Dave's got the cure for preserving game

Dave Cann has found the cure to 30 years of experimenting.

For a guy who doesn’t even own a gun, he has become an expert on game meat.

Now he and wife Michelle can’t keep up with demand for their curing courses at their Warragul cooking school.

At the same time, they have also come up with an economical solution to the cost of keeping and ageing your meat.

Gasping with horror at the $15,000 price tag on commercial curing cabinets, he’ll now sell you the Dave Cann special — for between $1800 and $4450, depending on your needs.

Think futuristic Coolgardie safe and you’ll be close — sort of.

Dave’s has polished steel for a touch of class and stores anything from 10kg to 70kg of recently-deceased deer, duck, pig, and assorted ferals. 

“We wanted to design something that was affordable and approachable to the domestic curer,” the small business owner said.

“And so, Cleaver Salumi Cabinets was born.

“When we started getting sales all over Australia I was a bit freaked out with how to manage customers who weren’t face-to-face.

“It took a bit of time to translate the parts of our business and customer service we hold dear, but we learnt along the way there wasn’t a lot of difference in how you would interact with customers face-to-face or over the phone.

“We are proud to provide a personalised service — I’ve sold 700 cabinets across Australia and my mobile number is in the manual in case people have questions.”

And while they suffered a few cuts and bruises along the way, Dave and Michelle generally had great support for their products, which helped develop their brand.

Five years on from the conception of Cleaver, one of Dave’s largest client bases is sustainable hunters.

After all, they are both about the meat in the sandwich.

“I’m not a hunter. I don’t have time to dedicate to be good at it — I’ve worked weekends most of my adult life — and I believe you have to commit time to be a good hunter and develop your craft,” Dave said.

“But living in Gippsland, I do have plenty of hunter friends. Between that and my background in cooking it’s important for me to understand the origin of the food I am eating.”

And at that point, Dave literally fell into curing game meat.

“I know there is a lot of focus on using the kills at a higher level and I know the Australian Deer Association is big in that area and I think the capacity to be able to prepare and store meat for longer periods is important — the idea of freezing meat or fresh meat is very limiting,” he said.

“The core of curing meats for longer amounts of time has come from a millennia of farming and preservation — traditionally a pig would be taken and preserved to cover the next 12 months until the next one is ready.

“For me to be able to preserve meat cuts in different ways and provide diversity for consumers' cuts both ways so I’m not left doing the same thing over and over — for me this is very exciting.”

Exploring different backgrounds in spices to create different flavours, combined with the growth in popularity for smoking meat, has creatively opened lots of doors for Dave.

“While I tend to work more with pork as I’m a lover not a fighter — or hunter — I like the capacity to be able to be flexible and try different things,” the professional foodie admitted.

“I am very much in favour of trying different flavour profiles with different meats. You can take the same cut and be amazed at the variety of flavours you can infuse into the meat.

“I’m more about the spicing and flavouring — I think it is underrated and underused. That’s why one of the key things about the cabinets was to be able to be flexible and try different things.”

For those keen to jump on the curing bandwagon but unsure where to start, Dave is on hand to help. His biggest piece of advice — don’t bite off more than you can chew.

“Don’t be scared of it,” he said.

“There is this perception it’s difficult or dangerous and it’s not. It’s something that’s been done for a millennia — clearly there is nothing new to curing meat.”

Scared or not, Dave said the best place to start was with someone who has more experience.

“Seek out the experience — a cooking school or curing with friends — and find people who can show you the hands-on techniques.”

When it comes to curing meat, Dave said there was more than one way to skin a deer.

“Every Italian family has their own method of curing, so soak up as much information as you can and take what you like to evolve your own style.”

But be careful to start small.

“If you’re going to make salami for the first time don’t plan 100kg, start with 5kg,” the curing curator said.

“Start with a single piece of meat rather than the whole beast.”

When it came to venison Dave favours the shoulder but the good thing about curing is its options — for example, you can cure the backstrap or leg as a whole muscle.

“Venison is probably not as versatile as pork or duck breast; and wild boar can be used, you just need to be a bit more careful with the flavour profile.

“Kabana is also a great way to get into the concept of preservation of meat. Same with jerky — anything you are curing or smoking, the meat is a really simple way of getting it.”

Or you can go to Warragul in south-east Victoria to a Dave-and-Michelle curing course — you’ll come out smelling like, well, like salami.