Member Interviews: Michael Dulock
Posted by The Butcher's Guild on Friday, June 3, 2011 · Leave a Comment
February 7th, BG Member Interview: Michael F. Dulock
City of Residence and Workplace(s): Methuen, MA (residence) Concord, MA (workplace)
1. What does being a member of The Butcher's Guild mean to you? It is an honor to be a member of an organization that is focused solely on the promotion of our industry. I appreciate having a forum to share ideas, tips, and concerns with like-minded people. I believe this collection of true artisan butchers will help in working towards more sustainable, regional food systems.
2. How long have you been a butcher and where did you get your start? Have you been working with "sustainable" meats the whole time and if not, what precipitated your shift in practices? My career as a butcher started on October 15, 2008. I remember the date exactly because it was the day that I opened my shop. In the style of my personality, I put the cart before the horse and opened a butcher shop without any knowledge of butchery. I was fortunate to cross paths with fellow BG member Adam Tiberio. A few weeks after I opened the shop I hired Adam as my lead butcher and manager of the shop's meat department. I learned quite a bit working with Adam for the year that he was with me. After his departure, I was still a little shaky and lacked the confidence I needed to be successful. I bought a few animals a week. I cut beef, pork, lamb, and fingers. Through the process I made more ground meat (tenderloins included) then I could possibly sell. After a few dozen "burger animals" I got the hang of what I was doing.
When I opened the shop the demand was 80/20 for USDA Prime Grade v. Local Sustainable Beef, as time has progressed the pendulum has shifted to the inverse. In addition to my personal beliefs about supporting our local economy, customer demands have also changed.
3. What do you think about the current media hype and attention on butchery, butchers and meat in general?I think it's sort of a double-edge sword. I appreciate the focus on the industry and the customers it brings to the shop. As butchers, we have an opportunity to show people the importance of what we do, the amount of work it takes to produce retail meat, and provide educational information that may assist in precipitating a change in consumer buying habits. What concerns me is the overwhelming amount of information can be confusing to some consumers.
4. What do you believe is the role butchers in the movement for a sustainable food system and what do you see as the biggest impediment to a truly sustainable meat industry? The challenges we face in a truly sustainable meat industry are a lack of regional slaughterhouses (There are two in Massachusetts and only one in New Hampshire) and processing facilities. We need to remember that we are asking people to eat differently and to pay more for it, if our customers are willing to make those sacrifices, then we need to be able to produce the meat in a timely fashion. As butchers we need to work towards developing a better infrastructure and try to make connections between farmers and consumers, whether at the retail or restaurant level.
5. Your absolute favorite cut and preparation method/recipe. My motto is…"the closer to the ground, the better it will taste." I'm a big fan of braised shanks. We don't have a kitchen at the shop so I tend to rely on the slow-cooker for lunch and dinner.
January 23rd, BG Member Interview: Stephen Pocock
City of Residence and Workplace(s): Oakland, CA. Boccalone (Salumiere, Manager); Damn Fine Bacon! (Side gig, owner) www.boccalone.com, www.damnfinebacon.com
1. What does being a member of The Butcher's Guild mean to you? Being a member of the Guild reinforces a sense of community amongst artisans who are also enthusiasts. It provides a frame for the exchange of knowledge, ideas, resources, and technique. I was honored to be a Charter Member as a curer and hope to be participating in the Guild more as it grows.
2. How long have you been a butcher and where did you get your start? Have you been working with "sustainable" meats the whole time and if not, what precipitated your shift in practices? To be completely clear, I don't regard myself as a butcher in the conventional sense of the word, someone who breaks down animals into component parts for sale out of a shop. I'm in awe of these people – these artists! I take a pig, or often parts of a pig, and turn them into something else. At Boccalone we make almost 30 different products, using all parts of the pig. I got my start working on my own as a smoked meat (barbecue) nut. I was fascinated by what slow heat and smoke could do do the "trash" cuts of meat. All this was when I was a TV producer. When I moved back to the Bay Area and turned my back on TV (miserable work, but it pays well – unlike butchery which is soul-affirming but less pecunious…) I found myself going through cooking school and then at Incanto Restaurant (because I had to learn from Chris Cosentino). I came over to Boccalone from there several years ago and learned the trade under Chris. Incanto and Boccalone share a dedication to sourcing meat from farmers who care about the way animals are raised and the impact that raising animals has on the land. Always have, always will.
3. What do you think about the current media hype and attention on butchery, butchers and meat in general? It's easy to scoff and say about the hype and urge to butchery, dude, is that you get folks who are long on tattoos and short on skill. However, as someone with plenty of tattoos who came to this career later in life, I support the trend towards artisan food endeavors – whether it's butchery, preserving, whatever. We all need to care more about our food. As a dedicated omnivore, without any dilemma, the meat world needs more young inventive people going at it full bore.
4. What do you believe is the role butchers in the movement for a sustainable food system and what do you see as the biggest impediment to a truly sustainable meat industry? Sourcing your meat from responsible farmers sends the important "here's where my dollars are going" message. Using the entire animal in your product line is another thing – throw away as little as possible. There's a recipe/technique/use out there for everything. Salumi is food born from poverty, where every scrap of an animal had value. We can wax poetically about how we need to honor the animal by using all of it, but it's also a economical and political expedient. If you are willing to spend more to get away from the evil CAFO empire it makes sense to use as much of the animal as you can. Plus we need to honor the animal. What holds the vast majority of people back from buying artisan prepared meat (or anything) is the cost. Big business farming with all its subsidies and corn this and soy that and stacking animals on top of each other to save space so I can sell $2 happy meals created the expectation of cheap food now. Until we can figure a way to make good clean food affordable to anyone other than the perceived "food elitists", we're going to be trudging uphill.
