I spoke to both Gamze Smokehouse and Uncles Smallgoods last year and have found myself thinking about them again now that the Christmas ham wave has arrived. Uncles also sent me their Bippi hot chilli honey ham and a mini ham this week, which is extremely generous and gave me a good excuse to revisit both businesses and the things that set them apart from other Christmas ham producers.
Gamze Smokehouse in Wangaratta began with Felix Gamze, who migrated from Slovenia as a child and went straight into butchery. He was curious by nature and kept refining the way he cured and smoked, often for practical reasons: customers with allergies, people wanting fewer chemicals, locals asking about clean-label options before that phrase existed. His son Brendan eventually stepped away from finance, moved back to Wangaratta and joined him.
Uncle’s Smallgoods in Dandenong has a completely different backstory. Bartek (Bert) Glinka and Brendan D’Amelio moved from corporate jobs into smallgoods through a Polish Festival kransky stand and ended up learning the craft directly from the Polish couple who sold them their deli. Most of the knowledge came through repetition, tasting and working alongside people who’d been doing it for decades. Their factory runs on wood-fired smoke ovens and natural casings and when I visited, they walked me through the smokers, fed me a kransky straight off the rack, and sent me home with a generous bag of smallgoods. This week’s delivery of ham was very on-brand.
Both producers take their work seriously, especially at this time of year, and what links them are their thoughtful, well-made smallgoods produced by people who care about the details.
Gamze Smokehouse offers Christmas ham options like whole leg on the bone and boneless leg, made from free-range pork, smoked over Australian hardwoods, and cured with natural ingredients to avoid chemical nitrites. You can purchase these and other Christmas specials online through their website by 8 December.
Uncles has also teamed up with fellow Victorian brand Bippi to release a hot honey Christmas ham,seasoned from the inside out. Instead of a last-minute glaze, the brine itself carries the Bippi heat: hot honey, fresh and dried chillies and Uncles’ usual lightly salted base. The hams are then cured, hand-netted and smoked over Australian hardwoods for six hours. Alongside that, they’re putting out their bone in and boneless leg hams, made from the best cuts of the leg, hand-sewn with the rind on and wood-smoked so they behave exactly as a Christmas ham should. And for anyone avoiding additives altogether, the Natural range swaps chemical nitrates for sea salt, herbs, honey, tapioca, carrot, celery and real wood smoke. The green packaging is the giveaway; the ingredient list is reassuringly short. Order by 7 December.
