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From: Earl Evleth on 14 Jan 2010 07:24
US authorities have always been old-ladyish (sexism aside)
with respect to importing meat products. Years ago, when living in
California a French friend came visiting and smuggled in a terrine of
p�t�, and wasn't caught. Years later while living in France
my brother, who was coming, asked if he could bring us
an Ozark Hickory smoked ham. I said there were no restrictions
I know of, the French hold food sacred and certainly Ozark ham
would make their list of sacred food.

****

Bringing Home the Bacon Gets Tougher in the Age of Terror

By BEN WORTHEN

The Christmas Day underwear-bombing attempt won't just slow airport-security
lines. It probably will also disrupt efforts to provide U.S. carnivores with
quality salami, prosciutto and headcheese.

Last week, a federal grand jury indicted Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the
Nigerian who allegedly tried to set off a bomb hidden in his underpants on a
Northwest Airlines flight to Detroit. The bomb didn't explode, but it
spurred demand for pat-down searches, body scans and more-meticulous baggage
examinations for airline passengers headed for the U.S.
August Jennewein
Mark Sanfilippo�slicing pancetta rigatino, a kind of Italian bacon�has based
some of his cured-meat creations on food smuggled in from Europe.

Such measures might discourage terrorists, but they are also likely to catch
chefs smuggling meat from Europe. Chefs such as Rey Knight, who once flew
from Italy to Miami with a pork shoulder and fennel-pollen salami
vacuum-sealed and hidden inside a stainless-steel water bottle. Another
time, he says, he hid a 4-pound goose-liver torchon from France inside the
belly of a salmon.

Increased scrutiny of international travelers means "I'll have to come up
with more creative ways" to get charcuterie into the U.S., says Mr. Knight,
whose Knight Salumi Co. sells cured meats to San Diego-area restaurants.

Mr. Knight and other chefs go to such lengths because it is illegal to bring
many of the world's most treasured meats into the country. (Fish are OK.)
The government calls this smuggling. But chefs say their motives are mainly
educational: They use them to reverse-engineer their own versions.

"Smuggling is something you do with drugs or kids," jokes executive chef
Chris Cosentino, whose San Francisco restaurant Incanto specializes in
dishes that use most every part of an animal. "Our goal is to improve the
food system."

The salami Mr. Knight sneaked back became the model for a finocchiona he now
sells in his shop for $16 for a 12-ounce piece. And the French torchon --
goose liver that has been wrapped in a cloth and poached -- became the basis
of a foie gras terrine he makes on request. A local laboratory he hired to
analyze it discovered that chartreuse was the secret ingredient.

Because customs officials once caught him with sausages made from donkey
parts hidden in shoes packed in his luggage, Mr. Cosentino's bags were
already subject to extra attention. He once got around that by duct taping
to the inside of his blue jeans seeds for a special variety of chicory he
found at a pet-food store in Bologna, Italy. Scanners able to see through
clothing, now being installed in many foreign airports, should put an end to
such practices.

Wild-boar salami

Many chefs have stories to tell about sneaking food into the country. But
the practice has been very popular among makers of salumi, an umbrella term
for cured-meat products. Salumieres say artisan meats are on the verge of a
big breakout in the U.S. To get there, however, these chefs say they need to
study the world's best meat products, just as California's winemakers
studied French vintages a generation ago.

But the government only allows imports that have been processed abroad by
U.S.-certified slaughterhouses. Top salumi often comes from small European
villages where people have no interest in following U.S. trade regulations.

"I wish there would be a provision for chefs to bring in foods" for
educational purposes, says Staffan Terje, chef and owner of the San
Francisco restaurant Perbacco. "It's contraband, but it's not like its
ammunition."

Mr. Terje, who's brought back boar prosciutto and sausages made of donkey
meat, says tasting and taking apart foods allows him to improve the dishes
he serves in his restaurant. "When I'm traveling I'm usually in a hotel
room" with only plastic utensils and dim light with which to study the meat,
says Mr. Terje. "It's like an archeologist," he says, who makes a discovery
in the field but does his analysis back at the museum.

After sneaking home some prized Italian lardo, a pig fat cured with
rosemary, he concluded that the producers used animals that weighed more
than 400 pounds, about twice the size of the pigs typically slaughtered in
the U.S. He found a local farmer who would grow his pigs that large and now
uses that meat in his restaurant. "It tastes more genuine," he says.

The government isn't moved by such arguments. Sausages and hams "are much
more dangerous than people think," says Janice Mosher, an official at U.S.
Customs and Border Protection, which seizes about 4,000 pounds of prohibited
meat, plant and animal products a day. "Those items truly have the ability
to spread disease." The government is concerned that bacteria from a
smuggled piece of meat will spread through the ecosystem, infecting
livestock and hurting agricultural production, Ms. Mosher says.

But aspiring Salumieres say they don't have much choice. "We do a lot of
research in old cookbooks and they all say things like 'add the usual
spices,'" says Mark Sanfilippo, who opened Salume Beddu in St. Louis in
2007. His partner, Ben Poremba, has brought back many prized cuts, including
a coppa di Testa, a poached sausage made from pigs head and ear meat, and
culatello, a prosciutto that's cured inside a pig's bladder. To get the
culatello home, he bought two and packed them in different suitcases. One
was found and confiscated.

Ms. Mosher, the Customs and Border Protection official, says that if people
are caught bringing food in once, it's a good bet they'll be subjected to
extra searches in the future. She says that Customs and Border Protection
doesn't target chefs, but their exploits are known to the government.

Creminelli Fine Meats in Springville, Utah, owes its existence to salumiere
Christiano Creminelli's ability to sneak cured meats he made past security
in 2006. Mr. Creminelli was living in Italy at the time. He brought his
tartufo, a salami made with truffles, and sopressata, which is cured with
garlic-infused wine, to the U.S. to show potential business partners. On
subsequent trips, Mr. Creminelli would hide some sausages deep in his bag
and leave others on top of his belongings for officials to find.

Then, in 2007, he was stopped at the passport-inspection booth in
Philadelphia. A police officer led him to a waiting room, and 15 minutes
later he was taken into a small office by a customs official. "We know what
you do," Mr. Creminelli says he was told by the official, who was holding a
file with about 10 pages of information about him. The official told Mr.
Creminelli: "Don't do it again."

Mr. Creminelli says the encounter made him quit bringing meats back from his
visits to Europe. Lucky for him: When he flew home from Paris on New Year's
Day, security officials frisked him and searched through his carry-on and
checked baggage before letting him on the plane. "Right now, it is
impossible to take something," he says.

While that may bad news for salumi makers, it made Mr. Creminelli feel
better about the state of aviation security generally. "If they stop me for
salami, hopefully they can stop someone who is doing something really
wrong."

Write to Ben Worthen at ben.worthen(a)wsj.com
Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A29


From: William Black on 14 Jan 2010 07:51

"Earl Evleth" <evleth(a)wanadoo.fr> wrote in message
news:C774CB97.195102%evleth(a)wanadoo.fr...
> US authorities have always been old-ladyish (sexism aside)
> with respect to importing meat products. Years ago, when living in
> California a French friend came visiting and smuggled in a terrine of
> p�t�, and wasn't caught. Years later while living in France
> my brother, who was coming, asked if he could bring us
> an Ozark Hickory smoked ham. I said there were no restrictions
> I know of, the French hold food sacred and certainly Ozark ham
> would make their list of sacred food.

Importing meat products into the EC is illegal without the appropriate
license.

As a general rule nobody minds much about stuff for personal use.


--
William Black


I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.
Barbeques on fire by the chalets past the castle headland
I watched the gift shops glitter in the darkness off the Newborough gate
All these moments will be lost in time, like icecream on the beach
Time for tea.

From: Tim C. on 14 Jan 2010 08:33
On Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:26:06 +0100, Martin wrote in post :
<news:vl6uk5lsnla43857guf4gv0l7rc0rdnsv3(a)4ax.com> :

>>As a general rule nobody minds much about stuff for personal use.
>
> Other than at Heathrow where somebody was fined �600 for having a small piece of
> salami in his luggage and at Hull Docks where we had a packet of bacon
> confiscated.

And going by the German documentaries about Customs officers, nearly every
airport and international post office in the country.

--
Tim C.
From: William Black on 14 Jan 2010 08:47

"Martin" <me(a)address.invalid> wrote in message
news:vl6uk5lsnla43857guf4gv0l7rc0rdnsv3(a)4ax.com...
> On Thu, 14 Jan 2010 18:21:51 +0530, "William Black"
> <william.black(a)hotmail.co.uk> wrote:
>
>>
>>"Earl Evleth" <evleth(a)wanadoo.fr> wrote in message
>>news:C774CB97.195102%evleth(a)wanadoo.fr...
>>> US authorities have always been old-ladyish (sexism aside)
>>> with respect to importing meat products. Years ago, when living in
>>> California a French friend came visiting and smuggled in a terrine of
>>> p�t�, and wasn't caught. Years later while living in France
>>> my brother, who was coming, asked if he could bring us
>>> an Ozark Hickory smoked ham. I said there were no restrictions
>>> I know of, the French hold food sacred and certainly Ozark ham
>>> would make their list of sacred food.
>>
>>Importing meat products into the EC is illegal without the appropriate
>>license.
>
> and uncooked meat products within the EU.
>
>>
>>As a general rule nobody minds much about stuff for personal use.
>
> Other than at Heathrow where somebody was fined �600 for having a small
> piece of
> salami in his luggage and at Hull Docks where we had a packet of bacon
> confiscated.

Chances are that the case was opened for something else and they happened
across the salami.

As far as I'm aware they're no more interested in a packet of bacon or a
stick of salami than they are about a fake Rolex.

I've never actually seen a foot passenger stopped at Hull Docks for
anything, including smuggling tobacco...


--
William Black


I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.
Barbeques on fire by the chalets past the castle headland
I watched the gift shops glitter in the darkness off the Newborough gate
All these moments will be lost in time, like icecream on the beach
Time for tea.

From: Mitchell Holman on 14 Jan 2010 08:59
Earl Evleth <evleth(a)wanadoo.fr> wrote in
news:C774CB97.195102%evleth(a)wanadoo.fr:

> US authorities have always been old-ladyish (sexism aside)
> with respect to importing meat products. Years ago, when living in
> California a French friend came visiting and smuggled in a terrine of
> p�t�, and wasn't caught. Years later while living in France
> my brother, who was coming, asked if he could bring us
> an Ozark Hickory smoked ham. I said there were no restrictions
> I know of, the French hold food sacred and certainly Ozark ham
> would make their list of sacred food.
>
> ****


Some of us can remember the old "I Love Lucy"
episode where she tries to smuggle a large sausage
onto an airplane by dressing it up as a baby, then
having to eat it in flight. Classic.





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