How a Ukrainian family in Ohio feeds Americans homemade sausages
America is a country in which literally all the peoples of the world have found a place. Along with their culture and traditions, they brought their cuisine here. Immigrants go to the shops of their compatriots for a taste of childhood. In Ohio, where the first Ukrainians settled at the end of the 19th century, there are many Ukrainian stores. Residents of the city of Parma go to the store of a family named Salo for Ukrainian food and locally prepared smoked sausages.
“Natural sausages prepared according to a secret recipe, fragrant pasties sizzling in oil, giant potato pancakes and aromatic baked meat - the Ukrainian butcher shop State Meats prepares incredibly tasty snacks,” says Maria Prus for VOA.
The business is owned by a family named Salo. In the 70's, the store was founded by Ukrainian emigrant Yuriy Salo and led it with his wife. Now their youngest son is in charge.
“They ran the business together for about 10 years, from 1980 to 1990, until my father died. After that, my mother did everything herself for 13 years: from accounting to customer service. And over time, it became difficult for her: she had four children, and she supported the family and business on herself. Therefore, I decided to sell it. I was 17 years old. She told me that there was already a buyer, but gave me the opportunity to try my hand at it. I told her, 'Don't sell the store, give me a chance and we can run it together,'" State Meats owner George Salo said.
16 years later, the store is thriving. George knows every aspect of this business perfectly. In particular, when it comes to smoking sausages, this is a State Meats specialty. Moreover, he himself improves his father’s recipes.
“I took control when I was 17 years old. I had notes of my father's recipes that he left behind, and a general idea of the composition of the products. But he obviously took a lot of cooking secrets with him. My father died when I was five. So we had to learn a lot from the very beginning,” George recalls.
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“I took several courses on smoking meat and did my own research, experiments, and learned the whole science behind cooking meat, just like baking cakes. You have to know when and what to add, how long to mix, and a lot of this I developed myself - what suits the tastes of my customers,” says the store owner.
First, the meat is ground, spices are added and kneaded well. Then they start stuffing. The technology, like the equipment, is time-tested.
“This is a machine that allows you to stuff your guts. There is a piston at the bottom that pushes the minced meat upward. Everything moves air. This device was created sometime in the 1920s. And he’s still good,” says George.
Stuffed sausages only in a natural shell. From the side the process looks simple. But without the skills to reproduce honed movements, it is quite difficult.
Next comes the most fragrant stage - smoking on gas and coal.
George shows one of the smokehouses.
“Sausages are smoked for 5-6 hours. There are about 115 kilograms of sausage here,” he says.
These sausages are made only from fresh, not frozen pork, and add pepper, garlic, salt and other spices. However, how much meat should be kneaded, in what proportions and when seasoning should be added is a trade secret. Therefore, of the 11 people who work at State Meats, only George and his only assistant make sausages.
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“If you want to keep a secret, you shouldn’t share it with everyone,” says the store owner.
In total, up to 200 kilograms of several types of sausage are produced here every day. And by the holidays, this amount can reach 900 kilograms per day. They not only sell them locally, but also supply them to 5 grocery stores, 5 restaurants, churches and various festivals. Therefore, quality control is enhanced.
“We are inspected daily by the Ohio Department of Agriculture,” George says. “They come and check the temperature at all stages of production and compliance with sanitary standards. After all, we sell products to many establishments in large volumes, so we need to be sure that everything is done correctly. The inspector comes several times a week at 8 am to make sure everything is clean before production begins, other days he comes in mid-day at 10-11 to see if the temperatures and process steps are correct and if we are adhering to federal regulations. Sometimes he appears after lunch, checking that we are washing our hands with the right soap and that sanitary standards are being followed.”
7 years ago, the family realized another old dream and opened a bistro next to the store, where they cook their favorite Ukrainian dishes: borsch, chops, potato pancakes, pasties.
George says that Americans also really like their cuisine: “A lot of our customers are Ukrainians, about 50%. The rest are Americans, Poles, Russians, Lithuanians, Hungarians, Slovenes - people from all over Eastern Europe.”
George constantly sends customers sausage to other states by mail, so in the future he wants to open the same butcher shops in New York and Chicago, where, like in Ohio, a large Ukrainian community also lives.
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