it. Uh, it's terrible word. But the idiot proof system, right,

(01:01:10):
We're the same every single time. Now ours requires you know, hey,
I need a few more slices because this you know
stick was a thinner diameter or or not right.

Speaker 2 (01:01:20):
But not having a just so just a scale and
and a little bit of wax paper would fix it.
It's such a silly thing not to have to have
a great product. Now that's weird.

Speaker 3 (01:01:31):
Yeah, any way, I have folks that do.

Speaker 4 (01:01:34):
So he was telling the story, I'm shaking my head.
I'm like, what what's so hard about this?

Speaker 2 (01:01:37):
Just yeah, that's what I'm like. I'm like, we're just
I mean I would portion it every every order. Just wait,
I mean way done?

Speaker 5 (01:01:45):
You know yeah, yeah, no doubt about it. What about
making charcooterie boards here? But we got a few minutes
for our next break here. I want to just bring
it up. Like for me, I have a couple of
simple rules. And it's it's not rules, it's it's what
I go by guidelines for myself. I want three different
types of uh, some sort of of of meat on there,
some sort of protein. I want three different types of cheeses.
I want a cheese to be like something that's standard

(01:02:06):
that people know. Give me a good smoked cheddar or
something simple that people realize, a guda, you know. But
then give me something soft, and then give me something
something special, something different, something that isn't the norm, right,
And then as far as everything else on there, I
kind of use it to fill in. I don't mind
or hate fruit on there, but I think it can
be overpowering. I love using dried fruit and nuts I
think are great to have on there as well. And

(01:02:27):
I like to keep my crackers or any kind of
bread points that's on a separate platter when I make
That's what I do. And like I said, it's not
like a it's very very basic rules I just followed
if I'm making a board, and that's the ones I
teach my you know, the girls that work for me
in the summertime, I taught teaching them how to make it,
because then it's just okay, if I do it like
this each time, it's gonna look great. And try to
keep off any of the stuff that doesn't need to
be there. Do you want need to put rosemary sprigs

(01:02:48):
for no reason? Don't don't just put holly bushes on there,
like just because I should have all Yeah, I don't
do all that. Just let the stuff speak for itself,
and it works pretty well. Jeffy, what about you. You
got any like, like, you know, guidelines you like?

Speaker 2 (01:03:01):
Yeah, well, first of all, I love to garnish my boards. Immediately.
I put the garnishes on first, and then it's trying
to right now, and then I work around the garnishes.

Speaker 4 (01:03:09):
Stop it.

Speaker 3 (01:03:13):
Rosemary twig kind of yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:03:15):
I take a twig and I just throw it on there,
and then I'm gonna hang up.

Speaker 4 (01:03:18):
I'm gonna kick him, kick him off wood.

Speaker 2 (01:03:20):
Maybe I'll do it on a piece of drift wood,
you know, just build it off there. Shout out to
Cheryl's stair. She taught me that. Okay, terrific, No, but seriously,
I kind of agree with you. I usually go a
big chunk of palm, a goat almost standard, some sort
of goat something, and then a stinky whether it's blue

(01:03:40):
or something special or whatever. And then I almost always
like to add a little bit of fruit, whether it's
dried or fresh.

Speaker 6 (01:03:47):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:03:47):
Sometimes I go nuts, and then it's always like salami
and protrudo. Uh, sometimes mortadella or something like that, you know.
But for the most part. You know, it's pretty standard.
Like I don't like to add honey and syrups and
sauces to.

Speaker 5 (01:04:01):
It, though I'm not a fan of either. That, Matt,
we got we got one minute, Matt. What about you
giving people tips where we get you out of you
and get a good plug for you.

Speaker 3 (01:04:07):
Well, you know we are sharkootery, so we shark cootery.
We always say we're on board with shar cootery boards.
We need a little bit of a vinegar thing, right,
You need something to kind of cut through some of
the fats that are on the board. So little pickled
onion things are kind of cool, the little cork here's
a word, I can't say, little cucumbers. Those things are perfect.

(01:04:32):
As far as fruit stuff you were mentioned, dried fig,
dried apricot are kind of really cool on board. So
they just have a different texture to me than a
lot of different fruits. Some fruit stuff I was mentioning
like the crispy So now a texture or a palette difference.
A crispy apple works really well. Like I was saying,
some of the sweet stuff that's out there, I like.

(01:04:55):
I like nuts on the board. Of course, you need
we sharkootery on a shark cootery board.

Speaker 2 (01:05:00):
And that's absolutely that's.

Speaker 3 (01:05:02):
Why we're part of the Solomonadi you.

Speaker 4 (01:05:04):
Know, Soluminati.

Speaker 3 (01:05:06):
I love it.

Speaker 2 (01:05:06):
I love it.

Speaker 4 (01:05:07):
Make sure you check out we Sharkuterie. Go to we
Charcuterie dot com.

Speaker 5 (01:05:10):
That's oh Ui as in we and of course go
to we Charcuterie on Instagram and check them out. Try
some of this product. It's great stuff. It's made with
love and with passion, no doubt about it. Matt Brian,
you are a legend here in our state. We appreciate
you and you are building some of the coolest things
we've ever seen.

Speaker 2 (01:05:26):
Brother.

Speaker 4 (01:05:27):
Thanks taking the time to hang out with us.

Speaker 3 (01:05:28):
Brothers, you guys rock man. I thank you for the
Salami King song and for having us on here, and
anytime you want to talk, I'm always available.

Speaker 4 (01:05:36):
We appreciate it, and we come back right here on
Plumbla Foods. I'm gonna tell you all about pro stars.
Stay right there.

Speaker 5 (01:05:40):
I'm Chef plumb and chef chef on w I see
the voice of Connecticut Plumblo Foods.

Speaker 4 (01:05:44):
We're right back, Thanks Matt.

Speaker 3 (01:05:46):
Peace, guys.

Speaker 4 (01:06:09):
On a little foods on here on a Saturday big
shout out to our guests joining us here.

Speaker 5 (01:06:14):
Matt Browning from we Charcuterie. H some great charcuterie, some
great stuff. There's some great tips chippy for if you
want to try it at home. You know, but I
gotta give it. I gotta get up for Matt.

Speaker 4 (01:06:22):
He wasn't giving away much, was he.

Speaker 2 (01:06:24):
Well, he has a lot of proprietary technique, I think,
but he told us like some good secrets. I think,
you know, I think knowing what what kind of pork
you're looking for, getting it nice and lean, getting that
back fat, you know, getting the right product, and then
get out there and do your own homework. I mean,
YouTube is your friend. Google's my favorite cookbook. I mean,
I don't know about you, but you know, you're absolutely right.

Speaker 4 (01:06:44):
Thing.

Speaker 2 (01:06:45):
You know, you're actually right.

Speaker 4 (01:06:46):
You can get out there and you can learn all
kinds of stuff, and you can get out there and
you can buy one of those uh you know, the
the hydrog is like thirty bucks or whatever it was
I found Amazon.

Speaker 2 (01:06:53):
The Yeah, it's crazy just to start, just to start
your own thing, you know. See I see if it's
something you want to get into, or you.

Speaker 5 (01:07:00):
Could jump on there and just Google, how many you
know men would survive against the gorilla?

Speaker 4 (01:07:04):
Can you believe that was the thing on the internet?
Like it's still kind of going on.

Speaker 2 (01:07:07):
It is definitely still kind of going on. It's a
hot debait, and I I'd have to say, I'm giving
it to the gorilla in most scenarios, unless you know,
we get some really large gentlemen in there, and there's
a lot of coordination, some yokozunas. It's got to be coordination,
and some people who got to be willing to die.
You gotta be and you gotta be able to keep

(01:07:28):
moving when they die.

Speaker 5 (01:07:29):
But do you think that a chef would be a
good leader for this situation? That's my question for you,
because I think they might be. I think a chef
might be a like, like the best leader for this
whole situation because we get things done, we're gonna be quick,
we're going to be efficient, and we understand that we
might lose some along the way.

Speaker 2 (01:07:46):
So I'm gonna say maybe, uh, I think as a chef,
I think a lot of chefs sometimes can be a
little passionate, a little hot headed. Maybe maybe.

Speaker 5 (01:07:57):
You know what's good that means to pull the trigger quicker.
They won't have we can't hesitate. We're fighting a gorilla.

Speaker 2 (01:08:02):
I think I think you gotta. I think you gotta
fight a gorilla very very very smart, especially if you're
bare handed. You know, there's there's a lot a lot
of technique involved when you're wrestling a gorilla. Wrestling when
when you when you were when you wrestle, but with
an animal, it's.

Speaker 4 (01:08:21):
No, that makes total sense. That that that that checks
out completely. I couldn't agree more my votes for the
people because I think people, you know, we've been here
this long. We used to fight t rexes with nothing
but rocks, sticks and no coordination.

Speaker 2 (01:08:34):
All right, time out. You never said one hundred men
with rocks and sticks.

Speaker 4 (01:08:40):
No, no, no rocks and sticks. We get nothing this time.
We just have our brains and our communication.

Speaker 2 (01:08:44):
Oh see, that's got We weren't fighting t rexes with
brains and communication.

Speaker 4 (01:08:48):
With right, we had rocks and sticks instead.

Speaker 2 (01:08:50):
Very differently, so you ain't fighting a gorilla with the
with the gorilla teeth and there's big big arms, big
old bill arms.

Speaker 4 (01:08:59):
Yeah, I don't think it matters. I think versus one
hundred people, I mean it's going down and they're gonna
jump like mad high right, they're like twice and then
they're tired. Like gorillas in the wild, don't fight. They
don't have the most possible animal ever. Have you never
seen Tarzan Legend of gray Stoke? Oh? Is there that
a good movie?

Speaker 2 (01:09:18):
Oh my gosh, it's one of the best movies. It's
the guy who plays the Highlander is Tarzan?

Speaker 5 (01:09:23):
Okay, this is that we're going too deep here. My
vote's on the gorilla and we're gonna have a We're
actually gonna sign up. We're gonna have this whole event
happened at Mohigan Sun. We're gonna get a grilla. We're
gonna have the plumblove foods grilla fight. It's gonna be amazing.
I'm in gonna think we're actually gonna do that. I'm
just kidding.

Speaker 2 (01:09:35):
I'm not gonna fighte the gorilla, but I will commentate
while the men throw themselves at the gorilla's mercy.

Speaker 4 (01:09:41):
That sounds great. But I was recently at a very
similar competition in Baltimore called the National pro Start Finale,
And it's pro Start as the National Restaurant Association's Education foundation.
Uh it is their high school culinary program, Jeffy, and
I was honored yet again this year to be asked
to be a judge. You know, not everybody gets to

(01:10:03):
judge this. It's a very procedures honor to be asked
to judge. And of course they asked your boy to
be out there.

Speaker 2 (01:10:08):
That's amazing. Did you do your underground fight club again
this year in the parking lot after it was all done?

Speaker 4 (01:10:13):
No, I didn't do an underground fight club with the kids.

Speaker 5 (01:10:16):
But I'll tell you, man, these kids they train all
year long, they have to compete at their state level.
When they win their state level, they get invited to
come to nationals and they you know nationals, there's hundreds
of thousand of dollars in scholarships.

Speaker 4 (01:10:28):
They get to go to school. It's a big, big ordeal.

Speaker 2 (01:10:30):
It's probably ten How hard is it for a school
to get into pro Start, Like is there a lot
of money involved? For No, no program like that.

Speaker 5 (01:10:39):
To implement the program into your current culinary program, it's
really really easy. I don't think it really You just
file follow the curriculum. They helped you do it, They
get you involved, and it's a great program, it really is.
I mean, it's something that I wish was around when
I was a kid, I probably would have gotten involved
with it. But no, No, it's very very simple to
get involved with and it kind of gives you the
curriculum and you learn basics. It's like you know, culinary

(01:10:59):
one on oneasically. And then these kids they do other
things throughout the year, but for the most part, they
practice these dishes every single day that they're going to
compete with and the techniques and everything. Because it's not
just making the food. They have to have two different
knife cuts, they have to have two different cooking methods,
and they have to learn all these methods. I have
to know which ones they're using, be able to say
which ones are using. Now, the kicker here is the
entire competition in the state level and the national level, Jeff.

(01:11:21):
They have no running water and no electricity. They get
two bututane burners and that's it. They can bring jugs
of water, but that's it. Wow, it's interesting, and they
have to complete a yeah, three course meal out of it.
And you know it's crazy because the competition itself, I
mean everything from the food they bring gets judged and
checked in by the check in judges. The sanitation you know,

(01:11:45):
their menu skills, their menu writing skills, their cooking ability.
The flavors of course hold the heaviest weight. But there's
also another competition called the management competition, which these kids,
a different group of kids, then put together an entire
business plan, like a real life business plan with funding
and everything, to open a restaurant, and they present it
to the judges. And that's the other competition. It's the

(01:12:07):
it's the manager competition and the culinary competition.

Speaker 4 (01:12:10):
Pretty crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:12:11):
That is really crazy.

Speaker 5 (01:12:12):
It's intense and eusy, like ten thousand people, I'm telling you,
people are cheering, going crazy. It's like a college football game.
It's the closest thing to college football game you can get.
Recently on Instagram, I put on it's the only real
culinary sport that there is, and so many people commented
back to me, and it pickures people who are involved
with the restaurant association with pro Start where like, you
were absolutely right, They were like, I wish the rest

(01:12:33):
of the world understood how intense and crazy this is,
because it's exactly what it is. It is the true
culinary sport. It might as well be it might as
well be college football.

Speaker 2 (01:12:40):
And so say It says that it sounds like it
has the same energy as college football or college basketball,
like the same kind of like you know, crowd pumping
getting excited. The intensity of the of the kids while
they're doing their work is going to be incredible because
they're so focused and trying not to get anything wrong
and there's so many little moving parts that they have

(01:13:01):
to think about and like it's a It just sounds
really and especially as a chef, knowing what goes into that,
that's what makes it really intense, I think too, and
you know.

Speaker 5 (01:13:08):
As a judge as a chef too. It's also very
air quote in the word chefy. We have to wear tokes,
you have to wear white like it's very very you're
very like you're yours. Yeah oh yeah, wow yeah, black shoes,
black pants, white coat, toke Oh yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:13:23):
I mean it's choke the whole time. Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (01:13:25):
How do they know it too?

Speaker 4 (01:13:28):
I'm hard to miss, Cheffy, I'm pretty loud. I think
I might have been the first. So I judge what's.

Speaker 5 (01:13:33):
Called uh teamwork and skills and stuff like that, right,
and so yeah, I judge your menu difficulty by reading it.
I mean I can't really I don't really understand the
menu difficulty part because I don't taste it, but I
can tell by their reading them by their skills, like
how difficult their menu is. And I have a big
thing when it comes to the menus. I'm like, it
doesn't have to be a necessarily difficult food, but songs

(01:13:54):
is done properly. For instance, this team did like a
filet menon and they made a chicken noodle soup.

Speaker 4 (01:13:59):
But they made the new noodles. They made the stock
like they made everything. You know, they made everything right there.
They made a chicken stock in like an hour in
a pressure cooker. Was crazy, but you know.

Speaker 5 (01:14:07):
And these kids also will take their burners and they'll
get these giant iron plates and put it on top
almost like a big flat top burner, so they war
space to cook on. And they used you can use
a camping stove, uh, so you can put like a
camping thing on top of your cassette burner to make
like a stove out of it or an oven out
of it.

Speaker 4 (01:14:25):
Last year had a KitchenAid mixer.

Speaker 5 (01:14:28):
They were from Pennsylvania and they had gotten it from
Amish Country, and the entire motor and all the working
parts on the inside had been removed and it was
put gears and it was a hand crank kitchen, aaid mixer.

Speaker 2 (01:14:40):
That's awesome.

Speaker 4 (01:14:41):
It was pretty cool.

Speaker 5 (01:14:42):
I mean, yeah, so some of the things they do
it it's really really neat, you know, watching people grind
rice up to make like certain things and just the
menus change. There's always the teams that we always joke
and say, uh, is this scaliber duck? Is this caliber
duck because they always do that. But then you have
some teams that came out. The team from Connecticut, for instance,
came out and did an entire Asian menu and they
made they made, you know, all the noodles and everything.

Speaker 4 (01:15:02):
Was pretty cool. They did a great job. Wow, I didn't.

Speaker 5 (01:15:06):
It's been a lot of time with them since my
home state, and you can't talk to your home state
a lot. But you know, do you remember the winners.

Speaker 2 (01:15:12):
Of the of the thing I do? Who won? Who lost?

Speaker 4 (01:15:16):
Like a yeah, California.

Speaker 5 (01:15:18):
California was the big culinary number one, Like they won
first place in culinary. I was blown away by a
team from Colorado. So each culinary team is usually five people,
rights to it can't be any more than five, but
most time it's five. This particular team from Colorado, it's
the only purpose I can't. I shouldn't say that, but.

Speaker 4 (01:15:38):
They were amazing and they blew me away, and they
had actually.

Speaker 5 (01:15:44):
It was a team of three. It was three females,
and I didn't really think. They kept pointing My other
judge team were pointing out, Oh, I just can't. These
three girls were amazing. I was like, stop saying, three girls.
They're three cooks and they're doing a great job. I
don't care if they're male, if it doesn't matter to me. Right,
they were killing it. It's basically a ten by ten
square you work out of. And they have a speed wreck,
which is we talked about earlier the speedwrecks with the

(01:16:05):
you know, the trays in them.

Speaker 4 (01:16:07):
They had the speedwrack perfectly.

Speaker 5 (01:16:08):
Measured out to where the three of them at all
points in time moved the exact same distance to get
to the speed wrack. There was no wasted motion. They
were unflappable. They just made some amazing food and crushed it.
And they got fifth place. And Colorado has never placed before,
so they got fifth place, which is great for them.
They got like, you know, three granded scholarships each or
something like that. But it's a really big deal and
that they get called. There's ten thousand people watching when

(01:16:29):
they get call the names up for the winners, and
it's pretty intense.

Speaker 4 (01:16:32):
And you know, I'm very, very proud of them.

Speaker 5 (01:16:34):
They were awesome when I get to give feedback to
the kids when they come back, so when they take
their bings in for tasting, they describe their food. They
come back out to get from skills where I am
to get feedback from us on the floor. And I
told these three particular, this team from Colorado, I said,
you know, I don't have much to say to you.
You know, I always start with them. I tell them
I'm proud of them. I'm proud of you for being here.
You know, it's amazing that you're here. You know, I mean,

(01:16:56):
this is there's thousands of people who want to be here,
and here you are so soak it in. Take the
time to absorb this, and I'm proud of you.

Speaker 2 (01:17:01):
And there you smash them absolutely well.

Speaker 5 (01:17:03):
And I said to them that, you know, the only
real feedback I have for you is that you guys
are badasses.

Speaker 4 (01:17:09):
I mean, what you just did was incredible. I mean
I've never seen anybody. I said I would hire all
three of you tomorrow, and a heartbeat, I would hire you.
And they were awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:17:17):
That's awesome. An, So that's your favorite that was your
favorite team?

Speaker 4 (01:17:21):
Yeah, I thought they were really really great.

Speaker 2 (01:17:23):
Free piece from Colorados child.

Speaker 4 (01:17:26):
Well Destney's childs from Colorado, Jeffrey. But I will tell one.
I'll tell one bad story if you want to hear it.

Speaker 2 (01:17:31):
Yeah, I want to hear a bad story. I want
to hear how you broke somebody down. I want to
hear how you broke dreams.

Speaker 4 (01:17:35):
So there's rules, and there's certain sanitation rules and their
stantation judges.

Speaker 5 (01:17:40):
But if you we all kind of work together. So
if I see something that Santation didn't see, I'll tell
them so they know.

Speaker 4 (01:17:45):
So there's one particular team.

Speaker 2 (01:17:47):
You're a tattletale as well. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:17:49):
I don't want to say where the team is from,
but this one particular team, it's not Connecticut.

Speaker 4 (01:17:52):
I will say that they were doing scallops. Imagine that,
and this girl had she was cleaning her scallops and
doing all her stuff and handling her raw seafood. She
had gloves on and then she put her slobs in
the pan and was cooking and doing some other stuff
for about five or six minutes, and she never changed
her gloves right, And I was watching her, and I
was watching and I walked away for a second, and

(01:18:13):
I came back and I was watching her, and then
I walked up to her and, uh, you and I
both know, like you can eat raw scalops, like it's
probably fine, but it's the rules. You know, it's the rules.
And they all know the rules.

Speaker 5 (01:18:25):
And they've been doing this menu and they've been working
so hard on it. It's always a little things that
catch them as things you take for granted that they
catch up that they mess up on. They'll take the
time to measure out their cuts and their in their
small dice and to make everything perfect right, But like
you've been doing it so much, you don't think about
things like change your gloves. And she I walked up
to her and I said, do me a favorite. Please

(01:18:48):
take a deep breath first and then look at me.
And she did that because they're so intense. And I said,
I have to ask you a question, but I want
you to keep going, okay, no matter what, you keep going.
She goes, yes, Chef I said, have you changed your
gloves since you clean your scallops? And she It took
about three seconds and she started hyperventilating and the tears
just started coming down her face.

Speaker 4 (01:19:09):
And her teammates like, what what what happened?

Speaker 2 (01:19:10):
What happened?

Speaker 4 (01:19:11):
What happened? And I said, changing right now for me
and just do your just just keep doing, you know,
keep going here. Let's start to start them over.

Speaker 5 (01:19:21):
Anyway, So long story short, I mean, Jeffy, she was hyperventilating.

Speaker 4 (01:19:25):
It was she was screaming that she she she ruined
everything for her team like she did it. She was
it was it was that that seems a little over
the top, but no, she was definitely a little bit
over the top. There's no question. And here's the thing,
like it wouldn't She's not getting disqualified for it.

Speaker 2 (01:19:40):
Just tears.

Speaker 5 (01:19:41):
Did you oh that taste them? Did you like collect
any I don't collect high school kids tears. I'm collecting
tears from younger people.

Speaker 2 (01:19:50):
I just think that's a good thing.

Speaker 5 (01:19:52):
I'm just kidding, I'm collecting anybody's tears, by the way, Yeah,
so they came listen, So they came back for their
feedback from us, and by this point, the our team
is crying and there are disasters. They don't they don't
want to mess up, and like I have daughters, man,
like they're you know, it's it's it's it's just washing.
I'm sure, okay. And my heart was breaking for them,

(01:20:13):
and I walked up to them and and I was
feeling the tears come all myself. So I just knew,
like I know how they feel.

Speaker 4 (01:20:19):
Like you work so hard, you're there, You've got to
where you've been trying to get to for so long,
and you're finally here.

Speaker 5 (01:20:25):
You were a senior in high school. You didn't make
it the past three years, and you made it this year.
You're finally here.

Speaker 4 (01:20:29):
You've been practicing and practicing, and then something done like
that happens, and.

Speaker 2 (01:20:33):
Then you come along with your rules just ruin everything
for these poor kids.

Speaker 4 (01:20:38):
It's more about safety that I have to you feel better.

Speaker 2 (01:20:40):
I hope you feel good about yourself.

Speaker 4 (01:20:42):
Can I finish the story, Jeff, So I told her.
I said, I got walked up to them.

Speaker 5 (01:20:50):
Their heads are down, I mean tears are dripping from
their face to the ground, like they won't look at me.
And I said, all of you look at me. Right now,
look at me, right now, I said, you're here. Thousands
of people want to be here. You are a champion already.
Pick your head up. Champions won't ever put their heads down.
You pick your head up, and you look at me,
and you take what's coming and you absorb it and

(01:21:11):
you move on. You don't make any more mistakes and
you move forward because that's who you are. You're a champion.
You're already you've already won. You're here, and you just
build them up. Man, just tell them like like this
is this is not the end of the world. You know,
this is just a part of your story. It's not
your entire book. You know, this just happened, and this
is going to make you better and anyway. And I
told them that their dessert looked great, like like you

(01:21:32):
had some good things too.

Speaker 4 (01:21:33):
But it's always the little things.

Speaker 5 (01:21:35):
And I said, what separates a great chef from a
from an okay chef from a good chef. The great
chef does the little things, remembers the little things, and
that comes that comes with time. It just comes with experience.
It just comes with doing it over and over and
just understanding it absolutely. You know, I said, I've made
one or two mistakes in my life.

Speaker 4 (01:21:54):
I get it.

Speaker 5 (01:21:55):
Yeah maybe, I mean, you know, but yeah, so I
try to build them up and I don't know, they
were still kind of a mess when they left, but
like they shook my hand said thank you, chef, and
you know, I don't know what their final score was,
and I don't want to say the team, but yeah,
it sucked. It made me feel really bad to have
to say that.

Speaker 4 (01:22:08):
And then I watched another team some similar something happened
where their dessert got it got stuck to the sheep pan.
They couldn't get it off, and they tried to take
it off. Oh they do too fast.

Speaker 5 (01:22:19):
They didn't taken They should have taken a knife and
pulled the bottom of it off, lifted up, and they didn't,
and it like broke and went.

Speaker 4 (01:22:23):
Everywhere and they didn't get it on the plate.

Speaker 5 (01:22:25):
It was I mean, when that happens, See, the only
way you get this qualified if you don't put at
least three plates up, you get this qualified. And they
were counting down like ten nine. I was like, get
it on the plate, get on the plate, get it
on the plate. Seven and they're like, I was like,
they just decorated play with a bunch of chocolate and
some sugar and some other stuff.

Speaker 4 (01:22:43):
And I said, just put the plate down. Put the
plate down.

Speaker 5 (01:22:46):
So at least they sent something, so they made got
a lot of points for it. At least they weren't disqualified.
Oh it's intense, man, it is intense. And uh, you
know some great chefs there, Chef Matt Welch from West Virginia,
the Vagamon Chef, the Vagabond Chef. Yeah, we love him,
he's there, Chef Patrick, Chef Brian Ramira from California. It's

(01:23:07):
just an amazing group of chefs from all across the
country who come. And you know, it's not about like
chefs being on TV or it's nothing to do with
any of that. It's all about supporting these kids and
changing lives. And I would come in every morning and
I would chuck my coffee. I look at Chef Brian
Hey who he's like the lead judge on all this stuff.
We're gona him on the show. He's a fantastic guy. Yeah,
And I just look at him, good morning, chef, and

(01:23:28):
he said, good morning, chef. I said, time to inspire
some children and change some lives. And he was like
I hate you on coffee, But what a fantastic event.
If you ever in the Baltimore area and it's in
you know that events around you should go to it.
People come and just watch. It's crazy, you know. I
mean everybody like had a bunch.

Speaker 2 (01:23:46):
This year.

Speaker 4 (01:23:47):
There were the most spectators I've ever seen.

Speaker 5 (01:23:49):
Team Texas shows up with a marching band and like
there's one hundred fifty people watching and they're yelling and
like one.

Speaker 4 (01:23:54):
Person goes like this, they go one dream, one team,
one dream, one team.

Speaker 5 (01:24:00):
Team Ohio is going, oh Wio, like Ohio State, you know,
like the buck Eyes, Oh Whoow. West Virginia they're singing
the West Virginia song, you know take oh Nope, I
Sweet Home Alabama.

Speaker 4 (01:24:17):
West Virginia is West Virginia Mount Mama Take, you know.

Speaker 5 (01:24:24):
And they're all singing the top of their lungs and
it's so loud and just it's crazy, and they're screaming
and the countdown starts. Everybody's going nuts, and like some teams,
you have to we have to put a judge next
to the crowd because the crowd is start yelling things
out to the or trying to whisper things to the
students that they forget.

Speaker 4 (01:24:39):
They Oh, yeah, we've had to eject people before. No,
we had to eject people before.

Speaker 2 (01:24:45):
Can you hold up signs with recipes on them?

Speaker 4 (01:24:47):
No? But people do hold up There's tons of signs.
It's like it's like watching w W E ral all
the post a board signs that are out there.

Speaker 2 (01:24:53):
That's awesome.

Speaker 4 (01:24:54):
It's pretty intense.

Speaker 3 (01:24:55):
Man.

Speaker 4 (01:24:55):
It's a great It's it's really really great.

Speaker 5 (01:24:56):
And that's something that I'm so proud of to be
a part of and just really an amazing, an amazing
thing to be a part of and hopefully help with
some kids. And there's some kids who want a lot
of money get to pay for college because of this.

Speaker 2 (01:25:06):
So it's great. That's really great. It's really cool that
you would do that. And I think, I mean, you'd
be proud of me.

Speaker 4 (01:25:13):
I'm really nice to kids. You'd be proud of me.

Speaker 2 (01:25:15):
I mean, other than the ones you may cry, I think, Yeah,
I think it's great. And the fact that you went
back and then you're the guy who did ruin their
dreams but then also told them to man up. That
was some real bootstrap speech. That's great. That was some
Republican stuff. I like that. You know whoa are you
telling me?

Speaker 4 (01:25:32):
First of all?

Speaker 5 (01:25:34):
Are you telling me that I'm not good at making
a speech? Like I can't cut a promo?

Speaker 2 (01:25:38):
So dude, come out.

Speaker 4 (01:25:40):
I cut some of the best promos out all the
chef's the entire state of Connecticut.

Speaker 2 (01:25:43):
What are you talking about it? Listen, man, some of
the best promos are by the bad guys. That's true.
That's true. You gotta just be careful bragging about the
promo talk.

Speaker 5 (01:25:53):
I'm just saying I'm not a bad guy. I was
total babyface there. Well, I have to say something, buddy.
I can't leave it alone. I did take a kid's
pepper out of the trash can. He was cutting a
pepper and he didn't finish cutting the pepper. It was
a complete waste and we measure how much waste they
have too. But he didn't take the sticker off of
it right. He was cutting it and he tried to

(01:26:16):
hide it from me, and I pulled out of the
trash can. When I went to go talk to him,
I said, you guys wash your vegetables and he was like, yes,
of course, and I was like, really, because ald stickers
are still on them. You just cut it up and
just foreign objects in the food, brother, and they were like, well,
our teacher, our instructor, told us that we had to
leave it how it came from the grocery store. And
I was like, make sure you're right. Tell me everything
that's right that he said, because I'm going to say
something to him.

Speaker 4 (01:26:36):
If you did.

Speaker 5 (01:26:37):
And they were like, oh, you know, yeah, well you
know they it gets It gets real real quick sometimes too.
So you know, there's a couple of years ago I
broke batt on the team and I told a god,
he should never work in this business.

Speaker 4 (01:26:49):
It was it was ye that that happened too. That's
a whole of the story for other day. But you know,
we got about a minute show Jeffrey.

Speaker 2 (01:26:54):
But you know I had to. I had to.

Speaker 4 (01:26:55):
He was he was a jerk to his team. You
cannot be a jerk to your team.

Speaker 3 (01:26:58):
WHOA do it?

Speaker 2 (01:27:00):
I love that just to that's worth the price permission
right there. Yeah, I was.

Speaker 4 (01:27:05):
My heart was pounding.

Speaker 2 (01:27:06):
I was so upset. I was so mad. I was
so mad.

Speaker 4 (01:27:09):
You know, you can't be a jerk to your team, buddy,
That's how it works.

Speaker 2 (01:27:11):
Big shout to our friend.

Speaker 4 (01:27:12):
Go ahead, Jeffy, Sorry, buddy, you I just said no.

Speaker 2 (01:27:14):
You love people, and like when you see somebody being disrespected,
you don't say it.

Speaker 5 (01:27:19):
For that, I can't help it. Big shout to our
friend Matt Browan from we Charcuterier. Make sure you check
out we that's oh Ui charcuterie dot com. Great products,
great stuff, even better human. We appreciate him for coming
on the program today and hanging out with us. Shout
out to you, Jeffy, Thank you guys listening plumb the
foods right at w I c see. Remember, food is
one of the most important things we have in life.
Everything important life evolves around food, just the time it deserves.

(01:27:40):
We'll see you guys later. Take care

Speaker 4 (01:27:56):
And the rest