Photograph by Paul Myers
Fabel Caraves, a butcher at Los Gatos Meats and Smoke House, takes a prime rib off the meat hook to prepare it for sale.
Los Gatos Meats prepares game and more traditional fare, too
By Suzanne Cristallo
The way the Chialas see it, there are at least three choices their customers have for Christmas dinner: baked ham with ostrich on the side, seasoned prime rib or "Turducken."
Four members of the Chiala family run the Los Gatos Meats and Smoke House--Johnny and Donna Chiala and two of their children, Brian and Jackie. They devote their days to preparing exotic meats for special orders, curing and smoking sport game and fish for hunters and anglers, and running a meat shop with a deli. In front of the University Avenue shop, a little pink pig, which serves as a barbecue where deli meats are cooked each morning, is a familiar landmark to passing motorists.
Brian, 28, who jokingly uses the title "meat cutter" over that of butcher because he feels it has come to connote "bungler," has made a career in the business his parents bought 10 years ago. An avid baseball player, the Los Gatos native got the idea for Turducken--an ingenious combination of chicken, duck and turkey--from John Madden of football fame, who would award the roasted birds to four of his players each year on Thanksgiving Day. "It's a chicken in a duck, and the duck in a turkey with stuffing in between," Brian explains sing-song style.
Turducken is labor-intensive and time-consuming, but it can feed a mob of up to 50. Brian made it last month for 20 members of his immediate family, who gathered at his parents' Los Gatos home to celebrate their 40 years of marriage. He started roasting at 2 a.m. Thanksgiving Day, after first spending about two hours boning a 26-pound turkey, a 6-pound duck and a 3-pound chicken.
He then fit one bird inside the other and the two of those inside the third with a wild rice, mushroom and apple stuffing around them. The triad roasted at 190 degrees for about 17 hours, or until the interior temperature reached 165 degrees--the very low heat allowing the thick meat to be cooked through without drying out.
When carved, the meat slices have a marbled appearance of white meat, rice, dark meat, rice and light meat, Brian explains. Turduckens sell for $90-$120, depending on weight.
The shop's biggest Christmas orders, however, are for prime rib. The Chialas prepare their own marinade of fresh garlic from the Morgan Hill farm of Johnny's brother, George, which is added to cracked pepper, parsley and other seasonings. The seasoned Harris Ranch rib roasts are tied and ready to pop in the oven for $7.99 a pound. When the meat thermometer reaches 138 degrees, the roast will be a perfect medium rare.
For other cuts of meat, such as steak or chicken, a variety of marinades can be placed in a tumbler with the meat for 45 minutes to tenderize it. As air is withdrawn from the tumbler, a vacuum causes the marinade to be sucked into the meat. The tumbling action breaks down the muscle fibers, leaving the meat in a "relaxed" state. Packaged with the marinade, tumbled chicken sells for $5.69 per pound. "When they are baked or barbecued," Johnny notes, "they swell up to a special tenderness."
Another shop feature is the smokehouse. Two smoke ovens fed by fires made from hickory wood cure beef, bacon, ducks and venison. Long strips of meat are dried into jerky for sale over the counter, while game meats are cured for hunters. Two huge walk-in freezers hold the bounty of sportsmen who bring their prizes to the Chialas for preparation. Some--like elk--are made into sausages. "We have 18 kinds of sausages, and jerky is about a third of our business," Johnny says. Doggie chews and bones are a pleasant-for-the-pooches side business.
Los Gatos Meats and Smoke House, 575 University Ave., Los Gatos. Open weekdays, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. (until 5 p.m. after Jan. 1, 2002); Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Closed Sundays. Call 408.354.7055 for more information. They're also online at www.losgatosmeats.com.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
