Evidently today is National Pig Day which really should be tomorrow because that's when we're getting delivery of one of the pigs who has been eating our compost for months. We've got a local farmer who picks up our compost, feeds pigs with it then we buy the pigs from him. We'd both love for the system to work so he could supply us totally but that probably won't happen.
So, tomorrow I'm off to bid on catering a vegan wedding and then off to butcher a hog. Life is wonderful and weird.
So the plan is for a fresh ham, perhaps a prosciutto although I have yet to organize a dedicated curing space, many sausages, salami (again where to age), bacon, pork porterhouses, coppa di testa, cotechino, ciccoli, trotters, crispy pigs ears, manteca and cracklings. Unfortunately, I'm never able to get the blood and the internal organs (would like to try Fergus Henderson's spleen recipe) except for the liver.
Hopefully the hog will be the agreed upon size this time around. The last was 355 pounds rather than 225 and was pretty hard to break down and store not mention getting upstairs to our place.
OK, off to sharpen knives, make brine and clear space.
Ah you brilliant bastard. I'm jealous.
Posted by: jo | March 01, 2005 at 05:56 PM