Minnesota meat: Dried, cured, or cooked just right
Michael Phillips, the chef at Craftsman in Minneapolis, estimates he spends about 25 percent of his time preparing charcuterie.
Charcuterie is hardly innovative anymore, said Tom Sietsema in The Washington Post. Cured meats, terrines, and other creatively treated meats have popped up as “dinner introductions from coast to coast.” But Minneapolis’ Craftsman serves up such fare with “surprising personality and a sense of place.”
Craftsman’s chef, Michael Phillips, estimates he spends about 25 percent of his time solely on the charcuterie. “The effort shows.” The rabbit terrine comes “bundled in house-cured pancetta.” There’s dry-cured ham, of course, and salami. The “duck liver mousse, whipped up from fowl from northern Minnesota, is sweetened with local apples and pears rather than booze.” Even crackers served on the side are made on the premises.
Phillips also knows how to cook meat. The perfectly cooked pork chop comes from pedigreed pigs at nearby Fischer Family Farms. “His popular hamburger gets its kick not just from Gouda cheese but from kimchi—Korean-style fermented cabbage—tucked between the beef and the bun.”
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