category Report
SmokeD & Cured Meats
Photo credit: Geoffrey Guinard
cured meats
Crafting signature
Bryan Butler of Austin -based butcher shop Salt & Time discusses how leveraging imagination and hands-on technique intersects with the art of new product development.
By Fred Wilkinson
Chief Editor
Bryan Butler is co-owner of Austin, Texas-based Salt & Time: Butcher Shop and Salumeria with Ben Runkle, who in 2010 began selling the first artisan dry-cured meats produced in Texas at Austin farmers markets. A mutual friend introduced him to Butler, and the two set out to open Austin's first butcher shop committed to sourcing whole animals directly from Texas ranchers. In February 2013, they opened Salt & Time in East Austin.
In this interview, Butler – a self-described ”journeyman butcher” — shares his insights on how selecting the right animal plays a key role in crafting a cured meat product, along with how processors can play up regional ingredient differences to create a signature flavor experience. He also shares some thoughts on what ingredients/flavorings/techniques are trending for crafting smoked or cured meats, as well as some considerations for small processors that are looking to start smoking or curing their own meats.
“It’s really the artistic part of this type of craft,” Butler says regarding combining creativity – which can mean anything from incorporating ingredients as diverse as orange juice and coffee into a Cuban-inspired cured product or using goji (fermented rice) in aging steaks – with hands-on technique. “You have both the imagination and your creativity in your mind but also the actual doing with your hands. I feel it’s that two things coming together – the mental and the hands-on ability to actually produce — is really where you’ll find most creativity and the true art.”
Photo courtesy Bryan Butler
