F A Q

What makes our cured meats so great?

All of our products are produced with sustainably raised, antibiotic free, vegetarian fed, heritage breed pork, and hand harvested, solar evaporated sea salt
All of our products are made in small batches, with enormous attention to detail
You will never find things like “spices,” “natural flavors,” or other mysterious ingredients in our ingredient statements. We believe that everyone has the right to know what they are eating, and we make sure all of our products deliver on that conviction.
We keep our ingredient statements short, and make sure every single ingredient has had the attention placed on it that we would want products that we buy for ourselves and our families to have.
Our products are always developed to be complementary to similar items in the category. Our flavor profiles are accessible, but with small twists that differentiate them from other producers. This helps create diversity within the category, much like there is in comparable categories such as cheese and beer.
OUR CURED MEATS ARE DELICOUS and an excellent source of sustainable protein!!!
Our salt comes from an old salt works on the Pacific coast of Guatemala, pictured here. The salt passes through an ancient mangrove forest on its way from the sea, to shallow salt water ponds, before it is raked, by hand, after crystallizing in the sun.

How Should I store my Dry-Cured Salamis?

While salamis are perfectly safe to eat if not kept under refrigeration, we do recommend that you refrigerate them or store them in a cool temperature, in order to keep them in optimal condition.

What if there is white mold on my salamis?

Is it ok to eat? White mold (penicillin nalviogense) and blue / green mold (penicillin glaucoma) often found on the surface of the salami is safe to eat and considered beneficial in the curing process. It is harmless.

How long does salami last?

Salami is considered shelf stable and is built to remain safe to eat for long periods of time. For optimal quality, we recommend you eat our salamis as soon as possible. That said, our salamis are safe to eat indefinitely, although we would not recommend eating after 8 months of purchase.

Do these salamis contain nitrates?

The shorter answer is yes. All cured salamis contain nitrites, albeit very few. Even if the label says "no nitrates," if the salami has the characteristic reddish hue that it is supposed to have, it contains nitrates. That said, we do not use Sodium Nitrate. We use celery juice powder instead.

While nitrites play an important role in the curing process, they are very unstable and, the very small amount we use, disappear after the first few days of curing, to the point at which a finished salami has a barely detectable level of nitrites.

The nitrite question is one we get all the time. There is a great deal of information about nitrites in circulation- much of it misleading, which makes giving a short answer very difficult and, not entirely considerate of the person asking it. In short, the answer can be long. We encourage you to click on and read over the attachment below, entitled Sodium Nitrite “Fact Sheet,” published by The American Meat Institute . It is very helpful in clarifying and educating about the issue and explaining that, YES, NITRITES ARE NECESSARY IN SALAMI PRODUCTION AND ARE SAFE TO EAT.

Where can I find your products?

The heart of our business is working with independent shops and restaurants. That said, we also work with some larger grocers. Here are some stores where you can currently find our charcuterie:

Whole Foods (all east coast from Maine to Florida, and Texas)
Fresh Direct (NY Metro Area)
Central Market (Texas)
Eataly (nationwide)

Here are the independent stores that we love:

Bi-Rite - San Francisco, CA
Murray's Cheese - NYC
Saxelby Cheese,- NYC, NY
Malt and Mold - NY, NY
Talbott and Arding - Hudson, NY
Quinnies- Hudson, NY
Raleigh Wine Shop - Raleigh, NC
Rogue Creamery - Central Point, OR
Chantal’s Cheese – Pittsburg, PA
Callee 1945 - Oneida, NY
Inwood Gourmet - NYC, NY
Morro Bay Butcher - Morro Bay, CA
DTLA Cheese - Los Angeles, CA
Milkfarm - Los Angeles, CA
Market Hall Foods - Oakland , CA
See and Bee Provisions - Cairo, NY
Catskill Harvest - Andes, NY
The Cheese Parlor - Livermore, CA
Truckle Cheese Mongers - Richmond, VA
Thyme and Honey - Detroit, MI
Lady and Larder - Los Angeles, CA
Wally's Wine and Spirits - Los Angeles, CA
Smoking Goose Public House - Indianapolis, Indiana
The Board Room - Pleasanton, CA
Block & Bottle - Mystic, CT
Summit Cheese Shop - Summit, NJ
Van Hook Cheese - Jersey City, NJ
The Greene Grape - Brooklyn, NY
Bedford Cheese Shop - New York, NY
Honest Weight Food Coop- Albany, NY

We are working on making a comprehensive list available on our website. In the meantime, check out your local specialty food/wine/beer/cheese shop and ask for our goods! There is a good chance that this shop can bring in our products easily, either through a local distributor, or by ordering directly though us.

Do you have a wholesale program?

Yes, our wholesale program supplies distributors, retailers, and food service establishments with our full selection of charcuterie. We have retail ready formats (including small format salamis, individual pre-sliced units, and snack sticks), and food service ready formats (including large format charcuterie and bulk pre-sliced). We also offer end-to-end custom product development - from creating a recipe to producing a sellable product. And don't forget our super fun Charlito's Cocina Cured Meat Vending Machines.
For wholesale inquiries, please email: info@charlitoscocina.com.

What Is Charcuterie?

Charcuterie is the practice of transforming meat, often the less sought after cuts, with the help of salt, spices, temperature, humidity, and time, into something palatable, desirable, and longer lasting. The practice has evolved over thousands of years, largely out of necessity to not waste any part of the animal and to preserve meat for long periods of time.