All

Hunting season in Ontario generally lasts from mid-September to mid-December. As we roll into December at Sanagan’s, you won’t have to hunt for delicious offerings to fill any of your holiday needs.

One offering that may have eluded you in the past is our Hunter’s Pie. Chef Anne and her team in the kitchen have refined this recipe over the past few years to it’s near perfect current iteration. Rich venison, elk and wild boar are slowly simmered with red wine and paired with hearty lentils and aromatics inside a buttery, flaky crust, topped with a true trophy in the form of a piece of bone marrow.

Our Hunter’s Pie is the very definition of a special occasion dish. It is rich, and delicious, and one should likely fight the desire to enjoy it every day, reserving it for gatherings with friends and family. My suggestion would be to keep things simple, and serve this with a crisp green salad using a mix with bitter greens and a mustard vinaigrette.

We have a quiet Christmas planned this year, but our centrepiece on Christmas Eve will be one of Chef Anne’s delicious Hunter Pies. Happy hunting, and happy holidays!

Christmas and the holidays are a time to indulge any number of eccentric traditions. We hang totally dry socks on the fireplace. We encourage our children to sit on the laps of strange old men. We bring whole fir trees into the house. And strangest of all, we consume a medieval-ish “pudding” that’s not like any other kind of pudding.

If you’re reading this and you haven’t got your own old fashioned Christmas pudding aging in the basement, have no fear, because this December, Sanagan’s will once again have our wonderful house-made Christmas puddings and hard sauce, stacked like cannon balls, ready to fire into the shopping bags of our holiday feasters.

And let’s get this straight — we’re not just talking any old mass-produced Christmas-pudding-in-a-can. Ours are made by hand by our chartcuterie specialist Scott Draper, based on his grandmother, Verna Draper’s recipe.

The Draper’s lived on a farm in Stouffville and like much of Ontario’s U.K. immigrant population they emphasized the Scottish side things. Their style of pudding, made with brown sugar, dried fruit, suet, breadcrumbs, carrot, egg etc., has a slightly lighter finish due to the absence of molasses. And it’s contained steamed within a cloth as opposed to a metal or ceramic mould. And it’s Holidayliscious!

All you have to do is steam it in its cheesecloth wrapping for one hour, and then dollop on and the hard-sauce (butter, icing sugar and brandy).

Oh — I forgot the best part. Like all Christmas puddings worth their fruit peel, ours is best moistened with warm brandy and then set it on fire. Turn the lights down low and present the flaming pudding. Now that’s an eccentric tradition.

The Sum Of All Turkey Knowledge — Right Here If you want to get all fancy with your turkey - brining, butterflying, deep frying — go for it. But for a lot of people, simple roasted turkey really does the trick. Also, they may have a few hundred other things to worry about on Christmas day, so just throwing the bird in the oven and letting it go with minimal intervention, is an attractive proposition that doesn’t preclude a beautiful bird on the festive table. In pursuit of the most worry-free roast turkey, I’ve cross-referenced a number of classic all-purpose cookbooks (Joy of Cooking, Fanny Farmer, Canadian Living, Julia Child, The New Basics) and distilled them into the following turkey summary. All turkey cooking times are approximate. Your best bet is an accurate meat thermometer. When inserted into the thickest part of the thigh, not touching the bone, a reading of 180° F (82° C) will ensure your turkey is done. With or without a thermometer, estimate 13 to 15 minutes per pound with the oven pre-heated to 325°. When cooking turkey in the traditional breast side up manner, the breast may become dry. If the breast appears to be cooking too quickly, cover with foil. Ideal breast temperature is 165°. For stuffed birds allow for an extra 20 to 30 minutes in total cooking time. Bread stuffing must reach 160° F. All turkeys will benefit from a 30-minute rest before carving. Turned turkeys, where the breast is not continuously exposed to the refracted heat of the oven’s roof are a good way to promote even cooking. Consult cookbooks or on-line sources. Happy feasting!

So you’ve not only taken the time to subscribe to this newsletter but now you’ve gone to all the trouble of clicking to reach here. You deserve some real rewards for your effort and here they come! The insider tips. The behind the scenes low down. The scoop. Here are some of our lesser known deals, unsung winners and staff favourites that will make you a Sanagan’s Subscriber Smart Shopper. Picnic Chickens If we didn’t sell all of today’s hot rotisserie chickens, they become tomorrow’s cold Picnic Chickens. Look for them vacuum-packed in the deli department. They’re a steal of a deal. Smoked Pork Chops Cured and cold-smoked, this pork chop thinks it’s a piece of bacon. Fry em, grill em, bake em, broil em, put em under your saddle and ride to Utaanbaatar; these beauties offer endless affordable versatility. Goat One of the most consumed meats around the world, we try to always have some Ontario-raised goat on hand. If you don’t see any in the window please inquire, we may have some shoulder, leg or ribs in the back. Shepherd’s Pie All the convenience of straight from the freezer to the oven to the table with none of the chemicals or industrial flavours of supermarket frozen foods. Featuring equal parts beef, lamb and pork, topped with mashed potatoes enriched with butter and cream, these classics, in small or large, are what wholesome dining is all about. Guaranteed not to contain shepherds. Porchetta I don’t think Peter’s really costed this one out. The butchers put a lot of care into its preparation but it’s definitely on the cheaper side of the window. And a big porchetta is an effortless crowd-pleaser. Pork loin or belly wrapped with more pork belly, layered with Italianate seasonings. Just slow bake it, slice and serve. Così buono! Fats All butchers trim a lot of fat. But do they all melt them into lard, schmaltz and tallow? We do. And we sell them in 250ml tubs for next to nothing. Up your frying and baking game with our all-local fat. Dog Food Made up of ground beef and lamb from the very same meats you see in the window, our dog food will make your pooch happy and healthy. According to the dog owners I talk to, it’s a great deal. Look for it in the freezer. If you don’t see — please ask. Meat Your Salad The Sanagan’s kitchen makes some truly tasty salads that are great on their own but why don’t you do what a lot of staff members do and Meat Your Salad? We can slice you a little bit of salami, roast beef or ham from the deli and you drop it right on the kale, lentils or beets. Meat Your Salad deluxe? Drop some pâté en croute onto your greens. Dry Aged Beef Burgers If you want to sample what time can do to a piece of beef, you can buy our beautiful dry-aged steaks or you can try our dry-aged burgers, at about ¼ the price. Given their popularity, it may seem like a bit of a stretch to describe our D.A.B.’s as an insider product but, as a dry-age gateway, they have a lot of secrets to share. Marinades If you’re a fan of some of our classic marinated preparations like jerk chicken, Cuban bavette or souvlaki skewers, you can now buy just the sauces from our grab and go fridge and do your own marinating on whatever you like. Jerk your pork! Cuban your lamb! Souvlaki your bacon! These are just a few samples of what Sanagan’s has beyond big steaks and chicken breasts. And, of course, there’s more. The best way to find out is to come on in and talk to the staff. We like talking about food almost as much as we like eating it.

Is it stuffing or is it dressing? Cook it inside or outside the bird? Moist or dry? These controversies had us considering avoiding stuffing altogether. We’re a butcher’s newsletter — not Vice Magazine. But we are undaunted! So here it is; some notes about stuffing (or dressing, if you’re a Victorian, or from the Southern U.S., well, only certain parts of the Southern U.S., actually).

Sanagan’s house-made stuffing featuring sourdough bread, onion, butter, turkey stock, carrot and herbs is a classic addition to any Thanksgiving feast. Or make your own. They’re very few dishes that allow for a more intuitive, loosely-based-on-a-recipe approach to cooking. Just start with bread and go from there. If you want to add your own special touches to bread stuffing, ours or yours, consider the following additions:

• That package of weird bits that comes wrapped up inside your turkey? That’s the gizzard, heart AND WHAT ELSE?. Chop those up and add them in to sauté. More turkey flavour! Just don’t use the neck. (It’s the thing that looks like a neck.)

• More stock, preferably turkey but chicken will do. For those of you in the Moist Stuffing Camp. Make a mini-batch of turkey stock with that raw neck.

• Pork sausage. Because people like meat in their meat. Be sure to order some of our sage and thyme seasoned loose sausage meat when you order your turkey. When adding sausage consider some apple to lend a touch of acidic balance.

• Speaking of acidity — throw some orange juice in there.

• You know what you don’t see in any stuffing recipe? Wine! What’s up with that? I think a splash of something bright and tangy like a Muscadet Serve et Maine, a Gruner Veltliner or a dry Sauvignon Blanc would jazz things up.

• Chestnuts. We’re getting into some real olde-timey stuff here. The chestnuts should be boiled or roasted, shelled and chopped. Avoid chestnuts in sweet syrup — unless you like sweet stuffing. Now THAT’S controversial.

• Oysters. Extra olde-timey. Add the oyster liquor too to really up the oysterishness.

• Bacon. Because.

• Mushrooms: Fresh, wild or dry. Adjust quantities accordingly.

• Dried fruits like chopped cranberries or raisins. Tastes good. Looks good.

All of the above are suggested with bread stuffing in mind but don’t limit yourself to crumbs, especially for those saying no thanks to gluten. Corn bread, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes; rice, wild rice, bulgur and couscous can all be used to fill the bird.

Now that we have freed ourselves of any stuffiness regarding stuffing, let’s consider the suggestions of our Kensington neighbours and Sanagan’s co-workers for their multicultural stuffing inspirations.

Lester, the butcher from the Philippines, where, “about 50% of the people do Thanksgiving” says that his mother would add lemongrass to the stuffing.

Our friends at Caribbean Corner on Baldwin Street cite the Jamaican tradition of cramming the bird full of whole onions combined with clove, whole peppercorns and scallions. Aromatic!

Meat Hawker Angelica suggests a dim sum-style sticky rice stuffing hack with glutinous rice, sweet Chinese sausage, dried shrimp and shitake mushrooms.

So, as we can see, the inside of your turkey is an empty canvas awaiting the unlimited creativity of your stuffing expressions.

And now, a Thanksgiving classic:

A turkey walks into a bar.

The bartender says, “Wattle ya have?”

Make Sanagan’s your holiday destination this year! We have everything you’ll need to create a successful feast for your family and friends, so join us at either location and get your harvest feast on!

To place your order, either call us at 416-593-9747, or email us at (Kensington) info@sanagansmeatlocker.com, or (Gerrard) gerrard@sanagansmeatlocker.com.

TURKEYS

We source our birds from two different farms; Shady Grove (Guelph, ON), and Elm Creek (Grand Valley, ON). If the former sounds familiar, that’s because it’s where we get our maple syrup from! Both farms adhere to our standards of antibiotic & hormone-free, and free-run meat. The turkeys come in a variety of weight ranges, and as much as we sincerely try to get everyone EXACTLY what they ask for, there is sometimes a variance (on the heavy end). For example, if you want a 16 lb bird, your order goes in the 16-18 lb range, and it’s possible that the birds dress out on the heavy end, so you might have to take a 18lber. But that’s ok, just more turkey sandwiches in your future!

As for Heritage Turkeys, we’ll be getting some in from The Packing House, one of our preferred suppliers who sources game birds, specialty beef, and other great items like these Orlopp Bronze birds from a farm near Meaford. These are beautiful, pasture-raised birds, and I can say from personal experience that they’re some of the tastiest turkeys around! These birds will be coming in between 15 and 20 lbs – we have a limited supply so get your orders in early!

As well as fresh turkeys, we will be getting in whole Smoked Turkeys from Metzger Meats.

NOT TURKEY

Are you one of the few people who don’t like turkey? No worries, we have you covered!

Capons (usually range from about 8 to 10 lbs)

Quails

Cornish Hens

City Ham (smoked, bone-in hams) We get them whole, so we can cut them to size.

Baseball hams (small, boneless smoked hams, better for a small number of people)

Breakfast Sausage Stuffing (loose breakfast sausage mix to put in your stuffing)

SIDES

As well as these “main event” items, Anne and her team in the kitchen will be making up some lovely sides to accompany everyone’s turkey dinners. Here’s what we’ll be offering:

Cranberry Sauce

Turkey Gravy

Turkey Stock

Bread Stuffing

Brine Bags

Brining Kits (includes a brine bag and the brine mix – just add water!)

CHARCUTERIE

It wouldn’t be a feast if you didn’t start with the perfect charcuterie board! Come down and see what Scott has made for the occasion. No one else in the city has the selection of house made pâtés, rillettes, and mousses that your friends here at Sanagan’s have! Impress your friends and your taste buds!

Just in case you haven’t noticed, Sanagan’s is starting to look like a produce market. It’s the harvest season and our baskets are bulging with ultra-fresh garlic, onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes, heirloom tomatoes and corn all from local farmers. Already this year, I’ve whipped up a couple of crowd pleasing grill dinners featuring Sanagan’s meat and a couple of those Southern Ontario favourites, corn and tomatoes. Allow me to set the scenes: BACKYARD PARTY WITH BEEF COULOTTE AND CORN ON THE COB A bunch of friends are all gathered in the backyard. There’s lots of beer and sparkling wine and later, whisky. The play list is dodging between the raucous and the nostalgic. My contribution is to stay sober long enough to work the grill and cook up about 5 pounds of coulotte. This is the muscle that caps the top sirloin and it’s great for a group. It features the affordable, medium tender, mild-flavoured, fine-grained properties of the top sirloin but it comes in big flat wedge-shaped slabs. I grill-roast these (direct and indirect heat), rest them, slice them thinly across the grain and fan them out onto a big platter. It looks great, people can help themselves and because of coulotte’s tapered thickness, it’s possible to serve them with varying degrees of doneness. Not everyone wants rare beef. Prior to grilling the coulotte, there was some debate about the corn. Oh yeah, of course it would be great to grill it. Did anybody pre-soak it? No. Well you can just throw it right on the grill. Yeah, you can. But you know what? I’m trying to cook three large irregular-shaped steaks to perfection, drink both wine and beer and keep up with the conversation. Now you want me to also grill, like, 20 cobs of corn? We boil it. It’s sweet tender fresh Ontario corn. It tastes freaking fantastic. People gobble it up like there’s no tomorrow. THOUSAND ISLANDS DINNER WITH PASTA IN FRESH TOMATO SAUCE AND ITALIAN SAUSAGE Friends of ours usually rent a sprawling rustic cottage on a private island and this year, we were lucky enough to be invited. There were nine of us including kids, the weather was fantastic, the swimming glorious, all set in the splendor of St. Lawrence River. When I was in my early twenties and decided to get serious about cooking, I bought a book called the New York Times 60-Minute Gourmet by Pierre Franey. When I was in my late twenties and decided to get serious about being happy, I got married. Ever since, my wife and I have made variations on two pasta recipes in this book that feature fresh, uncooked tomato sauces. It was this dish that we prepared for our designated dinner on Little Grenadier Island. Full disclosure: we used tomatoes purchased at the Brockville Farmers Market but the heirloom tomatoes we sell at Sanagan’s will be every bit as delicious as those beautiful throwback varieties we bought in the country. And a great deal to boot! This is the simplest most satisfying sauce but it demands fresh ripe in-season tomatoes at room temperature. You just chop them up as small as you please (or roughly food process if you prefer) add minced garlic, salt and pepper, chopped fresh basil and parsley and a glug of olive oil. Mix lightly and let the whole thing sit in a bowl on the counter to get all juicy. Boil the pasta, toss it with lots of olive oil, douse with the sauce and top with a snowcap of grated Parmagiano-Reggiano or Pecorino. Normally that would be more than enough but not when you work at Sanagan’s, so it’s on with the Italian sausage. Our Italian sausage is made with our house ground pork, garlic, roasted fennel and salt and pepper; hot or mild. As I grilled these babies up I look out over the deck at roughly 10 out of the Thousand Islands, observe an osprey family nesting across the channel and keep the flame on low. Our sausages have natural casings that will burst if you hit them with the high heat. You take that fresh sweet juicy pasta and add the savoury sizzle of perfectly grilled Sanagan’s Italian sausage? Let’s put it this way, the nine-year-old asked for the recipe.

September already. It’s back to school. The days grow shorter. You can’t just walk around all the time in shorts and a T-shirt. Yeah, summer’s over. But there is some consolation — the sun’s setting earlier so there’s less glare on the TV screen! Whether it’s network, Netflix, box-set binging or sports, September is the beginning of TV season. Just wait until October when there’s hockey, basketball, football (round and oval), and the World Series all happening at once. Obviously, nobody’s got time to cook anything. But that’s okay because Sanagan’s provides any number of low-effort, high-flavour, flat-screen compatible snacks and meals. All you have to do is find the remote control. Please keep in mind, some of these items are only available at our Kensington Market location. To be sure if we have it, call us at 416-593-9747! JERKY: Chips are for kids. Up your snack game with our great selection of meat sticks, jerky and biltong. Serve these to your TV party guests and there will be no quibbles with your nibbles. COLD CUTS: Normally we call this stuff charcuterie but for the purposes of TVing, let’s go with cold cuts. We slice ‘em, you like ‘em; salamis, mortadella, capocollo and especially suitable, our dried sausages like kabanos or cacciatore. And while you’re at it, cube up some of our all-Ontario cheese, throw it on some crackers and you’ve got a lot of the food groups covered right there. CHILI: If you manage to hit us on one of the days we’ve got chili in the Grab and Go fridge, your weekend football party just got a lot better. PIES: Don’t let the wholesome, house-made, nutritious quality of Sanagan’s savoury pies throw you off. They’re perfect for the screening room. Just heat and serve. SALADS: We put the vegetable back in vegging out. Lentil and pear, kale and quinoa, beet and other seasonal favourites. Heck, even vegans watch TV. ROTISSERIE CHICKENS: Straight out of the heated display and onto your fold out TV tray. It’s the same high quality chicken we sell in the store, roasted with Sanagan’s bbq rub. Finger licking… FREEZER ITEMS: Mac and cheese, Shepherd’s pie, pasta sauce. We’ve done the cooking so you can keep on looking.

Doesn’t really have the same ring to it does it? But we’ve been selling cheese now for years. It was the logical extension of our vast deli counter that now, along with charcuterie and salads, can provide you with the perfect picnic, party platter or cold supper. Currently space only allows us to sell cheese at our Kensington location but you can still get your cheese on at our Gerrard branch too. Just get all your charcuterie and meaty requirements with us and then head directly across the street to Pantry Fine Cheese for the fromage.

Cheese has had such an impact on our business, it stole one of employees. Steve Ward, long-time meat hawker in the Kensington shop, is now the lead cheese maker at Monforte Cheese in Stratford. Whey to be, Steve!

In case you’re thinking that you too might drop your current gig and become a cheese maker, Steve will tell you it’s no (cheese) cakewalk. “It’s an exacting and unforgiving process. Your job is trying to make a consistent product with the ever-variable ingredient of milk which is the product of an animal. An animal that experiences different environments, weather, grazing etc. I’m not using automated paddles. I’ve got my hands in there. I’m feeling the curds, the releasing of the whey - It’s artisanal.”

So please consider some of Steve’s efforts and those of our other all-Ontario cheese makers.

COW

Monforte Providence Saler

Firm cheddar-style. Very nice caramel start followed by a balance of fruity-sour-tang. Sort of like a serious caramel apple. And if you happened to throw that on a burger? Watch out!

Thornloe Medium Cheddar

Firm. A touch of gratifying grain in the texture. For a younger, all-purpose cheddar, it’s no pushover in the sharpness department.

Thornloe Mozzarella

Semi-firm. Mild and pliant as expected but with a nice sour lactic undertow. Great in caprese salad or, of course, sliced thin on pizza.

WATER BUFFALO

Fifth Town Buffalina

Firm Gouda-style. Salty-sweet with a touch of grit leading to an elegant blooming mouth-feel and nice edge of rustic funk on the rind. Great with lighter red wines.

Monforte Waltzing Matilda

Looking for Camembert style soft creamy luxury? Dance your way over here. But don’t overlook the intrigue lent by the delicate layer of ash under the expressive rind.

Monforte Fontina with Fenugreek.

Hard. The fenugreek adds a musky quality of wild mushroom. But the overall effect is balanced while offering one of the bigger flavours in our selection. The rind brings savoury depth. Pair with other full flavours like olives and pickled peppers in a starter tray. And sherry!

GOAT

Monforte Little Boy Blue.

Soft. Let this drain off its residual moisture before serving. A lovely salty edge of true-blue funky ripeness playing off a sweet milky core. Pass the port.

Monforte Tomme

Hard. A full, round, sweet, fruity delight right out of the gate with subtle funk from the long-aged craggy rind. Great mouth-feel. Feature on a cheese plate after entrée.

Monforte Chevre.

Classic expression the style. Soft, creamy, full goaty flavour with tangy lactic core.