MOST butcheries have some gluten-free sausages these days but David and Debbie Tasker have gone the whole hog to cater for those with coeliac disease.

Their Stockmans Tucker establishment at Meadowbrook in Brisbane's south is completely gluten-free.

David says this removes the risk of cross-contamination from crumbs and flours in preparation areas and display cabinets.

It only takes a few crumbs to stray from the lamb cutlets to a tray of pork chops to make some people suffer discomfort and bloating.

Tasker had his first butcher's shop in Port Macquarie at the age of 19 and has worked more recently in wholesale meats.

His wife says he is a perfectionist and a quick look around the shop bears this out.

This is an open-plan establishment with everything in view. There are no little nooks with bins full of bones, and the floor is so well scrubbed you could almost eat off it.

There is a strong and growing demand for gluten-free products.

The Queensland Coeliac Society has about 3000 members in Brisbane but this represents only the tip of the iceberg. Since opening last November, Tasker has added 500 people to his database and some customers travel from as far away as Toowoomba, the Gold Coast and Redcliffe.

Some patrons are able to eat crumbed cutlets for the first time in years. The crumbs at Stockmans are made with a mixture of rice flour and potato and gave a nice crunchy coating to the chicken breast schnitzels we tried.

Tasker sources his kranskys from Franz Smallgoods and the mettwursts come from Schulte's Meat Tavern at Plainlands.

I was a little surprised to see hams marked as gluten-free but sometimes there are grain products used in curing agents and glazes.

The store sells breads from Golden Hearth Bakery on the Gold Coast and these are very palatable and a vast improvement on the dry tasteless gluten-free crusts of decades past.

Stockmans Tucker Butchery is at Shop 16, Meadowbrook Shopping Centre, Loganlea Rd, Meadowbrook, ph: 3805 5255.

There is also a range of gluten-free sausages and crumbed chicken, beef, veal and lamb in 500g trays, and single chicken kievs and cordon bleus at Fine Freddy's Meats, Shop 64 at Sunnybank Plaza, cnr Mains Rd and McCullough St (ph: 3345 5113).

HEN'S teeth are hard to find and the same goes for Australian-made goose liver pate. The truth is that farming geese doesn't make commercial sense. The big aggressive birds are slow breeders so those precious organs are hard to come by.

Gold Coast chefs Peter Fyffe and Paul Cundall managed to sourced a batch from a free-range farm in Victoria before Christmas and produced a truffled goose liver pate.

They expect to be making some more this month in their Robina kitchen.

Fyffe says goose pate is seriously rich and a French regional classic. He believes their Fresh Chefs Foods business is the only outfit in the country making such a product.

The pate is made from 100 per cent goose liver with no chicken or duck in the mix. It also contains shaved black Italian truffles and truffle essence.

Fyffe and Cundall have been operating the business for about six years and make a dozen or so pates using organic duck and chicken livers, salmon and crayfish.

Check online (at www.freshchefsfoods.com.au) for stockists and details on their gourmet pies and filos. In Brisbane, you can catch them at Jan Power's Farmers Market at the Powerhouse, New Farm, every second and fourth Saturday of the month.

 

 

David Costello | CourierMail.com.au