Food Lovers' Guide: Saucisson

The only carnivore’s dilemma we have is which products to buy from butchers Melissa Khoury and Penny Barend’s 3-year-old butcher business. Our meat lover instincts kick into high gear each time our teeth rip into the duo’s beef jerky ($6 for a quarter-pound bag). The chewy, savory, slightly spicy hand-sliced strips of top round are marinated for 12 hours in ginger and soy sauce, then sprinkled with ground habanero and dried for another 12 hours. “It’s the gateway meat for people who don’t know what our products are,” Barend says. “I haven’t met anyone who doesn’t like beef jerky.” The home chef in us dreams of the possibilities for the versatile curry pork terrine ($12-$16 per pound), a slow-cooked loaf of ground pork, yellow curry, golden raisins and mustard seed. Served cold, the terrine is soft and delicate. But heating it up unlocks the scent of mustard seed, which pops with the rich warmth of curry. “You’re punched with flavor,” Khoury says. “It’s just really well-balanced.” Use It At Home: Dice Saucisson’s smoky Southern-inspired Tasso ham and use it in place of ground meat in your next batch of chili. saucissoncleveland.com