La Villa Salumi has been turning out damn good smallgoods and fresh sausages since 2016. The people behind the name are husband-and-wife team Ben Jones and Anna Pojdynec, who make small-batch, artisanal bacons and smoked sausages by hand in the small workshop behind their Montrose store in Melbourne’s east.
It all started in the mid 2010s when Jones started dabbling with an Aldi smoker. He suddenly discovered he had the golden touch when it came to making bacon, so he quit his day job and took up the ancient craft of preserving meat with salt, sugar and smoke.
Today he and Pojdynec sell a broad range of products from their Montrose store and at farmers markets around Melbourne and regional Victoria.
Jones believes in starting with the best Victorian free-range pork, and a little beef, and doing as little to it as possible to let the flavour of the pork shine. His natural pork sausages are made with a little salt and pepper and a few fresh herbs. No rice filler, no preservatives, just natural skins and seasonings, and all hand tied. Jones also makes a silky smooth frankfurter that cooks beautifully, releasing a subtle smoky tang from the Victorian mountain ash chips.
One of his most popular lines is the Canadian-style bacon, cured with brown sugar and maple syrup. He makes a salt-and-pepper-cured guanciale called Cheeky Bacon, too, and will also prepare bacon to order.
Using a variation on a Cold War Polish recipe, Jones makes a hot-smoked beef and pork kielbasa packed with loads of fresh garlic and marjoram. Slice it and serve cold with beer or cook it with cabbage and caraway seeds, just like the Poles.
Products: Free Range Signature Pork Sausages, Smoked Guanciale Cheeky Bacon, Kielbasa, Free Range Polish Garlic Sausage, Free Range Smoked Mexican Chorizo, Free Range Double Smoked Maple Bacon, Free Range Smoked American-Style Franks, Free Range Double Smoked Meaty Ham Hock