charcuterie

raising pigs is a lot of fun. they are both brutal and silly. they are much like humans in that they get really excited about food. but i also get the impression that they consider humans just as yummy as we do pork. that repulses and scares me enough that i'm always very alert when dealing with these guys.

last time we slaughtered i had the folks from farmsteadmeatsmith.com come up from vashon island and give me some tips on butchering and charcuterie.

i learned a lot but the biggest thing i took away from the experience is the glorious-ness of fat. pigs are very good at growing it, lots of it. and we put it to good use. i was surprised how much fat goes into sausage (30-40%). and not all fat is created equally. there's this cool fat that comes from inside the body (most fat is outside of the carcass, just beneath the skin). it's like a web of thin fat. you can take this stuff and wrap it around just about anything and roast it and the result will be very good (a potato, chicken breast, ???).

this is pure fat being run thru a grinder just before mixing with meat and seasoning for sausage.

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this is saucisses de toulouse and we made a lot of it. maybe it was the wine drinking but we screwed up and added too much salt. darn

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this is the celebrated web-like fat from inside the hog. i believe it's called caul fat but the name is about as inappropriate and unappealing as tofu.

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we experimented with almost all the pig parts. the heart made great tacos for lunch. liver and blood mousse. ears and feet are yummy.  i considered prosciutto but balked at the hanging time (over a year) and i really like fresh ham. that being said i have left one last guanciale hanging for 11 months now in the crawl space under the house. it develops a not so appetizing moldy skin over time. when ready to fry it up you just slice off the naughty bits and go to town. it's like bacon with bouquet. it's basically cured pig cheek. recently my neighbor slaughtered his hogs and was about to let the bald eagles have the heads. i made off with two heads aspiring to do that elaborate David Chang torchon recipe. hunger got the best of me though and instead i just fried chunks of cheek with hoisin, ginger, and scallions.

one last guanciale hanging under my house. yes i did extensive rat-proofing.

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weeks before slaughter date the farmsteadmeatsmith couple suggested reading Jane Grigson's Charcuterie and French Pork Cookery. the title sounded irresistible but it turned out to be out of print. i found it used on amazon.com for $2 at the tacoma goodwill store. bingo. 2 days later the book came in the mail. but oh, shit they sent the wrong book.

'west coast cooking' was sent by mistake. it sounded so un-pork like and so nouvelle cuisine-ey-ish. but at $2 i was not about to complain or send it back, particularly to the folks working at tacoma goodwill. i just ordered Grigson a second time and that worked. if you're into charcuterie Grigson is the real deal.

months later i started thumbing thru 'west coast cooking' and decided to try a white sandwich bread recipe. awesome. then hamburger buns. great. on and on, simple delicious recipes...deadhead pad thai me likey. then one day looking at beet recipes i see the author used to live on san jaun island and had a restuarant here. wow. what are the chances of that?