Have you ever thought about the sensory experience of cooking sausage?
There’s the sizzle when you throw a few links in a pan or on the grill, accompanied by the mouthwatering smell of fat and meat on an open flame. There’s the taste and texture – savory, salty, and satisfying. All worthy descriptors for the experience of eating a protein purposefully cased in a tube.
But there’s also the snap. The sizzle is only one dimension of a good sausage’s sonic profile. The snap and crackle that happens when you cut into it with a knife or bite into it with your canines is just as crucial.
Ask any butcher who cares about the sausage-making craft; good sausage isn’t silent. It sizzles and snaps. That unique sound is part of the whole she-bang.
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Chef Joel Tate, co-founder of the craft meat label Bovine & Swine, is proud of the company’s snap.
“The snap is super important in sausages and snack sticks,” says Tate from Jackson Hole, Wyoming. “It really makes our product stand out the most, because you get that snap from the natural casing. That’s how you actually know it’s handmade. It has that natural casing on it. It’s not a run of the mill, large scale production sausage.”
Tate eagerly explains how Bovine & Swine’s snap helps it stand out from other mass-produced competitors.
“A lot of these bigger companies have an artificial casing on it,” says Tate. “They have machinery that will strip the casing off. We’re doing everything by hand, as you can tell. So when you get that snap, you know it’s a really good product and handmade.”
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What is Bovine & Swine?
Based in the cowboy ski oasis of Jackson Hole, Bovine & Swine is a craft meat brand specializing in sausages, bratwurst, naturally-cased hot dogs, and beef snack sticks. The company is the brainchild of Tate – a Teton ski bum-turned-chef – and his business partner Gavin Fine, a restaurateur behind the mountain town’s most sophisticated dining establishments, including The Bistro, The Kitchen, Il Villaggio Osteria, and Roadhouse Pub and Eatery.
Traveling frequently, the two found themselves comparing notes on the best hand-crafted meat purveyors around the United States. Tate, an avid hunter and outdoorsman, learned the art of curing meat the old-fashioned way:
“I’d make snack sticks or my own sausages on the side,” says Tate. “Then that turned into the science behind it. Like with beer – how do you ferment something and make it to where it’s a safe product? It’s a similar process, but you’re adding certain ingredients to make the sausage shelf stable. It was intriguing to me.”
Fine’s restaurant kitchens were the perfect laboratory for Tate to tinker. Tate explains how perfecting the hot dog proved to be a good jumping-off point for Bovine & Swine.
“I was also trying to multiply and make a hot dog. How do you make the best hot dog? Anybody can make a hot dog, but how do you make the best hot dog?”, Tate asks.
“For one, it started with clean, good ingredients.”
Tate explains that ingredient sourcing is the most important factor for Bovine & Swine.
“We want the best quality meat in our products. It goes all the way down to what the animals eat to the finished product, right? It comes down to the specifics, like the species of pig, the quality of feed they get. We source as local as we can,” says Tate.
All Bovine & Swine products are crafted in a USDA-approved facility Wyoming
In a world of faux-artisanal meatpackers that white-label and outsource, the Bovine & Swine guys are proud of how their sausage is made – in their own USDA approved facility in Jackson Hole. It’s one of only three such facilities in all of Wyoming.
From there, delivery is available direct to consumers nationwide via Goldbelly or regionally in select provisioners, mom-and-pop butcher shops, and supermarkets, including Whole Foods and Albertson’s (currently in the Rockies only).
Bovine & Swine’s meat line-up
The Bovine & Swine line-up isn’t just run-of-the-mill tubed meat. There are 10 all-natural products, all fully cooked. They’re ready for the average consumer or home chef to take home and incorporate into a dish.
“I think having a chef background has helped us get key flavors to go together and actually make them work,” says Tate. “The average consumer is intrigued. Then when they taste it, they go ‘wow!'”
The current offerings include:
Bison Huckleberry Brats
A sweet and savory mix that features two unique flavors of Wyoming: bison and huckleberries
The Beer Brat
A classic bratwurst made in collaboration with Jackson Hole’s Roadhouse Brewing Co. Perfect for slathering on mustard and devouring on the bun at an apres ski.
Black & Blue Sausage
A sophisticated blend of pungent blue cheese mixed with the piquant bite of black pepper.
Tate notes it’s his favorite from the line-up, “hands down”
“You never think of black pepper and blue cheese when it comes to sausage,” he adds. “People that don’t even like blue cheese will love our black pepper and blue cheese sausage, which is cool to see.”
Jalapeño Cheddar Sausage
A sausage that incorporates big chunks of sharp cheddar with a spicy kick from jalapeños.
Andouille
Bovine & Swine’s take on the classic French smoked sausage, paired deliciously with shrimp and grits.
Maple Sage Breakfast Sausage
The ultimate breakfast sausage, with tons of pure maple syrup incorporated into the meat and a subtle hint of sage and spice.
Thai Style Chicken Sausage
A zesty chicken sausage inspired by the flavors of Southeast Asia. Slightly sweet, with lemongrass, kaffir lime, ginger, and cilantro incorporated into the links.
Naturally-Cased Beef Hot Dogs
An all-natural take on an American classic, ready to throw on the grill.
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“The great thing about being fully cooked is that you can take it camping, on the road, anything like that,” says Tate.
Kendra Alessandro, Director of Communications at Fine Dining at Fine Dining Restaurant Group, adds: “So many roads lead through Jackson Hole. We wanted to give this sense of Jackson communicated through food as best as we could.”
“Think of Bovine & Swine like an adventure buddy that you can take backcountry skiing,” says Alessandro.
Tate does this regularly on his snowmobile trips. In fact, he regularly cooks Bovine & Swine sausages in a MuffPot on his snowmobile in the Wyoming wilderness.
“It’s a little tray that sits on the exhaust of your snowmobile just on the outside, not the actual exhaust. It takes the heat from your engine and heats up what’s inside,” Tate says. “It’s pretty cool when you’re 20, 30 miles deep on a trail and it’s negative 20 out and you’re getting a nice hot Bovine & Swine meal.”
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“I came out here to ski,” explains Tate on what drew him to Jackson Hole in the first place. “That’s how I fell into cooking, which was a blessing in disguise. My parents probably thought there was no hope for me, but I fell in love with it.”
So ski bum who cooks, who now is a meat entrepreneur?
“That’s the idea.”
