When Maine Street Meats, Bleecker and Flamm (the names of the co-owners) made some news recently on a local food site–their desultory mention was buried in a story about sandwiches. Maine Street Meats has an exemplary one, a Vietnamese bahn mi offered on Tuesdays. But this exquisite delicacy shop also has steamed pork buns on Thursdays as well as thin-crust pizzas daily and stuffed savory breads and double chocolate chip cookies that are popular with the lunch crowd every day.
Maine Street Meats offers gourmet packaged goods, local meats, cheese, house-baked breads and house-made charcuterie
They’re located along Route 1 in Rockport, a shop within a shop at the State of Maine Cheese building. They’ve been in operation since 2012. As a frequent visitor to the Mid Coast, we’ve not crossed paths. I go to the Camden-Rockport area often for dining at the fine local restaurants (Francine, 3 Crow, Shepherd’s Pie, Natalie’s, et al) and for summers spent on North Haven
A wonderful selection of gourmet packaged foods
But the real story here is that Maine Street Meats is exactly as its name says: a butcher shop practicing nose to tail butchery with animals raised on nearby farms. Of course the meat is all organic, pastured and politically correct in the fold of sustainability. Those words like sustainable and sourced are as overused as farm-to-table. Still, what’s important is that a shop such as this has a vital place in our local food world.
House-made pizza topped with onion, bacon and Gorgonzola; liverwurst pate; English crackers and the meat case filled with local beef, pork, lamb and chicken
The day that I visited earlier this week butcher Sean Durnan was cutting up a pork shoulder to use in his sausage making.
Butcher Sean Durnan; house-made sausages
The rib pork chops in the meat case, however, looked too good to pass up and I bought a pair of them; they hail from Big Daddy Farm in Whitefield. I’ll roast them in a hot oven with local beets and carrots, one of my favorite cold weather preparations (see recipe below).
The beef is more locally derived from Aldermere Farm on Russel Avenue in the midst of the Camden-Rockport estate area where their herd of Belted Galloway graze so peacefully at this stunning salt-water farm.
Lamb is from North Star Farm in Windham, and chickens come from Common Wealth Farm in Unity, Tide Mill Farm in Edmunds or the more ubiquitous birds from Mainely Poultry in Warren.
A great feature of this delicacy shops is their charcuterie handled by in-house chef Derek Linker. I couldn’t resist a piece of liverwurst, freshly made that week, along with the big rustic loaf made from Maine grains. Co-owner Sarah Bleecker-Greer recommended some cheeses picked from their selection of local, domestic and international varieties. I chose a brie from Tide Mill Farm.
Cheeses from Maine, Vermont and imported
You might wonder how this purveyor is different from Greater Portland’s Rosemont or The Farm Stand (South Portland) markets. There are similarities, to be sure, but Bleecker and Flamm take it to the next level where homegrown is as important as homemade.
Ingredients
- 1 thick chop, per person
- Several beets, mixed colors
- Carrots, lightly scraped and trimmed
- Garlic cloves
- Freshly squeezed orange juice
- Several sprigs thyme and rosemary
- Olive oil
- Balsamic vinegar
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
- Put the beets in a pot of salted boiling water; cook until tender, about 30 to 45 minutes. Drain and run under cold water; skins will slip off easily.
- Prepare the carrots and blanch in salted boiling water for about 7 minutes (depending on size) until cooked but still quite firm. Drain and refresh with cold water.
- Cut up the vegetables to desired size and put each in separate bowls. Dress the carrots with good olive oil and garlic with the chopped herbs and a few drops of balsamic vinegar.
- Put the beets, cut up in large chunks, in a separate bowl and dress with olive oil, orange juice, garlic, herbs and a splash of balsamic vinegar. Season both quite generously with salt and pepper.
- Meanwhile sear the chops in a cast iron skillet over high heat, about 5 to 7 minutes per side or until nicely browned. The chops should be at least 1-inch thick. Transfer these to a heavy roasting pan such as a Le Creusut baking dish; place them in the middle of the pan. Put the dressed beets and carrots on either side of the pork. Put into the hot oven and roast for about 15 minutes or until the temperature reaches 145 to 150 degrees for the pork and the vegetables become glazed in the pan juices.
