Tony Incontro grew up in Omaha. All of his grandparents were from Calabria and Sicily, and his family made a lot of salami and sausages when he was a kid. When he went to culinary school, he immediately became intrigued by charcuterie. He began his career working in kitchens, but always wanted to be a part of the butchery. Eventually, he began working with a winery in St. Helena, aging cured meats in the back of their wine cave, and using their wines in the salami as a custom pairing. After a few years, he built a USDA facility in Oakland, and spent 3 years making charcuterie there. Then he moved back to Omaha to expand the business and grow into a larger warehouse. Now all of his pork charcuterie production happens in Lincoln, Nebraska. He’s also partnered with a beef company there, Certified Piedmontese, to make some exceptional cured Piedmontese beef products for them. 

For all of his Incontro pork products, Tony uses a special Hungarian breed of wooly pig called Mangalica that has a heavy fat cap and lots of marbling. Tony only works with pasture-based farms, so the Mangalica pigs spend lots of time outdoors foraging for food. Their environment and diet is critical in the development of the deep, clean pork flavor of his products. To feed the cold fermentation process, Tony uses only honey in his salami, never sugar.

We did a tasting with Tony when we were considering bringing in this line, and we were all blown away by these products. During that tasting, Tony said, “I’m good at what I do, but this breed is the real reason it’s so good.”