Pig Trotter Terrine, August Charcutepalooza Challenge!!

I have recently joined the group Charcutepalooza.  A bunch of amazing people, are dedicated to learning the art of Charcuterie using Michael Ruhlman's book Charcuterie.  If you have not purchased this book, GET IT NOW... In fact, buy one for yourself and one as a gift for someone else.  This is not your typical cook book, more like an easy and fun to read text book that gets you back to the roots of Charcuterie.  Everything from curing meats, making condiments, and how to smoke all types of meats.  No I did not get an endorsement from Mr. Ruhlman. 

So when I find out that the August challenge was Binding. I got excited.  Participants were challenged to either do: The apprentice Challenge: Make a Liver Terrine or a Fish/Seafood Mousseline, or go for the Charcutiere Challenge: Make Headcheese, feet, or Trotter Terrine. Since I lack the storage space for an entire pigs head, I went with the Trotters.  I gave a call over to my buddy Mark, at Newman Farms Heritage Berkshire Pork .  And as soon as I mentioned trotters, he gave me the traditional Mark line "I have a deal for you"!!  I went there to only get a couple trotters and Mark used his Jedi mind tricks on me, I left with twelve trotters, eight pounds of pork belly, and five pounds of pig livers. He's good.  Okay back to the task at hand.  If you look back to my previous post, Primals The trotter is the pig foot area.  Look at diagram below.

English Bangers and Mash

A few years ago I had the pleasure of working with a gentleman that came from Scotland, I guess you really could not call him a gentleman but he is a great guy.  He turned me on to some good old British cooking.  Things Like the Bangers and Mash, Nips and Tatties, and Haggis.  Truth be told, I really like all of them.  They are all very filling comfort food.  So today, I had some pork shoulder left over, and had a hankering for some Bangers.  The term Bangers comes from WWII days when the sausages had a higher water content due to rationing, so the sausages would pop and explode in the pan when cooking.  This is a savory sausage with a sweet undertone and mildly spiced.  I served mine with a reduction of balsamic vinegar with caramelized onions.  Delicious.  Onto the sausages.  Very simple to make.

• 2 1/2Lb 1149g Pork shoulder, trimmed and cut into strips
• 1Lb 453g Pork Fat, I used pork jowl cut into strips
• 1 1/2C 173g dry bread crumbs
• 1 1/4C 10floz Chicken stock Chilled
• 4tsp Banger seasoning( see below)
• 9ft Medium hog casings, rinsed and soaked for 30 min

Smoked Polish Kielbasa, and Pierogies.

Ever have one of those days when you miss home, you just miss your roots?  Even though I move a lot I spent the majority of my life living in the area of Cleveland Ohio.  I know, I know I have heard all of the jokes about Cleveland, and sure our river did catch on fire,....Twice.  But to me, there is really no better place.  The people of Cleveland are Real down to earth people, and they all have two things in common, we love our sports!!  And we love our food.!!  The Cleveland suburbs are a huge variety of different cultures and demographics.  I remember going to the West Side market as a child. (Really, click the link)

It's a Pig Jowl Thing!

Two more jowls are hitting the cure chamber today.  You may remember them from my first blog on Guanciale.  I made a couple of important promises to myself and my friends when I started my Charcuterie endeavor.  #1, if I ever have a doubt that the project would be safe or not, I will toss it and start over (Trust me this is harder than it sounds when you think of the money and time invested), and #2, is to use only the Highest quality, sustainable ingredients.  I prefer to get my veggies from farmers markets and my meats to be of the Heritage variety.  There are really two big breeds of Heritage pork right now, the Berkshire and the Mangalitsa.  I use the Berkshire, not only because it's freaking amazing, but I know a really good farmer that is known across the country, and he is local, so there.  That being said I got two beautiful jowls a couple of weeks ago and prepared them in two completely different ways.  One was more traditional with very fresh herbs and garlic, and the next I did in a southern Italian, Calabrian style, spicy and smokey.  Lets talk more traditional first.  I got some amazing herbs from my buddies that have an amazing restaurant here in Memphis.  If you are ever near stop by!!! Andrew Michaels Italian Kitchen.  Here we go.