At Christmas, the Preiss family table is laden with dishes passed down for generations — there’s always a ham (or two), usually a boneless smoked country-style specimen or maybe a marinated and slow-smoked hunter ham. There’s also a generous helping of kielbasa, usually fresh, and weselna, double-smoked and juniper-spiced, with traditional accompaniments of horseradish, mustard and sauerkraut.
“Do you ever feel like doing something different?” I asked Judy Preiss one recent afternoon.
“Oh, sure,” she says.
“Like turkey?”
“Oh, no,” she says, scandalized. “Never turkey.”
Preiss’ husband, Ron, had just given me a tour of the family business, Pulaski Meats, which has been serving up traditional and specialty smoked pork products since 1966, first in Newark and later from its steamy, spice-scented processing plant just behind its storefront in Linden (123 North Wood Ave.; (908) 925-5380, pulaskimeats.com).
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