Wisconisn Artamos Meats & Deli

Expectations color our interpretation of reality. Art critics experience what artists create and the artist disavows any connection between his art and the critic’s reviews.

Or, as Oscar Wilde said, the best art criticism he ever saw was: “Please don’t shoot the piano player, he’s doing his best.”

At Artamos they are in the leading edge of current culinary practice – they are offering organic & grass-fed meats, along with shop made sausages. This is a tough tightrope to walk.

For over a thousand years sausages and purity have been an oxymoron of major proportions. It’s like saying a pure Illinois politician. The label organic on anything implies wholesomeness. Organic raspberries – yes. Organic sausages – it’s a difficult mental chasm to cross.

But, Sausagefest is open-minded. I’m still waiting for the quintessential blues singer who is a white guy, but B. B. King is still unsurpassed. But, I keep listening.

I mention all this because god knows we need to eat healthier and I think Artamos is proof that meat and sausages can be healthier. But, healthy sausage is a coupling of words that goes against the thousand-year history of sausage tradition. So I keep tasting.

Within this conundrum was also the actual sausages I took home. I had to try the hot Italian Sausage. Its one of the big three (Italian, Polish, and Bratwurst being the sausage trinity). I also got the Bratwurst and the Apple Chicken sausage.

Generally, I tend to not like to mix fruit and meat in a sausage (a readily admitted bias). But, the apple chicken sausage was damn good. I tried it by itself and with the condiment gauntlet: horseradish, Dijon Mustard and yellow mustard.

It held up well against all of them with Dijon being the best. No surprise why Chicken Dijon is such a great dish. The apple chicken reminded me of a good veal brat – smooth texture and a nice white meat look. And, the apple taste was a faint background taste, which was fine for me.

Expectations would have said I’d like the Italian and deferred to the apple chicken. But, in the sausage world, you just never know what can happen.

We’ve tasted a LOT of Italian sausage. Artamos ‘ Italian is a good sausage – but it’s a different kind than what I expect from Italian. You say Italian and you think ground pork of a meaty texture and fennel. If it’s hot, you expect red pepper. I got the red pepper. The fennel I’m not sure about.

Maybe the fennel was AWOL maybe it was just that sausage, but the really interesting thing was the texture. Where you’d expect dense coarse meat this was a light more finely ground filling. This was the lightest Italian sausage I ever ate. Think of eating a good not too heavy meatball and it falling apart in your mouth. When your eating a meatball it’s a revelation that the meatball maker is a chef with a deft touch.

When it’s an Italian sausage and its Artamos its an artistic work at the leading edge. Different than what you expect, the taste and texture interesting and not bound by tradition. Like all art at the edge the marketplace and your taste buds will be the ultimate judge.

I didn’t cook the Brats but I’m very curious about where this will fit – tradition or at the edge.

Check these sausage artists out. After four years in business you have good evidence they’re doing a lot of things right.

www.artamos.com
714 S Whitney Way
Madison, WI 53711
(608) 442-5929