Smoking Goose Charcuterie | Indiana

In Chicago, "goose" has long been synonymous with "beer."

The new Goose in town is of a meatier, smokier, spicier variety.

After years working in Chicago kitchens next to chefs now associated with cured meat, like Jared Van Camp and Chris Pandel, Chris Elay launched Smoking Goose meats in his hometown of Indianapolis.

Less than four months after the launch, a handful of his smoked, cured, raw and confit meats are available by mail order (call to order), and at Green Grocer in West Town. (When Chris Pandel's new restaurant opens, they'll be there, too.)

The majority of the company's pork comes from Indiana's Gunthorp Farms, a frequent name on Chicago menus. Try the shoulder as tasso ($14 per pound), salt-cured, chile-rubbed and smoked over pecan wood, ready to be cubed and simmered in jambalaya.

The Kitchen Sink sausage ($6.60 per pack) is offal-packed, a rich combination of heart, tongue, liver, shoulder and bacon spiced with Espelette pepper. Pasture-raised duck is ground into duck-pear-port sausages ($12 per pack), the legs cooked confit ($10 per pack).

Look for the company's handiwork in more local shops soon. Or, if you're headed to Indy for Super Bowl XLVI, add its smokehouse tasting room and sister shop, Goose the Market, to your list of required eating.

Smoking Goose, 407 N. Dorman St., Indianapolis; 317-638-6328 or smokingoose.com