Meat the sure cure

Grab a slice of British charcuterie

It was a bite of salami that left sean Cannon ‘star-struck’ and inspired him to set off on a journey – not to Italy, but around britain. the makers of that transformative meat were Ian and sue whitehead, and t heir suffolk pork – cured and air-dried using the same methods as the finest continental charcuterie, but reared on Lane Farm in brundish – galvanised Cannon to seek out other producers of british cured meat.

‘I grew up in very rural North Norfolk, where we grew our fruit and veg, our neighbours kept animals and the guy across the road baked bread ,’ Cannon explains .‘ we pickled and preserved, and were pretty hand-tomouth.’ Finding that a career in acting ‘didn’t work’, he felt drawn back to that community of smallholders. In London, where he lived to eat and drink, he ‘met chefs who wanted to get their hands on heritage breeds, organic “ugly ” veg, and raspberries grow non small orchard sat risk of going under. I wanted to connect those two worlds.’

At first, he did so at farmers’ markets with his brother, selling‘ great products from people in Norfolk raising hens and making amazing chutneys’. they then specialised in british cured meat, at borough Market in London, home to Cannon & Cannon since 2010. since that seminal salami, Cannon has sought out products as wonderful as chilli-venison chorizo, juniper-cured smoked mutton, and salami with a salty lick of seaweed and cider. Chefs came running, and wholesale is his core business. For the rest of us, there’s the online shop and, now, Nape, Cannon & Cannon’s debut bar in south London, where all meats spicy, smoked and succulent can be nibbled with wines you could sip all night.