1. Beer Salami
Piekutowski’s European Style Sausage
4100 N. Florissant, St. Louis, 314-534-6256
“Eating like a pope” isn’t a familiar simile. But if we’re talking the late Polish John Paul Deuce and the subject’s sausage, we pay attention. That’s what led us to this place, which supplied the tube steaks for the pontiff’s visit here in ’99. Piekutowski’s is old-style, with limited products and an emphasis on quality. They make all their own sausages, including a beer salami that manages to cover two of the major food groups, wrapped up in a handy casing.
2. Blueberry Honey Crème
Gibbons Bee Farm
314 Quinnmoor, Ballwin, Mo., 877-736-8607, gibbonsbeefarm.com
Sharon Gibbons rides herd on 700 colonies of bees, each containing thousands of the little honey-makers, so it stands to reason that she knows honey. This is your one-stop shop for everything honey, including beeswax candles, pollen and mild clover honey. The star attraction, though, is a crème made from honey spun with dried blueberries to make a smooth, incredibly sweet concoction that tastes like summer on a slice of toast.
3. O’Fallon Smoked Porter
O’Fallon Brewery
26 W. Industrial, O’Fallon, Mo., 636-474-2337, ofallonbrewery.com
All beer tastes like Satan’s dishwater to us, but zymurgy aficionados insist the smoked porter made here is one of the area’s great largely undiscovered gems. The same can be said for the brewery, a mom-and-pop place that has thrived since 2000, distributing to local stores and winning some impressive medals at brewing competitions. Call us strange, but we have a lot of respect for any brewery that can produce something called “cherry chocolate beer.”
4. Shiitake Mushrooms
Ozark Forest Mushrooms
Bigspring, Mo.,314-531-9935, ozarkforest.com
Shiitake is Japanese for “oak mushroom,” and we’ve got oak trees in Missouri like Avril Lavigne’s got eyeliner. These folks have thousands of logs impregnated with shiitake spores that grow into healthy, happy mushrooms. St. Louis restaurants from Harvest to the Ladue Racquet Club buy shiitake from this place, which sells them dried or fresh. The taste is smoky, meaty and woodsy, perfect for everything from stir-fries to soup. And they’ll even sell you your own inoculated log for grow-at-home fungal fun.
5. Arborio Rice
Martin Rice Co.
22326 County Road 780, Bernie, Mo., 573-293-4884, martinrice.com
The notion of rice paddies in Missouri is kind of cool. Covering 4,000 mucky acres of the Bootheel, this company produces long- and short-grain rice and sells it in bags from 1 pound to the 125-pound version you’ll need for the next family reunion. Their starchy arborio rice is so perfect for risotto you’ll have to find another reason to explain why yours doesn’t come out right.
6. Bison Tenderloin
Meramec Bison Farm
605 S. Main, Salem, Mo., 800-827-3403, meramecbison.com
Once more plentiful than the PT Cruiser herds that now roam the land, buffalo aren’t often seen grazing Missouri’s front yards today. But they’ve become a hot trend in meat all over the country. With less than half the cholesterol and only a fraction of the fat of cow, buffalo has none of the gaminess and more beefy goodness than you’d expect. And at the Meramec Bison Farm in Salem you can buy everything from some buffalo brats to a tenderloin you won’t soon forget.
7. Cherry Mash
Chase Candy Co.
1307 S. 59th, St. Joseph, Mo., 800-786-1625, cherrymash.com
Physicians didn’t make the big bucks back in 1916, so in between surgeries, Dr. George Washington Chase opened a candy factory in St. Joe. All of his patients and some of his candies are now deceased; his Cherry Mash pulled through and continues to thrive. The Chase Candy Co.’s been churning out these cherry-perfumed jewels for almost a century. It’s a glob of fondant studded with maraschino cherries and covered with chopped peanuts and a layer of chocolate—or as we like to call it, the crystal meth of the confectionery world.
8. Hash Brown Potato Soup
Peculiar Spice Co.
22200 Hidden Valley, Peculiar, Mo., 816-779-6157, peculiarspice.com
Hash browns? You love ’em. Soup? Who doesn’t like it? The folks at Peculiar Spice Co. assume correctly that combining the two is inspired. They sell a seasoning packet that, mixed with frozen hash browns, turns out a creamy, luscious soup. In addition, the company—it’s in Peculiar, a town south of K.C. named as such, allegedly, because all the other good town names were taken—sells mixes for chicken salad, pickled beets and smokehouse baked beans.
9. Nutty Blue Goose Jam
Persimmon Hill Farm
367 Persimmon Hill, Lampe, Mo., 417-779-5443, persimmonhill.com
A jam of blueberries and gooseberries, studded with chopped black walnuts—can much be better in life? And if so, can you put it on hot biscuits for breakfast? This little operation in the Ozarks has elevated jam to an art form. Strawberry rhubarb, raspberry and blackberry jams are like spreadable nectar in a jar, all of them made from berries grown or foraged right on the property. You can order online, but visit and take the tour. And if you go, pick up a jar of their persimmon butter for us, please.
10. Smoked Game Birds
Burgers’ Smokehouse
32819 Hwy. 87, California, Mo., 800-345-5185, smokehouse.com
Just west of Jeff City, this place is worth a trip just to take the tour (including an engrossing video), which is a celebration of cured meat. In business since the ’20s, this is still the place in Missouri to go for country-style ham. (It consistently gets our lucrative smoked-hog-jowl business.) Their game birds, though, are a delectable treat, smoked and ready to eat. A sampler pack includes a duck, a pheasant and half a dozen quail.
