In this installment
Bacon bits
Maker: Taylor Boetticher, Toponia Miller and team in Napa, CA
Cure: Dry cured with brown sugar and spices
Smoke: Smoked with a blend of apple and hickory
Taste: More pork-forward than smoke-forward. Well-balanced and approachable.
About Fatted Calf
Fatted Calf is a whole-animal butcher shop in California. Working with dozens of small farms, they source humanely-raised meats like grass-fed beef, local lamb, heritage pork, and pastured poultry to turn into house-made sausages, salamis, and other delicious items. Toponia and Taylor are also committed to sharing their knowledge and carrying on the tradition of whole-animal butchery and cured meats. In this pursuit, they have written a couple cookbooks and offer hands-on classes in their shops.
This bacon comes from primarily Berkshire pigs, but they also use Red Wattle Duroc, and sometimes other certified heritage breeds. They use a dry cure with brown sugar and spices before the bacon is smoked over a blend of apple and hickory. The result is a well-balanced, please-any-palate bacon. It’s not too smoky, and the rich porky flavor comes through.