The Real Cure
Made
in dorset
PLENTY �
Cure
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12
The Real Cure
Hartgrove Farm ,
SP7 0JY 07970 000681
www . therealcure . co . uk
All
I
f we can get finally get cheese right in Britain , we can do charcuterie , too . With that very philosophy , James Smart launched The Real Cure in 2014 . Previously , the Dorset native had been doing deer habitat surveys in Scotland after completing a degree in ecology . Shocked to see that Scottish deer were being sold to Germany , James decided to look into what could be done with all that venison . That interest became a passion . Along with fiancée Lucy , James became “ a massive anorak ” about charcuterie . “ It started as a hobby ,” he says . “ I was fascinated by crafts with long processes and lots of variables to control . It ’ s like magic . I read everything going , every book , blog and website and just got better and better at it .” In 2014 , James and Lucy commandeered a barn at the family farm in Dorset and launched The Real Cure . “ We started off with just our wild venison range using Sika deer from the Arne Forest near Poole ,” says James . “ We make three venison salamis and they ’ ve all won Great Taste awards .” While roe and fallow deer can be very lean , Sika puts on a bit of allimportant fat at certain times of the year . The variation in size of wild deer compared to farmed deer , however , made it difficult to cure muscle products such as bresaola . “ We don ’ t use farmed animals , and all our venison products are minced ,” says James . “ With our venison salamis , we find that they take the smoke really well . We cold smoke them for three days over oak .” Hot on the success of the venison , James and Lucy moved onto a pork range made from Berkshire pigs farmed near Blandford . “ We don ’ t smoke the pork salamis . They ’ re better with a much cleaner taste ,” says James . Another three Great Taste Awards followed . Although The Real Cure started out by selling at events and festivals , the move now is towards food service and distributors , not to mention shelf space secured at Selfridges and Fortnum & Mason . “ About 70 % of our business is selling to distributors who supply hotels , restaurants , and pubs ,” says James . A key ingredient of The Real Cure ’ s success has been not copying other charcuterie . “ A lot of those Italian and Spanish recipes are so good , and I ’ m not interested in trying to mimic them ,” says James . “ I want to make products unique to us , like our Dorset Blue Vinny salami .” They ’ ve also been ‘ playing around ’ with some salamis that incorporate Sixpenny Brewery beer , are trying to arrange for their pigs to be fed on discarded Blue Vinny whey , and are soon set to produce a speck-style Tyrolean smoked ham . “ It ’ s cured in juniper , crushed coriander , and black pepper and smoked over oak for six days ,” explains James . Keep an eye on these cold cuts , the vanguard of what can only be described as a British charcuterie revolution . “ When we got into it in 2014 , there were about 20 other companies . Now there are about 200 ,” says James . “ The overall British market is tiny – about 98 percent is still imported – but since the pound got weaker , we ’ ve became more competitive . And we ’ re getting better at it , 20 years ago , we weren ’ t very good at making cheese and now we ’ re producing excellent cheeses . That collective shared knowledge takes time to develop .”
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