SCHALLER & WEBER 1654 SECOND AVE (BETW. 85TH & 86TH STS.) 212-879-3047 WWW.SCHALLERWEBER.COM THE ...

& WEBER

1654 SECOND AVE (BETW. 85TH & 86TH STS.)

212-879-3047

WWW.SCHALLERWEBER.COM

THE FIRST I heard of the German charcuterie Schaller & Weber was about a year ago, when I interviewed caterer/competitive barbecuer Robbie Richter. At a job for which he lugged his pit all the way to Howard Beach to make his prize-winning meats, Richter also threw a few franks on the grill. I was surprised that someone like Richter would use something with as little pedigree as a hot dog. But I gave him the benefit of the doubt and asked which brand he used. That's when Richter clued me in to this highly regarded, albeit low-profile, company.

It is somewhat misleading to say that Schaller & Weber falls under the radar. Once you start seeking out good sausage, or good sausage finds you, the trail will likely lead you back to the same place. When I ate the fantastic wurst at Loreley, the German beer hall, Schaller & Weber was the source. When I visited Schaller & Weber's Long Island City plant, a D'Artagnan truck was parked out front-it turns out that the much-trumpeted purveyor of high-quality game and foie gras has their famous sausage, as well as many of their duck- liver products, made for them by Schaller & Weber.

I briefly met company president Ralph Schaller, son of the original Schaller who started the business in Germantown on the Upper East Side in 1937, now the site of the Schaller & Weber retail shop. Inside Schaller's wood-paneled office hangs a portrait of his late father and his mother, as well as a poster of two hogs nuzzling. In addition to making a variety of franks and sausage, the company makes hams, cured meats and cold cuts, pates, liverwursts, foie gras, and other deli products. They use the lowest level of nitrates permitted by the USDA (or no nitrates at all), and high-quality meat mostly from the US, Canada and Denmark.

Schaller wears a white trucker cap and a white lab coat, both embellished with the Schaller & Weber name. He gives me the same in preparation for my tour of the 45,000-square-foot facility, hands me off to my tour guides and disappears. Dieter Rosenow, the plant manager, immigrated from Germany in 1954 and has been with Schaller & Weber since 1957. Harald Nagel, a young product manager, was lured away from Hamburg eight years ago to join Schaller & Weber.

It is clear from the beginning that Rosenow is running the show. He gives the tour with somewhat foreboding authority, and in the nearly 50 years that he has been working at Schaller & Weber, has developed an odd, dark sense of "meat" humor. At a station where ham is prepared, we stop at a group of men deboning meat. "All these guys are surgeons," says Rosenow. "They could all be doctors. The only thing is the patient's already dead. We don't guarantee success here." In another room, Rosenow points to a group of square hams-"Some people think that a square ham grows on the animal that way"-and to hams soaking in a vat of brine-"In a week we turn them over so that they don't get bed sores." He also mentions something about pulverizing me in the giant food processor, and cooking me for 20 minutes in the oven.

Nagel, quiet but vigilant, doesn't say much, but makes sure that I don't back into any machinery or slip on the fat-slick floors.

"We're the only American company that competes in European competitions and beats them at their own game," Rosenow continues in lecture-hall diction, as we pass stations where foie gras is being prepared, and bacon is being readied for smoking.

It's true. Schaller & Weber has pulled off the Jesse James-ian feat of entering international exhibitions in countries like Holland, Austria and Germany, and coming away with most of the medals. At the 2000 Welser fair in Austria, Schaller & Weber submitted 20 products and left with 14 gold and six silver medals, as well as the top International prize, a first for an American company. "It doesn't really mean much over here," says Rosenow. "Because in America we don't worry about [quality]. They are just worried about cheap, cheap, cheap."

Rosenow tells me that Schaller & Weber's winning combination is European recipes and technique using American meats. Because meat is more expensive in Europe than it is in the States, European sausage makers must compensate with seasonings and fillers, whereas Schaller & Weber uses the same types of seasoning and production methods as the Europeans, but more meat per product.

"Mr. Schaller, if he were still alive, you would find out very quickly that he would only sell an example of a product that he was proud of. He was a very proud man," says Rosenow. "If it wasn't right, he would not sell it."