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Here’s an oft overheard exchange at Sanagan’s

Customer - “How long should I fry these pork chops for?”

Meat Hawker - “Um, that’s a tricky one.”

So first, let me answer directly.

1 ¼ inch-thick bone-in rib chops, fried at medium heat, take 12 minutes to reach the government approved 160 degrees Fahrenheit.

¾ inch-thick centre cut chops; 6 minutes 45 seconds.

But if you just follow these instructions and end up with under or overcooked chops, don’t blame me. You gotta read this whole thing to really dig the pig.

To explore the eternal pork chop frying riddle, I employed a plain old glass top stove, a cast iron frying pan, a reasonably accurate meat thermometer and a stopwatch app.

Method:

A medium-sized cast iron pan receives a long preheat on one of the stove’s large elements dialled to #5 (exactly medium). On my stove, this setting, once it’s fully achieved, is more like a medium-hot. A small dribble of oil is then added to the pan. I’m using canola oil here, mainly because of it’s high smoking point. My fire alarm appreciates the consideration.

All the pork chops were cooked straight out of the refrigerator.

All meats were also given the customary post-cooking rest. This allows the meat, especially the very hot surface of the meat to cool, thereby retaining more moisture.

The chops were seasoned with salt and pepper, just before frying.

1 ¼ INCH FRECHED RIB CHOPS

These beauties are from the loin adjacent to the rib cage. They are cut thick to accommodate the rib bones and provide you with delectable tender pig steaks.

This loin chop hit the pan with a fanfare of sizzle. Initially I turned it every two minutes, quickly increasing that to once every minute. Frequent flipping allows you to really fine tune your finish and keeps you in constant contact with the meat. This monitoring allows you observe changes in appearance, aroma and feel — is the meat still wobbly or is it becoming hard? Understanding these changes is the most reliable way to know when your steak/chop is done, rendering timers, thermometers and articles like this extraneous.

At the 12 minute mark I removed the chop from the pan. It’s temperature read as 157 and climbing, levelling out at 159. After a four minute rest it had dropped to 156. The chop was juicy and, truth be told, I couldn’t stop “sampling” it. As you can see by the photo, it had a beautiful crust. Some of our customers desire an even juicier chop and will disregard the official temperature advisory.

¾ INCH CENTRE CUT CHOPS

Cut from further back in the loin, these succulent babies are what we call fast fryers and they’ll help you get a delicious dinner on the table post haste.

Pork Chop #1: 6 minutes = 153 F. + 1.5 minutes = 175 F.

Pork Chop #2: 7 minutes = 166 F.

Pork Chop #3: 6.5 minutes = 155 F.

And then I ran out of centre cut pork chops. So I’m guessing when I say that 6 minutes and 45 seconds gets you the perfect 160 F chop. But it’s a very educated guess. And, incidentally, all of the above chops tasted, more or less the same; as in - great.

So, as you can see, there are a lot of factors involved, all of which can effect your times. Is your stove’s “medium” the same as mine? How does your pan conduct the heat? Is your thermometer, if you’re using one, properly calibrated? And every pork chop is ever so slightly different — they are muscles from living animals, cut by humans not machines.

The above times are a useful guideline, but, given all the variables, the best way to accurately cook steaks and chops is to read the signs. Constant close observation will allow you, with experience, to read the meat.

Ten years ago, I wasn’t sleeping very well. I had just opened Sanagan’s Meat Locker to little fanfare, and I wasn’t sure how well I was doing. The customers were coming in, but I had no idea how to operate a business to make sure I didn’t lose any money. My focus was simply on taking care of my customers and making sure the quality of the product was high. I didn’t think about my prices enough (as it turns out, they were too low), or what kind of people I should be hiring (friends would have to do), or how to file WSIB (which I did a year later). There were many, many things I knew little about, and the thought of what I didn’t know weighed on me. Also, my days started at 7:30 am and I worked until 8 at night, six days a week (I saved the seventh day for banking). So, I wasn’t sleeping very well. Life was going full tilt and I was just trying to hang on, making decisions on the fly that would affect how well the business did that day, that week, or that month. I was scared shitless and didn’t have many people to turn to, and my pride and ego prevented me from asking for help anyways. But, funnily enough, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. It was a wild time in my life, and the life of the shop. I learned how to run a business, and I did it because of my customers, my staff, and my partner. My pride and ego may have prevented me from asking for help, but I got it anyways, and for that I am forever grateful. Anniversaries are a time for reflection, and I was encouraged (by Claire – Store Manager and long time all star) to format my reflections in a list. Some memories are of difficult times, and some are of funny times. I tend not to remember the “great” times, as I have a weird complex that doesn’t allow me to be satisfied in any achievement for too long. I find the stressful times make for the best stories anyways. So, without further ado, here is a list of a random assortment of memories, in no particular order. 1) The time that the gravity coil on the ceiling of the walk-in refrigerator fell down, overwhelmed by the amount of ice that had built up on the coils. I came into work one morning, opened the walk-in door, and was greeted by too-warm air. The cooling unit had actually fallen right out of the ceiling and landed on a stack of boxes. I lost a bunch of products because the temperatures were too high. That really sucked. 2) That Saturday when I was renovating the larger store before moving in, and overnight some graffiti “artist” bombed the entire front of the store with some garbage tag. I spent the whole day on my hands and knees, cleaning the windows and frames with nail polish remover and a razor blade. I met a lot of people that day, all commenting on “why bother – it’ll just happen again”. It has, but none were that bad. 3) The time when our giant walk-in cooler broke down three days before Christmas, and Alia, Brian, and I had to hand-bomb the entire contents of the fridge down a flight of stairs (at 11pm) to the back-up cooler, which wasn’t big enough but we managed to make it work for the evening while the main fridge was repaired. Did I mention this happened three days before Christmas? Yeah. 4) The time I was at my in-laws for a holiday Monday while the store was closed and I decided that “for once, I’m going to leave my phone in the bedroom while I unplug and go outside”. I forgot that I had a repairman at the shop, who was taking advantage of the fact that the store was closed and no one was there to do some fridge repairs. What he forgot was that the latch on the walk-in cooler door was broken and he locked himself in the fridge. He tried calling me 20 times but, of course, I had “unplugged”. He finally got a hold of his daughter who called the police, and they came and broke into my store to rescue the repairman. When I finally looked at my phone again and found out what I had missed, I realized that he had almost died. So now I don’t “unplug”. It’s not worth it. 5) The time I had ordered 100 turkeys from a farmer for Thanksgiving, pre-sold them all, then found out that a pack of foxes got into the turkey barn a day before they were supposed to go to slaughter and ate them all. Because of this, there were only a few days until Thanksgiving and I had to find another source for turkeys for all of my customers. I ended up meeting a farmer in a parking lot in Mississauga to make the trade off. They were all beautiful organic birds, and almost double the price of what I had promised my customers. Whatcha gonna do? I took a hit, sold them at the quoted price, and put a hex on foxes as a group. 6) The dozens of times my alarm company would wake me up in the middle of the night to say there was a burglary alarm going off at the store, but when I drove to the shop at that hour I would find out it was just the wind blowing a door just enough to jostle the alarm contact. It took me at least 12 times of going to the store for no reason at three am to figure out how to stop that from happening. I started ignoring those three am phone calls. 7) That time I ignored a 3 am phone call from my alarm company, and found out the next day that someone had broken in to the shop, went directly into my office where I kept the safe, and stole the whole thing with about $15,000 inside. It remains a mystery to this day who did it, and unfortunately, I have become less trusting because of that experience. But my new safe is steal-proof! I think. 8) The time water started leaking through the ceiling on the second floor, and we didn’t know where it was coming from, and then the ceiling collapsed because there was so much water coming down from a burst sprinkler pipe on the roof. It was - 25°C outside, and my staff soaked themselves trying to fix the problem. They are all awesome, that day sucked. 9) That time I was bringing food down to the Drake Hotel to host a BBQ on their patio, and when we got there, we realized that the food had all fallen out of the back of the van on the way down because the driver forgot to latch the door properly. We had to change the menu really quickly that night…. 10) I could keep going on with stories about things that didn’t work out so well, but I think I’ll end this list with a positive story. The time Alia and I got the news that we were going to have a son. I was standing in my office at the time, and I immediately teared up. We had been trying to have a child for a really long time, and I hadn’t been sure if we were going to get to be parents. Alia had been pregnant for weeks by the time of this phone call, but it’s almost as if I was in denial. Then, when we got that call, emotions and thoughts of promise flooded over me. Desmond was born a few months later, and after years of working overtime, all the time, I decided to change my daily routine. I decided that I didn’t need to be at the shop for 12 hours each day, or look over my staff’s shoulders to make sure they were doing it “my” way. They were quite excellent at doing it their way, which to be honest was just as good or better than mine 99% of the time. I am now able to focus my energy on how to make their lives better, and the experience of our customers. I am able to be a better business owner because of them, and because of our customers, who continue to enjoy what we do. Here’s to the beginning of the next ten years. We have some exciting projects on the horizon, and I will leave you with a bit of a sneak peek. Thanks for reading this far, and I hope to be writing to you in another decade. On the Horizon: 1) Contest Alert! In celebration of our anniversary, we will be giving away a few valuable gift cards. Look for signs in-store for more details, and follow us on Facebook or Instagram (@sanagansmeatlocker) for upcoming details. 2) We have been slowly, but surely, building a new website. This website will have tons of info on cooking meat, and what cuts to choose. But most importantly, it will be a shopping site, where you can order your favorite cuts and have them delivered straight to your door. Look for this early in the new year. 3) Speaking of delivery, we will be launching our official catering menu at the same time as the website. You can order online or by calling the shop and we can have a party tray delivered to your office or home the very next day! 4) The biggest project of all is the cookbook I have spent the last two years writing. This one is going to be huge. I can’t talk too much about it yet; all I will say is that it will be the only meat cookbook you will ever want. No big deal! We’re shooting for a fall 2020 release, so you have plenty of time to get excited! Thanks again to everyone for helping make Sanagan’s such an awesome part of the Toronto food scene. We’re so happy to be a part of it, and glad you can join us for the ride. See you in the store soon! Peter

Here’s my step-by-step guide to Thanksgiving turkey. Plan ahead, follow these instruction and your friends and family will be giving thanks all night long. And, if you want to make your life easier, pick up some of our housemade stuffing, gravy, and brine kits, available at both locations! Ingredients: 6 quarts water 1 cup salt 1 cup sugar 6 garlic cloves 4 bay leaves 8 thyme sprigs 1 turkey, 15 lbs 1 quart ice Vegetable oil for drizzling Compound Butter: 1 lb unsalted butter 1 bunch sage, leaves picked and chopped 1 bunch thyme, leaves picked and chopped 1 bunch chives, chopped 1 tsp ground allspice ¼ cup Madeira (or port) Salt and pepper to taste Stuffing: ½ lb butter 2 large cooking onions, peeled and diced 2 bay leaves 4 garlic cloves Liver from the turkey, finely chopped 2 celery stalks, diced 1 carrot, peeled and grated ½ tsp grated nutmeg ½ tsp ground allspice 1 bunch sage, leaves picked and sliced Salt and pepper to taste ½ cup Madeira (or port) (optional) 1 cups turkey or Chicken Stock (page xxx) 4 cups diced stale bread (dice it the day before and leave it to dry out) Gravy: 2 cups white wine (divided) 2 Tbsp butter 2 Tbsp cooking fat (from the turkey) 1 turkey neck (from the bird), chopped into smaller chunks Giblets from the turkey 2 shallots, peeled and finely diced 1 garlic clove, peeled and chopped ¼ cup all-purpose flour 2 bay leaves 4 thyme sprigs 4 sage sprigs Salt and pepper to taste the drippings from the cooked turkey (should be about 2 cups) 1 cup dark turkey or Chicken Stock (page xxx) Method: 1. The night before you plan to serve the turkey, in a stockpot large enough to hold the turkey, bring the water to a boil with the salt, sugar, garlic, bay leaves, and thyme. When the salt and sugar are dissolved, turn off the heat and add the ice. Allow the brine to cool until you can stick your finger into it, pain free. 2. Remove the giblets, liver, and neck from the turkey (usually these are in the neck or body cavity). Set them in a bowl, cover, and refrigerate. Place the turkey in the pot with the brine (or place the turkey in the brining bag and add the brine, then place it in a bowl). Refrigerate for at least 12–15 hours (or one hour per pound). 3. To make the compound butter, cut the butter into slices and arrange them on a plate at room temperature to soften. In a small bowl, mix the chopped herbs, allspice, and Madeira with salt and pepper to taste. When the butter is soft, add it to the herb mixture and, using a spatula, fold them all together. Shape the butter into a rectangle on a layer of plastic wrap, roll up, and refrigerate overnight. 4. On the day of the celebration, remove the turkey from the brine and pat dry. Discard the brine and set the turkey aside while you make the stuffing. 5. To make the stuffing, melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the onion and the bay leaves, cover, and, stirring frequently, sweat for 15 minutes or until the onions start to change color slightly. Add the garlic and cook for another 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the giblets and liver and cook for another 5 minutes, then add the celery, carrots, allspice, nutmeg, sage, salt, and pepper. Turn up the heat to medium and sauté, stirring frequently until the celery starts to take on a bit of color. 6. Add the Madeira (if using) and reduce by half. Add 1 cup of stock, bring to a simmer, then pour the mixture on top of the diced bread. Mix thoroughly. If you find the mixture too dry, add a little more stock. Taste for salt and pepper. Set aside. 7. Preheat the oven to 300°F. Have ready your roasting pan. I like to use a pan with an elevated roasting rack, which allows hot air to circulate around the meat and cook it more evenly. 8. To prepare the turkey, lift the skin at the front of each breast and use your fingers to make a pocket between the skin and the breast meat. Cut the compound butter into ½-inch slices and slide the slices under the skin so they cover the breast. Stuff the cavity of the bird with the bread stuffing. Place the turkey on the rack in your roasting pan (if you don’t have a rack, line the bottom of the roasting pan with large chunks of onion and carrot and set the turkey on top of those.) Season the bird with salt and pepper and drizzle enough vegetable oil to cover the skin. 9. Place the pan on the center rack in the oven and roast for 4½–5 hours, basting every 30 minutes or so with the pan juices, until a thermometer plunged into the thigh of the turkey reads 180°F; the breast or stuffing should read 165°F. Remove from oven and transfer the turkey to a cutting board. Wrap the turkey in aluminum foil, then a tea towel to keep warm while it rests. 10. To make the gravy, pour the drippings and fat into a clear measuring cup (you might need two). The fat will rise above the drippings, spoon off the fat and discard, saving 2 tbsp. Reserve the drippings. Place the roasting pan on the stove over medium-low heat and add 1 cup of white wine. As it simmers, scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to lift up all of the bits of caramelized roasting juices. Turn the heat off and set aside. 11. In a separate saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter with 2 tbsp of the reserved roasted turkey fat. Add the turkey neck and giblet. Once brown, add the shallots and garlic and sauté until golden. Add the flour and stir vigorously to make an aromatic roux. Add the bay leaves, sage, thyme, salt, and pepper, and then deglaze the pot with the remaining white wine. Turn down the heat and stir constantly for about 5 minutes to cook the alcohol from the sauce. Add the reserved drippings (from both the measuring cup and the deglazed roasting pan) and stock, whisking to incorporate. Simmer for 5 minutes to incorporate the flavors. Strain the gravy through a fine-mesh sieve into a gravy boat. 12. To carve the turkey, use a spoon to remove the stuffing from the cavity. Place some in a bowl and some on the turkey serving platter. Slice the breast meat first using clean long slices on the diagonal through each breast. Remove the whole leg by twisting the thigh away from the backbone. Separate the drumstick from the thigh. Set the drumsticks on the platter leaning against the stuffing. Slice the meat away from the thigh bone and pile it next to the drumsticks. Fan out the breast slices next to that. 13. To serve, present the platter of turkey with the stuffing and gravy to your hungry (and happy) guests.

October is both the month of Thanksgiving but it’s also the anniversary of my start at Sanagan’s. And for that I’m thankful.

When I started at Sanagan’s seven years ago, I was looking for predictable, painless work that would allow me to write a book. After years of gratifying yet financially precarious freelance writing I wanted to write a novel. And I did, writing early in the mornings before heading out to sell meat. In that seven years, some other things happened: my brother had a massive stroke; my dad went into rapid old-age decline, requiring ongoing, sometimes emergency care from me; I had a hip replacement; and I’ve had cancer twice, both times involving major surgery.

So, yeah, an eventful seven years. And throughout it all, Peter, Brian, store manager Claire and all my co-workers have been unfailingly accommodating and supportive in helping me deal with these various crapwiches. To know my employer had my back throughout it all has made some difficult situations so much easier to deal with.

And over the seven years, it’s been an immense pleasure to get to know so many of our customers, many of whom note my absences and welcome my return. You can’t have too many friends.

At Sanagan’s I’m able to sell products of quality in good conscience, knowing that my efforts will contribute to the family farms of Ontario and sustainable agricultural practices. I’m treated with respect and Peter’s a genuinely good guy who cares about his business and the people who work for him.

And I get an employee discount on all that excellent meat.

So, again, thanks.

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!

We talk about crossbreeds regularly around Sanagan's, but a cross we haven't seen before is a financial planner with an agricultural engineer. Peter, myself, and a few of our managers had the chance to see the results of this combination a couple of weeks ago when we visited Mike (the Engineer) and Chris (the Finance Guy) of Penokean Hills Farms, just outside of Sault Ste. Marie. Though they may be the producer we work with that is farthest away from us, they may be one of the closest to us in terms of shared values. Penokean Hills is establishing the bulk of their sales in the GTA and Southern Ontario, but they are an intensely local company. They have essentially been born out of a need to utilise the resources around them in a combined effort to benefit the community at large. Not only do the principals raise their own animals, they also work with another 20+ farmers in the area to raise animals to their specifications. They share the best of their breeding stock, working to regenerate the herds with the most desirable traits (rib eye size, back fat/marbling, and feed efficiency). They've contracted farmers in the area to grow specific crops for them to be used as finishing feed for the animals (includes wheat, corn and dried peas). When the local abattoir was going out of business they took it over, preserving not just a half dozen jobs, but also the one location in the area farmers had to bring their animals to be processed. Though their own processing makes up the majority of the abattoir's week, they still process pigs, lambs and chickens for local farmers on a weekly basis. Their focus though is their own beef, and it is spectacular. As mentioned, they are using their own breeding stock throughout the area to produce consistent animals with the most desirable traits. Their cattle have a minimum of 50% Angus genetics, and are primarily crossed with other British breeds (Hereford, Galloway, Longhorn), though they have incorporated some other continental European breeds in the mix as well (Charolais, Limousin, Simmental). Calves are raised with their mothers, on milk and pasture (or haylage, as the season dictates) for the first 6-7 months. After that time, they are weaned off of milk and move to all pasture/haylage. Their finishing mix is constantly being monitored and slightly adjusted based on nutritional assessments and the needs of the cattle. Components of the feed (again, including corn, wheat and dried peas) are kept separately and mixed to recipe specifications twice daily, which is then provided to the cattle for them to graze at their leisure. The attention to detail and their desire to have input and control on every aspect of the animal's life-cycle is what impressed me the most. It wasn't enough for them to ensure the animal was raised properly, but also to ensure it was fed properly, and slaughtered properly. It is now on us to ensure the product is butchered properly, and sold with the love, care and attention that it deserves. For the time being, you can find the Penokean Hills product with greater regularity at the Gerrard store, but as the Penokean Hills operation grows (they have a new processing plant in the works, with the hopes of being open by May 2020), you'll only see their expansion in Sanagan's as well.

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.