Meat Curing Enthusiast, Judge, Charcuterier, & Teacher
- Ambassador, Selected as a Judge at the World Charcuterie Awards in London 2023 (https://www.worldcharcuterieawards.com/)
- Studying, Teaching, Publishing, and Researching resources on Meat Curing, Cold Smoking & Hot smoking
- Designed various meat curing chambers and environmental drying areas
- Written Over 200 Articles on Meat Curing and Smoking
- US Radio Show Interview about Preserving and Curing Meat
- Dry Curing Consultant for Design and Craft Development of Dry Cured Meats
- Consultant in the Food Industry in Scotland
- Established the Eat Cured Meat Online Whole Muscle Charcuterie Course
- Participated in the River Cottage Meat Curing Course – (I may have known more than the instructor at the time)
- Bachelor of Science from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand
Background
Over 25 years of studying, testing, building curing chambers, and savoring cured and smoked meats from all over the world.
Learning and consuming in a circular way, I am always interested in what is happening around the curing and smoking world.
The goal of this site is to create a useful and helpful resource online to ‘demystify’ and give scientifically proven advice about curing and smoking meat.
Both from a preservation perspective and also flavor, I want to share, what has been the most passionate subject I’ve had all my adult life.
Writing, researching, and presenting have always been skills that I have enjoyed developing (I can talk too, but I have slowly developed the subtle art of listening).
Being partially brought up on a farm and in the city. I was fishing and hunting from about 5 years old. Luckily, I live in a place where there is plenty of wildlife and opportunities to hunt everything from rabbits to deer (too many in many instances).
“Having worked across the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia and New Zealand – I have been lucky enough to have explored my meat-curing passion all across Europe, spending months at a time in Italy, loitering around classic pig butchers – the Norcini.”
Personal Story
My father was an expert entertainer and talker. I was involved at an early age in meat and in charge of many catering events around a charcoal, wood, or gas/propane grill.
Catching curing and smoking trout, began in my adolescence.
Grilling, Smoking, and BBQing – I have practiced for 25 years now. Whether it’s charcoal, woodfired, pellet grill, gas, portable, or an Italian pizza oven – I can adapt and prosper in front of these cooking devices.
I’ve harvested and used many types of small and large game for meat curing and charcuterie projects. We farm pigs specifically for testing and developing different styles of charcuterie and dry-cured meats.
After studying and working in various food-related fields, I’ve evolved from a cook to a meat-curing enthusiast, who now teaches others about meat curing and smoking.
We have produced some enticing venison biltong, Hungarian salami, and spicy venison salami. With dozens of recipes refined over many years of production.
We now enjoy a dedicated private charcuterie processing facility. A dedicated ‘man cave’ for those passionate about salami!
After building my first DIY curing chamber over 20 years ago, I really started to experiment and have expanded into not just Mediterranean/European styles of meat curing, but also Asia and African styles.
My curing chambers has been used for many other projects as well, including but not limited to:
- growing oyster mushrooms
- dehydrating fruit & vegetables (yes it has a heater and a compressor)
- hanging large hind legs of venison
- making beer and wine
- drying biltong and jerky
- drying spices/herbs
Learning also from a professional Dutch butcher the simple techniques around cold smoking and his dry curing was insightful in my 20s. I would turn up with a wild boar/pig, and learn.
This was at a time when there wasn’t any information available on the subject online too!
Now with worldly experience in curing and smoking foods, to be invited to the Inaugural World Charcuterie Awards in London was incredible, though the delay to the event meant I would attend next year.