Meat Curing Enthusiast, Judge, Charcuterier, & Teacher

  • Ambassador, Selected as a Judge at the World Charcuterie Awards in London (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
  • Other sites I’ve written for about Smokers Pellet Grill Smoker and Pellethub, Various Articles

Background

Over 25 years of studying, testing, building curing chambers, and savoring cured and smoked meats worldwide.

Learning and consuming circularly, I am always interested in what is happening around the curing and smoking world.

The goal of this site is to create a useful resource online that’ demystifies’ and gives useful 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.

Tom and charcuterie board italy salumi large

Writing, researching, and presenting have always been skills I have enjoyed developing (I can talk, too, but I have slowly developed the subtle art of listening).

Tom hold charcuterie board 1 large

I was partially raised on a farm and in the city. I have been fishing and hunting since I was about 5 years old. Luckily, I live in a place with plenty of wildlife and opportunities to hunt everything from rabbits to deer (too many in many instances).

Parma and tom large

“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.”

Gardoni and tom salumi large

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.

I have practiced and worked around Meat Curing, Cold Smoking, Charcuterie and Grilling for 25 years now.

I’ve harvested and used many small and large game types for meat curing and charcuterie projects. We farm pigs specifically to test and develop different styles of charcuterie and dry-cured meats.

Dscn1872

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.

Salami8 1 of 1 1

We have produced some enticing venison biltong, Hungarian salami, and spicy 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!

Pig butchery loin and front large

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.

Bio photo tom large

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
Lavasi tom 1 large

Learning the simple techniques of cold smoking and dry curing from a professional Dutch butcher was also insightful in my 20s. I would turn up with a wild boar or 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. However, the delay to the event meant I would attend next year.

Posts and Article Topics Written By Tom Mueller