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ould read my incessant ramblings and follow my adventures in all epicurean endeavors i was also unemployed at the time and literally had nothing to do and it struck me what better to do than these crazy a meat projects that can take up to a few weeks to complete brilliant i quickly signed up on cathy s website and i saw that there were about 100 other participants within 3 days that number almost tripled this was going to be fun a lot of fun and i couldn t wait to get started throughout this year we have done some incredible projects just look at this list each month had its own story and a lesson learned this was after all a journey an adventure january project salting duck proscuitto february project curing homemade bacon featured on food52 by the yummy mummy as one of the best pictures click here to see it march project brining homemade corned beef featured on food52 by the yummy mummy as one of the best blog posts click here to check it out april project smoking canadian bacon may project grinding merguez sausage lettuce wraps june project stuffing tandoori chicken sausage july project blending mortadella august project binding shrimp and salmon mousseline september project packing indian style pork pie october project stretching confit pork cheek rillettes november project curing pepperoni and whole pig butchering featured on food 52 by the yummy mummy as one of the best blog posts click here to check it out december project showing off this is the one you re reading our project for this month was to make a feast that showed off all of our mad charcuterie skills i was extremely happy to invite some close friends over and we really went to town on some awesome food we ate chicken liver pate with bourbon gelee a delicious dish that got devoured before i could even take a picture the chicken liver pate was extremely creamy and well seasoned the bourbon gelee was made with a little bit of apple juice and had great acidity to cut through the richness of the pate homemade bratwursts with dijon cheddar fondue and caramelized onions i made this dish for the superbowl last year with store bought brats the dish was so good that i had to make it with my homemade brats it s a spectacular dish that can be made into a cute appetizer like this or just served in a great bun covered in cheese sauce and onions oh baby porchetta brined pork loin wrapped in cured pork belly which was hot smoked for an hour and then finished off in the oven i was so proud of this dish i cured the pork belly in salt sugar fennel seed and garlic for two days the pork loin was brined for about 4 hours i made a paste of herbs with tons of rosemary garlic lemon zest black pepper and red chile flakes which i rubbed all over the pork loin i wrapped the pork loin almost all the way around with the cured pork belly the whole thing was roasted in the oven with lemon onions and the potatoes that ended up being cooked in the rendered fat of the porchetta this was truly one of the best dishes i have ever made yukon gold and sweet potatoes confit cooked in pork fat it was just one of those special meals eaten throughout the day while watching our hometown tennessee titans we ate the pate and the brats as the game started we drank a few beers we cheered mostly and cried on a few really bad plays and as we sat back enjoying everyone s company the smell of that amazing porchetta started drifting through the house the intoxicating aroma of roasted pork belly fennel rosemary thyme garlic and lemon zest was slowly taking up all the real estate in those olfactory glands and soon everyone started drifting back to the kitchen as the porchetta roasted mouths were salivating as the first piece was sliced everyone s hands went towards it the meat came apart easily because it was so tender and then there was silence slices of porchetta put on plates a few mmms and a lot of wows and one guy saying this is so good you could slap ya mama but rest assured i didn t it s one of our southern sayings that means really really good after we finished eating we sat back drank a few more beers and just watched football as night fell and the afternoon games ended people started leaving one by one most of them just needed a nap after a food filled afternoon and to be honest i layed down on the couch for quite some time before i started cleaning up but as i started cleaning everything up i couldn t help but take time to reflect from when i started on this adventure to when i finished i have literally changed as a home cook and as a person i have opted to understand where my food comes from by participating in a community supported agriculture program as opposed to finding everything at the grocery store i have overcome almost every single dining fear i ve ever had eating whole animal including liver kidneys hearts brains headcheese belly collars intestines and tongues among others i cook with these ingredients and embrace them because of the respect i want to show to the animals giving their lives for food and lastly i have developed incredible relationships with some really special people in january there were places i went to buy things from other people in december i walk into the same store or a stand and i share stories with my friends for my entire life we have always shopped at a grocery megamart and an indian grocery story sometimes during the summer we would go to the farmer s market but that was about it my parents did however always grow a lot of indian vegetables during the summer in our backyard but come january i signed us up for our first ever full csa season it wasn t open until the middle of may but we started making a commitment to eating more local and seasonal food it was quite the transformation i went from sleeping in late on saturday mornings to waking up at 8 am and getting ready to go several different markets i had a chance to talk to farmers who sold me what they grew and harvested with their own hands i could sense the passion in my farmer eric s voice when he talked about the delicious carrots he grew his favorite vegetable when put to my taste test i was blown away i never had a carrot which tasted so carrott y is that even a word as i walked through the market you could just see community being built patrons talking to their farmers a few sprinkled musicians children running around and people walking their dogs who you could tell just wanted to dig into some great food or just take a nap with charcutepalooza finding out where my meat came from was always very important to me i was able throughout this year to try so many different meats from a variety of farms that is the game you play try everything then figure out what you like you will find something really special if you re in nashville that means get your hands on some wedge oak farm chickens emerald glen s thick cut pork chops or triple l farms beef please thank me later these great producers helped me make amazing delicious food and that taste could never be replicated in factory farm raised animals i started this whole experience never really knowing where my food came from or the people that produced it making the food was amazing but it was difficult challenging and frustrating at times but what kept me going even through my duck prosciutto disaster or the utter failure of the pepperoni was that i didn t want to let the people who had raised this animal down producing food for us is their livelihood they work harder and longer than anyone else either you or i know they are remarkable people with their own stories to share and i am proud to call them friends tom lazzaro holding up a hefty piece of pancetta tom lazzaro makes the best pasta i ve ever eaten his italian shop lazzaroli pasta is a welcoming place where one can get all manner of italian foods from his freshly prepared ravioli and pasta to homemade sauces cheeses oils vinegars and of course salumi it was through tom that i had a taste of what great salami should be as he sources from armandino batali of salumi artisan meats in seattle everyone who goes into this shop is one of tom s friends and you feel like family when you are there you can always spot tom s wife debbie at the cash register on the weekends and debbie s mom in the back helping tom make ravioli besides the incredulous sight of seeing a man and his mother in law get along the atmosphere here just makes you feel good i ve shared many charcuterie items with tom and he is always quick to let me know once new items like lardo or guanciale become available at the shop tom even tipped me off to try city house which is about a half block from his shop it has since become my favorite restaurant in town that s me getting a slab of spareribs from weldon hawkins of emerald glen farm his peta shirt says people eating tasting animals this is weldon hawkins a 8th generation farmer his family has owned emerald glen farm for over 204 years weldon is one of the most interesting people i ve ever met in my life besides being an amazing farmer that grows some of the best pork chicken and beef i ve ever had he s also very active in the fight for sustainable organic farming and i love that in his biweekly emails he shares stories of life on the farm and even gives us a few recommendations on books to read sometimes things at the farm are great at one point weldon gave me 6 dozen eggs because he had too many and sometimes predators kill the turkey that i was gonna have for thanksgiving but alas such is the life weldon and his wife ariana make their work seem effortless in fact at this moment every single piece of meat i have in my fridge or freezer is from them and i m proud to say that if i can buy from them i do and i try to choose their products over anything in the grocery store as much as i can most recently weldon hooked me up with 30 lbs of pork belly most of that became bacon but you ll also recognize that some of the belly was used in the porchetta for the last supper chris moran is a cajun boy straight from baton rouge louisiana he started coming to nashville during the summer wanting to provide our very meager seafood supply with some fresh caught fish and shellfish straight from the gulf chris travels from louisiana to nashville every single week and operates out of the farmer s market thursday sunday we rarely ate seafood because it just wasn t available here every now and then we would have shrimp but thanks to chris we have seafood at least once and usually twice a week i loved using his shrimp when making the shrimp salmon mousseline sometimes you need something be an accessory to all of your cured meats and nothing is better than kathleen cotter s cheese stand the bloomy rind she sources great artisanal cheese from around the us with a stunning inventory from the southeastern us her collection of cheese is always varied and no one knows cheese better than kathleen and let s be honest what goes better with great cured meat products than some curdled milk products well maybe fermented grape products but curdled milk creations are always welcome food on its surface is always about the taste of flavor of a dish but food is also inextricably tied to people the people who produce it the people who cook it and the people who use food as a vehicle to build communities and relationships with others the journey of charcutepalooza elucidated that simple concept to me more than anything it s about real food and real people it s learning to try something new and not being afraid of it it s accepting your failures and learning from them it s celebrating your triumphs and sharing it with the world i will forever be grateful to cathy and kim for allowing me to be a part of this amazing adventure i have to thank michael ruhlman for providing us with the knowledge and advice in his book charcuterie he was also always available for any of us through twitter which was simply impressive you all have shown me things that i never dreamed of and for that i will always be grateful and to you the reader who has been on this journey with me what a ride it has been although charcutepalooza comes to an end the things i have learned will be with me forever the skills and techniques are now part of my repertoire just like how sauteing braising grilling or roasting are the relationships with the people who produce my food is one that i hope to grow and continue for a long long time and even though the challenge ends i have no doubt that i will continue this epicurean adventure as one door closes another opens and i for one can t wait to see where next year will take me hopefully it won t run my family out of the kitchen cheers vivek share this email a link to a friend opens in new window email print opens in new window print share on x opens in new window x share on facebook opens in new window facebook like loading 4 comments from charcutepalooza cooking philosophy entrees pork charcutepalooza project 11 curing and the butchery of the whole pig december 1 2011 tags charcutepalooza charcuterie local pepperoni pork sausage seasonal whole animal sometimes you take up a pretty hard project you have determination sure you have confidence and maybe just maybe you ve had some previous success that has bolstered your bravado so much that you think everything will go according to your plan i mean it should all be so effortless with a flawless finale right unfortunately for me this was not my month nor was it my best challenge earlier in the year i thought i was the man i made my own bacon and it was awesome i put 30 lbs of pork butt and 20 lbs of pork fat through a meat grinder and made tons of really really tasty sausage hog jowls were expertly butchered and simmered slowly in their own fat for the better part of a day before being pounded into rillettes my own hot dogs that was a cinch but at some point the charcuterie gods saw fit to strike down my hubris and leave me with a few strings of porky mold i was a bit heartbroken and to be honest i was too scared that i was going to get the plague if i even attempted to take a bite you see dried cured sausage is one of my favorite things on the planet aged spanish chorizo entices me with the smoky heat of paprika and garlic italian finocchiona redolent of black pepper and fennel seed is perfect on a small slice of baguette and some extra virgin olive oil and don t even get me started on how much i love nay adore pepperoni ubiquitous on pizza slices all around the world but a truly extraordinary product when done the old fashioned way pepperoni was what i sought to make the spicy cured sausage would be fantastic just thinly sliced before dinner or cooked in tomatoes to adorn pasta as a thick chunky sauce to sit below a roast chicken and yes even on some of my homemade pizza this is what i had been waiting for as i got all my spices together and mixed them with the meat put it through the grinder and stuffed everything into casings my mouth was literally watering it was go...
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