The Unvegan

Last week, an unexpected parcel arrived. I immediately suspected anthrax and was ready to detonate it in the street when I noticed it was from my future brother-in-law. For some, this may be further reason to suspect anthrax, but Dustin has never me reason to believe he’d want me dead. I opened it up and found a pair of sausages with an awesome letter welcoming me to the family. Truth be told, had I known sausages were in the mix, I’d have popped the question long ago.

The letter also informed me the sausages came from a friend of a friend of his in New York who had recently started up a sausage company called Charlito’s Cocina. I was excited to try them and although it took me a few days to get to it, I was safe knowing the dry-cured sausages could handle it. But aside from being dry-cured, what kind of sausages were these? The answer is Trufa Seca, which means they were full of black truffle. Aside from that, these were pork through and through with sea salt as the final flavoring ingredient. According to the website, the pork was a heritage breed and pasture-raised, which made me feel even better as I sliced off my first bit.

The first thing I tasted was the intensity of the black truffles. I love me some truffles but I was surprised to find the flavor so rich and dominant. The sea salt and pork certainly provided an impact of flavor as well, but they were overwhelmed by the truffles. This quickly got me thinking that this sausage was not meant to be eaten alone. Sausages need companionship, too, I decided.

And I was right, as usual. Although we only had crumbled goat cheese and basic crackers to pair with the sausage, they were the perfect touch. Rather than thinking about how rich the truffles were in every bite, I was able to contemplate the balance of the pork-truffle-sea salt combination and the delightful thick-ground texture.

Despite the richness that rendered me unable to eat this sausage on its own, I was really impressed with its complexity and the obvious manual labor that had gone into creating these. Mine came from batch #3, and this was hand-written on the packaging as if to let me know the Trufa Seca had come right from the heart. So thanks, Dustin, for introducing me such quality meat and not anthraxing me. If you live in New York or nearby, seek out Charlito’s Cocina. Just make sure you if you get the Trufa Seca, you seek out a little something to eat it with!