Charcuterie

There was a very interesting Charcuterpalooza challenge on Facebook last year that I was only able to catch the tail end of, but what I did see thoroughly impressed me. After reading their blogs and seeing the entries I decided to try out my own challenge for 2012. I picked up a copy of Charcuterie by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn on Amazon thanks to Jake and Erron Depew for this specific purpose. It is only March 1st but we've already been able to try out many different things.

For January we tried out bacon. We cured it in kosher salt and honey for about a week and then brought the temp up to 152 degrees and then smoked it. We found that if we let the pork belly cure for longer than a week we end up with a slightly terriaki flavor to the bacon. Bacon was also our first attempt at smoking so we ended up with a very steep learning curve on how to make our barrel smoker work. Our friend Lisa brought over flavored honeys (one was basil and the other was tarragon) and we made a few pieces flavored with these honeys. In the future we would like to go ahead and flavor our bacon a bit more with additional spices just to see how it turns out.

February turned in a whole challenge all on its own. We were supposed to go to the Culinary Symposium but the van broke down so we ended up with a bunch of slaughtered ducks which we made into duck prosciutto and confit. We also had a weekend of sausage making where we made fresh and smoked sausages as well as salamis. We were also able to start some ham and ham hocks brining for later smoking.

At the start of March I can't help but look at the extra chickens in our yard and know that we'll be culling a few more. We'll have to try them brined or smoked or both. I'll also save the livers for pate and for some of the italian sauce recipes I keep reading about. I'm looking forward to a nummy March.

We'll follow with some recipes.