2023-08-27 08:57:00
Sebastian Mazzuchelli and Martin Cajal Mosqueira They are two passionate and referents of gastronomy in the region. Methodical and obsessed with finding the best version of each of their proposals, led them to produce superior quality sausages in the area.
The ways of preserving food have evolved with the repetition of tests and the application of techniques since prehistoric times.
The periods of abundance and scarcity knew how to test creativity and collective work to achieve the best adaptation to environmental changes. Salting, drying and smoking were methods developed to take advantage of the resource and the environmental conditions. With the integral use of animals, the first kitchen containers can be seen: the skins, guts and stomachs made up the kitchenware in Paleolithic times.
Sebastian Mazzuchelli. Photo Sofia Bruner
If there is something that characterizes this period that we are going through on earth, it is the superabundance of food. Without too many limitations due to distances and climates, there is an excessive supply of food. However, there are those who recover that survival knowledge by adapting it with condiments, ingredients and techniques from this moment and in this place in Patagonia.
Martín Cajal Mosqueira, was born in the city of Zapala and trained as a gastronomic technician approximately 20 years ago. He has a long career as a chef in hotels and restaurants. In addition, he is a teacher in careers at the Vocational Training Center in the province and has his personal business of sausages and smoked meats.
“Currently we specialize in American smoking, hot smoking and everything that is sausage. There begins what is today my passion and what I am developing now. As a cook one is mutating, and at this moment I am standing on what is the chacinado. It is a world that fascinates me, surprises me and I enjoy it very much”, says Cajal Mosqueira.
Chef Sebastián Mazzuchelli is from Villa Pehuenia, although his professional career has already crossed every possible border. He always wanted to eat rich and abundant, in addition to wanting to know all the circuits and processes of food.
Knowing the Patagonian charcuterie is entering an artisan world of working meats through salt, smoke, knowledge and a mixture of ingredients that end up in one of the tastiest and most cultural carnivorous derivations.
At present, and for 10 years, he has been running his sausage factory. There he managed to develop, expand and maintain a line of products representative of the Andean zone with the addition of smoke. Smoked lamb legs, trout, cheeses from local producers, deer and wild boar, are some of his permanent proposals. They also incorporated a line of scalded products, such as mortadella and lever, and another new line of parked products, such as salami and sausage.
The northern Patagonia region contemplates a tonality of climates, therefore, of very well marked productive micro-regions. These conditions make it possible to develop all the links in the production chain in the same area. Knowing the complete production circuit, type of breeding, animal slaughter techniques, preparation and consumption are the obsessions of both chefs.
Black pudding with pine nuts, lamb pitinas, hot smoked… the imagination explodes in this Patagonia
“These are processes that respect the producer a lot. These are activities that are deeply rooted in producers because the final preparation, the meats, the fats have a lot to do with how that animal was fed, how it was produced, how it was raised. That is why you must have a direct relationship with the producers, both of the main raw material (proteins) which are meats, as well as the aromatics”, explains Cajal Mosqueira.
In this same sense, Mazzuchelli shares that, in order to achieve an optimal product, it is essential to be able to follow, accompany and choose the animals, which are the key to the success of the final product. “Going to the field, making the selection of the animals to be used and then arriving at the processing plant is the fundamental basis of all preparations. Being able to achieve this entire process allows us to have real control of the complete cycle and thus achieve the final product we are looking for.”
Classic techniques combined with regional ingredients and a great deal of creativity make it possible to innovate foods with particular identities. Black pudding with pine nuts, smoked hot, the addition of wine with infusions, the combination with aromaticsThese are amazing results in flavor and aroma that these professionals of sausages and cured meats are achieving.
“There is a product in particular that I really liked and I think it is representative of Patagonia and they are lthe lamb pitinas. It is a simple maturing product, like a salami, which does not come in a casing but rather is covered in polenta or cornmeal. It has a very particular flavor. By having lamb that is so representative of this region, we can feel the pitina of lamb as a quite Patagonian product”, defines Martín Cajal Mosqueira.
In addition to having good bacon, the combination of patience, knowledge and creativity make this craft activity a rigorous and passionate trade. The care and control of humidity, temperature and time capture the attention of artisans specialized in meat preservation and cultural memories. Like a kitchen alchemist, Cajal Mosqueira explains about the importance of time to achieve an excellent sausage.
“Salami is a product that has a simple preparation process, but requires a lot of attention. The time of the stove and the ripening, has a lot of technique with temperatures and humidity. By stoving and drying, the salami acquires a particular flavor. The moment of feathering fills you with joy when you watch time go by. In that feather the flavor is accentuated. After spending 20 to 30 days of maturation, being able to cut it and look at the granulometry of the product, the color of the meat, how the bacon was cut. There you understand the whole process. The time it took to mature it makes you realize how important it is to give the products the right technique and time to enjoy it.”
For those who travel through the Patagonia region, in the area of the Zapalina steppe and the foothills of Villa Pehuenia, they will be able to enjoy the experience of savoring the geography and productive culture of the region through its artisan sausages. The renowned chefs Sebastián Mazzuchelli and Martín Cajal Mosqueira demonstrate their demanding professionalism, incessant concern and great management of time through their charcuterie products.
“From a good piece of smoked cheese with a slice of salami, finely chopped, with little smoke, made with 50% pork and 50% lamb, using the hind quarter of this to offer better meat, you get to know part of Villa Pehuenia” says chef Mazzuchelli, in a concrete invitation to savor Patagonia.
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