Like most craftsmen,Scott Buer of Bolzano Artisan Meats began making his own charcuterie, aculinary specialty that uses salting, smoking and drying to preserve meats suchas sausages and prosciutto, as a hobby. Inspired by Midwest artisancheese-makers and craft brewers, Buer became Wisconsin’sonly dry-cured charcuterie producer when he opened Bolzano in April 2009. He set up shop at thecorner of Holton and Capitol in a 1950s-era dairy formerly occupied by GreatLakes Distillery, the state’s first distillery since Prohibition.
Buer and his wife didmost of the start-up work at the facility themselves, outfitting it withequipmentthink bins, smokers and climate-controlled coolersfrom varioussources. Their next challenge was satisfying all the government food agencyrequirements that regulate how the meats must be made, a task Buer was familiarwith from his time in quality control at GE Medical. Managing the continualstream of paperwork and administrative tasks requires more of his time thanworking with the cured meats.
A self-professed “foodnerd,” Buer began practicing his craft simply, essentially teaching himself,and continues to operate it according to old-school traditions. The dry-curingmethod is a time-honored way to preserve a good harvest. “In the way a winespotlights the character of a grape and how beer spotlights the subtleties ofits grain and hops,” Buer says, “charcuterie showcases what great pork is allabout.”
Owners of small farmsrealized they couldn’t compete with the colossal industrial food complex in makingcheap food, and so began the rebirth of the artisan. Because dry-curedneverheatedmeat preserves every nuance of an animal’s diet and health, smallregional and local farmers saw a market for their unique heritage breeds of hoglike Berkshire, Mulefoot and Herefordin dry-curers such as Bolzano Meats. Buer uses 100%-certified Berkshire pork,humanely raised from small regional farmer cooperatives, and plans to expand Bolzano’s line to offermore unique, rare and heirloom hog breeds.
When Buer receivespre-cut pieces of pork, or a whole that needs to be butchered, it’s placed in acontainer and buried in salt and spices for different durations. The salt notonly preserves the meat, but also pulls liquid out. After it’s rinsed, thepieces of meatpork belly, leg and cheek primarily, but some experimental cutslike back and loinare hung in a 60-degree climate-controlled cooler withtightly monitored temperature, humidity and airflow. While bacon and ham taketwo to three days to produce, Bolzano’spancetta and guanciale go through a dry-curing process for roughly 50 days. Theprosciuttoa style called Speck from the region of Italy borderingAustriaincludes the additional step of being cold smoked in fragrantfruitwoods, and is dry cured for approximately nine months.
Bolzano Artisan Meatsbegan its endeavors in the booths of area farmers’ markets and has sinceexpanded into stores such as Glorioso's and Rupena's at the Milwaukee PublicMarket, as well as shops in Madison and Green Bay. Wisconsin foodies are rejoicing in the company’s earlyreserve program for its Speck prosciutto. Participants are sold a whole Speckprosciutto (nearly 20 pounds) at a 40% discount and are given a personal tourof the facility where they can learn some charcuterie secrets, sample productsand pick out their own leg of prosciutto.
The public has grownaccustomed to cheap, uniform food because the massive food companies that stockso many of our grocery store shelves will not invest the extra time and expenseneeded to create delicacies such as prosciutto and guanciale. It’s left toartisans such as Scott Buer to preserve valuable Old Worldculinary traditions and give people the opportunity to appreciate the finerfoods in life.
For more information: (414) 426-6380/ 3950 N. Holton St./www.bolzanomeats.com
