It’s hard to believe it was only 2008 when I butchered my first side of Berkshire pig from the Irvings’ farm. It was the beginning of an adventure in charcuterie, and as I sit here about to make another batch of saucisson sec, I can’t help but feel grateful. Since that first side, we’ve done 18 – most from their … Read More
Saucisson Sec Follow Up
It’s been 3 weeks since I put up this batch, and the thinnest of them are just starting to become ready to go. The thicker ones – the game ones being especially thick, won’t be ready for another week or two at least. My first successful batch is all but a memory, now long gone. It was lovely. This second … Read More
Guanciale Project: Day 1
Today was day 1 of a pretty major charcuterie project – the dry curing of pork jowl. Not that jowl is tricky to cure, what makes this a big project is that we did not one jowl, not a pair of jowls, but 20. Yep. 20 pig jowls. Why? A friend wanted to do some R&D on having the cured … Read More
Saucisson Sec & Dry Curing Calf Moose
I put this batch up last weekend – about a 5lb batch of pork saucisson sec, and a similar sized batch of calf moose saucisson sec. I’m also dry curing a piece of sirloin tip from the calf moose to see how that goes. For my first attempt at the game version of saucisson sec, I opted for a higher … Read More
Saucisson Sec-sess
Finally. After screwing it up, then waiting more than a year to give it another go, I’ve got it. Yes, I walked around my kitchen with my arms up in the air declaring to all my victory. See, I love this stuff. Deeply. Not only that, my otherwise vegetarian daughters love this stuff. And bacon. I wrote about the making … Read More
Pig Butchering, Round 3
First pig of the year was from Nature’s Green Acres. Second from Peck N Berry Acres. This third round was from Irvings Farm Fresh – this time 2 pigs. This is decidedly my last pig butchering of the year because quite frankly, I’m tired of butchering pigs. Thankfully, it went extremely quickly – nearly twice as quickly as expected thanks … Read More
Pig Butchering, Round 2: Peck N Berry Acres
Boo. Happy Halloween. Figured the scary head shot was appropriate today of all days. Another day of butchering pig has come and gone, this time a Berkshire. Few self reminders: the sides weighed 45kg a piece, it took 4 hrs from start to finish with a crew of 4, and cutting a pig is tough when you spent that same … Read More
Saucisson Sec
Must be the weather. I was writing down when various batches of sausage were made, and it turns out I’ve done 5+ batches of sausage in the past couple weeks – far more than normal. Three reasons. 1) my new grinder is making the whole process easier and more enjoyable and more importantly 2) my cellar conditions are where they … Read More
Sub-Zero Fresh Pork Sausage Making
Coincidentally, when Allan called me about his blood glut problem, I already had pork from the recent pig-butchering on deck – slated for Rhulman’s ‘Master Pork Sausage’. Truth is, I had purchased a new meat grinder from Halford’s and I wanted to give it a go really badly. So the morning before making all that blood sausage, I was at … Read More
Blood Sausage
Allan Suddaby called me. He had ordered blood to make some sausage, and rather than getting a bit of blood, he got, well…a lot of blood. A big pail of it. So I offered to help him make sausage. This was our adventure. [ps. I’m going to hope Allan weighs in either in the comments or on his blog about … Read More