The sausage your grandfather would recognize.

Real ingredients. Time-honored methods. No compromises worth making.

Denver, Colorado Family-Run Since 1969 USDA Inspected

Most sausage isn't made anymore. It's manufactured.

Somewhere along the way, sausage became a vehicle for fillers, flavor shortcuts, and ingredient lists that require a chemistry degree to decode.

We started Charcutnuvo because we refused to accept that as inevitable.

This is not a hobby project. It's a bet that enough people still care about what they put in their bodies—and are willing to pay for food that respects that.

Our Story

Three generations, one standard

What We Inherited

The Gutknecht family's connection to the butcher's craft runs deep. Josef Karl Niedermann—Eric's great-great-grandfather—was a formally recognized Metzgermeister (Master Butcher) who operated his shop at Münzplatz in Zürich beginning in 1906. The Niedermann and Gutknecht families maintained professional, family-run meat enterprises in Switzerland across multiple generations.

In 1969, Swiss immigrant Ted Jaeggi founded Continental Sausage in Denver. In the mid-1970s, the Gutknecht family arrived from Zurich and joined the business, bringing their Swiss sausage-making heritage with them.

The Inflection Point

In the mid-1980s, the Gutknecht family purchased Continental Sausage. They saw an industry moving toward shortcuts—sodium phosphates, maltodextrin, "natural flavors" that tasted like nothing in nature.

The sausage they remembered—the one their family made in Switzerland—had ceased to exist in the American commercial market. Not because it couldn't be done, but because no one wanted to do it the hard way.

What We Chose

In 2003, Eric Gutknecht took over leadership. He chose to build the company around a simple principle: make the product we actually want to eat.

That meant sourcing better meat, refusing unnecessary additives, and accepting that margins would be tighter than the industrial alternative. Production remains in North Denver, where it's been since the beginning. We made peace with that trade.

What We Stand For

Cleaner. Kinder. Better.

These aren't marketing words. They're operating constraints.

Cleaner

What it means: You can read and pronounce every ingredient on our label.

In practice: Our fresh and organic sausage lines are made without nitrates, nitrites, MSG, fillers, or artificial flavors. Our spice blends are mixed in-house from whole ingredients. Some traditional European-style recipes use curing salts, as the craft has always required—clearly labeled, product by product.

What it costs us: Shorter shelf life, smaller batches, and ingredients that cost 3–4x more than industrial alternatives.

Kinder

What it means: We source from farms that raise animals with space, sunlight, and dignity.

In practice: Whether it's pork, beef, chicken, bison, or elk—we apply the same sourcing principles. Pasture access. No routine antibiotics. No confinement operations. We visit our suppliers and know their practices firsthand.

What it costs us: Humanely raised meat costs significantly more than commodity alternatives. We build that into every product, not as a premium add-on.

Better

What it means: The final product should taste unmistakably different—and unmistakably real.

In practice: Hand-trimmed cuts, natural casings, patient seasoning, and no shortcuts on craft. We taste every batch.

What it costs us: Time. Lots of it. A single batch takes us 4–6x longer than high-volume production.

How We Operate

What makes us different

Our Beliefs

  • Ingredient quality is non-negotiable—even when no one is checking
  • Transparency earns more trust than marketing
  • If we wouldn't feed it to our own family, we don't sell it
  • Smaller and better beats bigger and cheaper

Our Practices

  • Every batch is hand-mixed in small quantities
  • Spices are ground fresh, never pre-blended commodity mixes
  • Natural hog casings only—no collagen or synthetic alternatives
  • Continuous cold chain from production to your door
The Details

Proof, not promises

We know claims are easy. Here's what we can actually show you.

Ingredient Standards

Core ingredients

Quality meat, sea salt, spices, water, natural casings

What we avoid

MSG, phosphates, corn syrup, artificial colors, and "natural flavors." Many of our fresh and organic products contain no nitrates or nitrites. Some traditional cured products use curing salts, clearly disclosed on each label.

We work across multiple proteins—beef, pork, chicken, bison, and elk—and apply consistent quality standards to all of them. Certifications vary by product; individual product pages and labels are the source of truth.

Allergen note: Certain products, including our beer brats, contain wheat. Full ingredient and allergen information is provided product by product.

Sourcing Philosophy

We work with a network of small farms across Colorado and the Rocky Mountain region that share our values around animal welfare. We prioritize relationships over contracts and pay above commodity rates because that's the only way to get the quality we need.

We don't source from feedlots. We don't buy the cheapest available. Full stop.

Certifications

USDA Inspected: Our facility operates under continuous USDA inspection. Every batch is reviewed for safety and compliance before it ships.

SQF Certified: Our facility holds SQF certification (Edition 9), rated "Excellent"—a globally recognized food safety and quality standard.

Regenerative Organic Certified®: Select products—including certain beef lines—carry Regenerative Organic Certified® status, meeting rigorous standards for soil health, animal welfare, and farmer fairness. Expanding ROC across our organic line is an active priority; we partner with ROC-aligned farms and organizations as part of that commitment.

Global Animal Partnership: Our sourcing practices align with Global Animal Partnership (GAP) standards for animal welfare. Specific certifications vary by product and supplier; check individual product pages for details.

Fair Questions

"Pasture-raised" can mean almost anything. What does it mean here?
Pigs raised outdoors with access to pasture, rotated regularly, and not confined to crates or indoor pens for their entire lives. We verify this with farm visits, not paperwork.
Why are some products made without nitrates, while others use curing salts?
Traditional European charcuterie—the kind our family made in Switzerland—often requires curing salts for food safety, texture, and flavor. Our fresh and organic sausages skip them entirely. We label everything clearly so you can choose what's right for you.
Is this just premium pricing for the same product?
No. Our ingredients cost more, our process takes longer, and our yields are lower. The price reflects the actual cost of making food this way—not margin padding.
The Standard-Setter

Eric Gutknecht

Eric didn't come to food through culinary school or a restaurant career. He came to it through endurance sports—specifically, through an obsession with what fuel actually does to performance over time.

That lens shapes everything at Charcutnuvo. The same discipline that gets you through a hundred-mile race—attention to detail, refusal to cut corners, accepting discomfort for a better outcome—is the discipline that makes good sausage.

Eric reviews every supplier relationship, approves every recipe adjustment, and personally tastes production batches. Not because he doesn't trust the team, but because standards are only standards if someone is accountable for them.

See It Made

Process as proof

We could describe how we make our sausage. Or we could show you.

What to notice:

  • Hand-mixing in small batches—not industrial hoppers
  • Natural casings, hand-linked
  • A clean, tight facility—not a factory floor
  • Craft steps stay in skilled hands—machines assist with safety and consistency, but never replace the work that matters

This is slower. It doesn't scale elegantly. That's the point.

Where We Show Up

Rooted in Denver

We're a Denver company—built here, based here, invested here. Our facility is at 911 E. 75th Ave in North Denver, where Continental Sausage has operated for decades. Our farmers are regional. When you buy from us, most of that money stays in Colorado.

We donate product regularly to local food banks and community organizations. Not as a campaign, but as a standing practice. Good food shouldn't only be available to those who can pay premium prices.

We're also members of local business networks and farmers' market communities. You'll find us at events, not behind a booth—but in the crowd, learning what people actually want.

This isn't for everyone. That's okay.

If you're looking for the cheapest sausage, we're not it. If you want the one with the longest shelf life or the most convenient packaging, that's somewhere else.

But if you want sausage made the way it used to be—by people who care about what goes into it and what it does to your body—we'd be glad to earn your trust.

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