Inside the Smoking Goose process

Smoking Goose breaks down animals on site, and the team works fast, stuffing natural casings with seasoned ground meat, tumbling pork bellies with spices for bacon, tying salumi and spraying the bundles with the beneficial bacteria before they’re taken to the fermentation room to begin the long process of aging and drying.

The beneficial bacteria applied to the exterior of salumi at Smoking Goose is key to the meat's curing process. These salumi will head to the fermentation room, which is a warm environment, and then to the aging room to sit and mature for months and sometimes years.

Indianapolis natives and high school sweethearts, Chris and Mollie Eley opened Goose the Market in 2007. It grew steadily over the years and they launched Smoking Goose in 2011. Today, the team at Smoking Goose crafts over 40 varieties of what the company calls “meat treats” at their Dorman Street “Meatery” near downtown Indianapolis.