The aptly named Carnivore Club probably isn’t quite what you think it is. Yes, it is all about meat, but in this case it is specifically dried or cured meat, known as charcuterie, painstakingly sourced from artisanal producers from all over the United States and Canada, as well as many other parts of the world.
The Club part means once you join, you receive a monthly package comprising of four specially chosen products contained in a nice wooden box, delivered to your door. Each box features a “themed” producer, so over the course of a year you become acquainted with 12 fantastic artisans and their salty, tasty goods. One great example is Barilo’s Fine Sausages, located in Newmarket, Ontario. The box contained, each one as outstanding as the other: Zernistaya dry salami, Moskovskay dry salami, Stolichnaya dry salami, and Braunshweiskaya dry salami. These are studies in contrast, the Stolichnaya redolent of sweet brandy (no, not vodka), the Moskovskaya heavily marbled, rich, and decadent. Another recent box contained products by Il Tagliere Salumeria, from Caledon, Ontario. Two cacciatores, one hot, one sweet; two stickinis, one cranberry, one savoury; and a marvelous coppa jerky that makes one re-think what jerky can be.
This is an opportunity to taste charcuterie you will likely never find outside of the severely local regions these producers work in. While meat-lovers will pilgrimage to Seattle just to taste some of Salumi Artisan Cured Meats’s culatello or lamb prosciutto (and it is worth the trip), with Carnivore Club, the quality is there, and you don’t have to drive at all.
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