You may not have heard of the word, but you certainly know its work. Wikipedia defines it as "the branch of cooking devoted to prepared meat products such as bacon, ham, sausage, terrines, galantines, pâtés, and confit, primarily from pork." O Yes! As Homer Simpson once said about all those meats coming from one mythical, magical animal:
Charcuterie was a great way to preserve meat before refrigeration, now it's an awesome way to produce great flavours. I have dabbled a little bit into the black arts, and have been duly rewarded. My first challenge was to make fresh Toulouse Sausage and cook them up that night. Sweet! The next challenge was to cure some meat. I broke down a whole duck, legs for Duck Rillettes and breast for Duck Prosciutto. Fantastic, I am sold, just need to learn a bit more.
Last night I had a great chat on the radio with Ross O'Meara. He was a former chef but now has his own farm on Bruny Island, raising all sorts of animals. And he turns them into beautiful products and sells them through his label started with Matthew Evans, Rare Food.
I loved hearing about how he raises and creates his own charcuterie. In particular, how you can use all the pig for all different types of meats, ham from shoulder, pork belly makes bacon or sausages, the sausage casings can come from the intestine, hocks for a ragu, etc, etc, etcetera. Nose to tail. Here is the interview:
And I will leave you with some youtube joy, Ross and Matthew making Toulouse Sausages for the Gourmet Farmer series.
Delicious pigs. I made bacon earlier this year and smoked it over cherry wood. It was absolutely brilliant, and something I want to repeat. I need to find someone to hang and age hams and then I'll be all set.
ReplyDelete