This Little Piggy Went to Il Porcellino Salumi
By Lorrie Baumann
Denver’s Il Porcellino Salumi, already starting to make a name for itself among the cognoscenti, is ramping up its production facilities. The company has just opened a new U.S. Department of Agriculture-certified processing facility in Basalt, Colorado, about 180 miles west of Denver, where it’s begun processing dry-cured and fermented salumi for the wholesale market.
Il Porcellino is already known in Denver for its retail store, located in the city’s Berkeley neighborhood, which is anchored by the Tennyson Street shopping district, fairly well known across the city for the artisan shops that make it a destination. The shop combines a deli and butcher shop that earns five-star reviews for Charcutier and Owner Bill Miner’s Head Cheese and for sandwiches like the Hoggie, which offers Genoa salami Pepperoni and Berkeley Ham and garnishes on a hoagie roll. The real aficionados recommend adding an optional portion of Crispy Pork Belly to the Hoggie for the full porky experience.
Il Porcellino makes dozens of different dry-cured products, including hams and many flavors of salami. “We make our own bologna. We make our own mortadella,” Miner said. “We do a wagyu beef pastrami that’s amazing. You name it – we’ve probably tried it.”
“We do our own pickled vegetables,” he added. “Everything except the bread is made in-house. We make our own mustard.”
The Berkeley store is only the first of the retail locations that Miner is planning. “Nothing’s set in stone yet, but there’s definitely going to be something in place next year,” he said of his search for another location in a similar Denver neighborhood.
Miner’s career as a charcutier is an evolution from his 20-year career as a chef. He learned how to cure meats in the months when business at the catering company he was running was a little slow. “It really stems from a passion for cured meats that I’ve had ever since being a young chef,” he said. “I definitely shared recipes with family and a number of friends who encouraged me to start the business.” He continued working on his recipes for another two or three years before opening the doors to Il Porcellino, and he’s now putting those recipes to use making products for the wholesale market. “There are two different aspects to the business,” Miner said. “We wanted to develop a brand name at the retail store before we developed our wholesale business…. We worked hard on making sure that we had a number of good base recipes before we opened the door, but we’re still trying to push the limits, make new things, develop new recipes and not rest on our laurels. We want to be a leader in the industry.” As part of the brand development, Miner competed this year in the 2018 Charcuterie Masters competition in New York City, winning the grand champion’s crown among charcutiers from across the U.S. and Canada with his Spiced Juniper Salami, Speck and a new Hot Link recipe. The Spiced Juniper Salami won the Dry Cured Salami category, chosen from more than 100 entries from across the country.
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With the opening of the Basalt facility in June of this year, Miner started making fermented and dried salumi for the wholesale market, selling to wineries and cheese shops – any specialty retailer offering a charcuterie platter or selling charcuterie at retail – as well as high-end restaurants. “We’re already having a hard time keeping up with the demand, because we did develop that brand name before we opened our doors,” he said. “We want to be a small, artisanal salumi maker. We don’t want to be a big company. We make everything by hand.”
His current flavors of salami available at wholesale include Black Truffle, a Genoa-style salami seasoned with Malbec wine and fresh Burgundy black truffles; Cacciatore, a hunter-style salami that includes caraway seed, coriander, garlic and red chile flakes and Diablo, which is a spicy Italian salami seasoned with toasted fennel seeds and both whole and ground Calabrian chiles. The current salami includes a Finnocchiona, the traditional Italian salami that’s redolent with toasted fennel seeds and fennel pollen as well as garlic and black pepper. Orange Pistachio is a salami seasoned with garlic and fresh orange zest and garnished with Sicilian pistachios.
Saucisson Sec is the traditional French-style salami with garlic, black pepper and wine. Miner also jazzes up with Saucisson Sec further in a recipe he calls Queso, which includes Haystack Mountain Queso de Mano, a handmade Manchego-style cheese made from raw goat milk by Cheesemaker Jackie Chang. Miner’s Spanish Chorizo is seasoned with Pimenton smoked paprika, garlic and oregano, and his Spiced Juniper, a 2018 Charcuterie Masters Grand Champion, innovates on tradition with juniper berries, coriander and fennel seed with Calabrian chiles for heat.
This fall, the Cacciatore, Diablo, Finnochiona and Spiced Juniper salamis will also be offered for wholesale in large-format sliceable versions. In addition, Miner will be offering Guanciale, which is dry-cured pork jowl seasoned with garlic, bay leaf and thyme, Pepperoni and Soppressetta, the classic spicy Italian salami with unctuous amounts of fat for a luxurious mouthfeel and garlic, black pepper, red pepper flakes and Malbec to give it depth of flavor.
Once the new facility is approved for the production of whole muscle cuts, expected in early 2019, he’ll add his Lonza, Wagyu Beef Bresaola and his Good Food Award-winning Coppa as well as Culatello and Prosciutto to his wholesale menu. Like the retail shop, all of the meat used in the facility is sourced from Colorado and neighboring Nebraska.
Miner also has plans to expand the business further in late 2019 to include cooked products such as Mortadella, Summer Sausage, Artisanal Hot Dogs and Wagyu Beef Pastrami. “We’re working directly with farmers and ranchers that are raising the animals properly,” Miner said. “Working with the best-quality animals helps us to create an awesome finished product.”