charcuterie

i can't believe this isn't already a thread! ilx prolly love all this yo! tell me yr likes dislikes places to procure it experiences making it whatever. if it's cured meat product then lets discuss it! here's a little article about it from the chicago reader

Man, I am ready for this trend to be OVER.

it's a trend to eat salami? c'mon jaymc!

eating bacon is a trend? fercrisesakes

smoked salmon is a trend?

i suppose but without these foods i would no longer want to live

http://www.thislittlepiggy.us/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/watermarked_thislilpiggy.jpg
this ddude makes it!

this ddude writes about books about making it

i can't believe this isn't already a thread! ilx prolly love all this yo!

uh...
"curing" meat: classic or dud?

I know ZS and I had a discussion about curing your own bacon (his dad does and we have done this). Also, I thought there was a photo thread of the country ham I cured for 18 months somewhere. Anyway, now I live across the street from Salumi, so I'm set. Though I did smuggle a nice hunk of guanciale home from Rome.

my dad cures his own bacon too

this is my favorite thing in the world btw

why, was it sick?

eating bacon is a trend? fercrisesakes

― Anton Levain (jdchurchill), Thursday, March 11, 2010 6:41 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

oh c'mon now this is just sock behavior

max, I think it was you and not ZS talking about the home-cured. lo siento.

apology accepted

eating bacon is a trend? fercrisesakes

― Anton Levain (jdchurchill), Thursday, March 11, 2010 6:41 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

oh c'mon now this is just sock behavior

― nitzer ebbebe (gbx), Thursday, March 11, 2010 8:07 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

sorry gbx i guess i just like to eat things that fall under this umbrella of 'charcuterie' and the fact that jaymc thinks it's a trend just got me all bent out of shape.
thankz fr the link shasta

Charcuterie, salumeria, etc., may or may not be a fad but it's been around for ages and won't go away anytime soon.

well, i think the dialogue between jd and jaymc is that maybe in chicago it might? then it's just back to naturals and kielbasa.

Yeah, it's definitely a trend here, dude.

See: The Bristol, The Purple Pig, Longman and Eagle, The Publican, Mado, Rootstock, etc.

http://chicago.metromix.com/restaurants/article/get-schooled-charcuterie/1476607/content

Obviously, cured meats in and of themselves have been around forever. But the idea of serving them on a "charcuterie plate" at a hip/upscale restaurant is a fairly new development in Chicago. I'm annoyed in part because I don't eat meat but mostly because it's become a boring thing for a new restaurant to do.

I like this kind of thing at restaurants because when I go out to eat I generally want to eat something that I won't invest the effort to do on my own. I'll gladly eat prosciutto or salami that you were willing to spend a year curing in your special facilities cause as much as I'd love to do that at home it's just not really going to happen.

It's been a trend here for a while, enough so that it's no longer so much of a trend as a part of the local culinary scene. A good charcuterie/salumeria plate, like a good cheese plate is a lovely thing and I love when people experiment and have French pate and Italian salami and Spanish ham and German wurst etc., in their selection. It's only boring if the selection is bad (and any of the countries that do this well have enough selection to make for a good plate) or if you don't care for meat or cured meat. Otherwise it's just a choice amongst others.

proper smoked meat is the domain of plastic tubs at truck stop checkout counters

in yr hearts u know I'm right

I would but I had my heart removed, smoked and cured. Quite tasty as I recall.

proper smoked meat is the domain of plastic tubs at truck stop checkout counters

in yr hearts u know I'm right

― the most sacred couple in Christendom (J0hn D.), Friday, March 12, 2010 3:15 PM (18 minutes ago)

yet another cuisine rooting from the ancient Incans. In quechua "chiarqui" = dried or singed meat.

"While charcuterie has been around for centuries and, as Levitt points out, "is the true food of the poor," it's been popping up everywhere from scene-y bars to high-end restaurants."

Charcuterie, incidentally, stems from words related to modern day French words 'chair' (meat, flesh) and 'cuite' (cooked).

yeah, maybe this is part of a bigger trend in general, namely "poor food". jaxon and i discussed this over lunch yesterday: short ribs, tilapia (usually pimped up as "chilean" or "[xxxxx] sea bass"), and "snout to tail" philosophy which in general are the most economical proteins are hard to miss on many menus in metro USA restaurants... but usually at no discount to the consumer!

it's as if the restaurateurs are scaling down food costs by using "exotic" (and yet often cheaper) proteins but keeping menu prices relatively equal to pre-recession levels.

This predates the recession, though. RNM has had a charcuterie plate for nigh on ten years and they're not French at all and lots of Italian places have had salumeria of one kind or another for ages.

MW, I was referring to "jerky" not "charcuterie" although they are slightly homophonic!

xp: i'm talking about places that are new to charcuterie/salumi obv, rather than the exceptions.

yea i was going to write about how prosciuto, capocola, much more expensive in the deli case than say genoa salami

also slim jim vs above thread stated jerky in plastic tub by check out at truck stop

there's this really funny thing about salami in this movie if you've seen it you know cant find it on youtubes

DO you know I like country ham? country ham country ham country ham country ham country ham

abbott: god bless you and yr love of country ham. thank you for linking to it.

in jaymc's link rob levitt mentions ciccioli. what he was talking about sounds like a messier version of rillettes which i think of as like a fattified version of pulled pork. i heard somebody say that rillettes are the place to start when thinking of or learning abt charcuterie, though i don't remember why.

now that i'm lookin at stuff for pate (which i guess is charcuterie) i have come across this concept of
forcemeat
i think i am going to start a new band and call it that

tho i guess rillettes can be made without pork

I made a bunch of chicken liver pate last summer, from Elizabeth David's Summer Cooking - it was great, though I cut back on her measure of liquor and probably didn't need too. (I thought it would make the end result too liquid.) I've got a bunch of beef liver I want to make up using Maker's Mark or some other high-end bourbon as the liquid, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

tho i guess rillettes can be made without pork

Hell yeah. Rabbit is good.

"Guilds would develop training programs for its members, thereby preserving the culinary arts. Charcuterie was the name of a guild that prepared and sold cooked items made from pigs. Through this organization, the preparation of hams, bacon, sausages, pate en croutes and terrines were preserved."

from here

From the Recipe Books of Antonin Careme

Les Petits Vol-Au-Vents a la Nesle
Brighton Pavilion and Chateau Rothschild

20 vol-au-vent cases, the diameter of a glass
20 cocks-combs
20 cocks-stones (testes)
10 lambs sweetbreads (thymus and pancreatic glands, washed in water for five hours, until the liquid runs clear)
10 small truffles, pared, chopped, boiled in consomme
20 tiny mushrooms
20 lobster tails
4 fine whole lambs' brains, boiled and chopped
1 French loaf
2 spoonfuls chicken jelly
2 spoonfuls veloute sauce
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
2 tablespoons chopped mushrooms
4 egg yolks
2 chickens, boned
2 calves' udders
2 pints cream
sauce Allemande
salt, nutmeg

Forcemeat:

Crumb a whole French loaf. Add two spoonfuls of poultry jelly, one of veloute, one tablespoon of chopped parsley, two of mushrooms, chopped. Boil and stir as it thickens to a ball. Add two egg yolks. Pound the flesh of two boned chickens through a sieve. Boil two calves' udders -- once cold, pound and pass through a sieve.

Then, mix six ounces of the breadcrumbs panada to ten ounces of the chicken meat, and ten of the calves' udders and combine and pound for 15 minutes. Add five drams of salt, some nutmeg and the yolks of two more eggs and a spoonful of cold veloute or bechamel. Pound for a further ten minutes. Test by poaching a ball in boiling water -- it should form soft, smooth balls.

Make some balls of poultry forcemeat in small coffee spoons, dip them in jelly broth and after draining on a napkin, place them regularly in the vol-au-vent, already half filled with:

a good ragout of cocks-combs and stones (testicles)
lambs' sweetbreads (thymus and pancreatic glands, washed in water for five hours, until the liquid runs clear)
truffles
mushrooms
lobster tails
four fine whole brains

Cover all with an extra thick sauce Allemande.

Gnam, gnam, gnam

what are y'all's thoughts on lardo. is that trendy in chicago?

Lardo is delicious. Try Lardo di Colonnata, especially.

From this week's Chicago Reader, in two separate places:

"House-made charcuterie is becoming the chicken breast of new restaurants."
--review of Revolution Brewing

"You can't throw a rock in a new Chicago restaurant without hitting a plate of artisanal charcuterie."
--article about the FamilyFarmed Expo

Btw, Steve, went to Bistro Central Parc last night. It was pretty good; best sweetbreads I've had in awhile.

chicken breasts are popular?

jaymc- you left out the part about how this 'new' snout-to-tail philosophy is going to save the world, dude.
the 'throwing rocks' line quoted above's entire blurb from chicago reader:

"Using the Whole Hog From trotters to head cheese, pigs are so hot these days that, as the Reader's Mike Sula remarked while moderating Saturday's panel on snout-to-tail cooking, you can't throw a rock in a new Chicago restaurant without hitting a plate of artisanal charcuterie. So I was pleasantly surprised that this discussion turned out not to be some bacon-crazed celebration of carnivorousness. Instead the panelists—chefs Rob Levitt (Mado) and Paul Kahan (Blackbird, Avec, the Publican), plus Ehran Ostrreicher of E & P Meats and Greg Gunthorp of Gunthorp Farms—were united in their conviction that whole-animal cooking can save the world.

"As long as we're going to eat animals, we should eat as much of them as we can," said Sula. "We should eat the skin, the bones, the weird bits, the blood. We do this not to horrify our vegetarian friends but because it's the right thing to do. It's the sustainable thing to do. And it's delicious."

Whole-animal cooking, the panel pointed out, is sustainability in action. "Everyone wants a pork tenderloin or a boneless, skinless chicken breast," said Gunthorp, who raises pastured pigs, chickens, and ducks in LaGrange, Indiana. "But you take a pig carcass that weighs 200 pounds and maybe three pounds of that is going to be tenderloin. So there's a huge percentage left over that a farmer like me needs to figure out how to deal with. It's not a sustainable process to just sell those three pounds of tenderloin."

At Mado, said Levitt, a 200-pound pig will last him a week and a half. And while he doesn't have the space to handle a whole cow, he can get a good deal on the leftovers. "I call up cattle farmers every week," he said, "and say, 'What do you have that nobody wants?' We get a lot of tongues, hearts, kidneys." The night before, he added, the restaurant sold more beef heart than chicken. For that to happen on a Friday (aka "amateur night") says something about the mainstreaming of offal.

The USDA and the city don't see things quite the same way, though, and at the end of the panel the good vibes gave way to controlled frustration with a health department that over the last few years has shut down restaurants' charcuterie programs and poured bleach over pounds upon pounds of house-made preserves.

"If the city wants to truly be green," said Kahan, with feeling, "they need to get on top of this." The sentiment was echoed by a crowd of nodding heads."

ok whatever, tracer hand did you put up that muffin recipe you raved about april 7 yet? would you please add that to the muffin thread?

Here's the direct release: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/2010-releases/processed-meats-unprocessed-heart-disease-diabetes.html

They started with 1,600 studies and narrowed it down to 20 they felt were pertinent.

They want to influence the US government dietary guidelines, which are up for review. It would interesting to know where the researchers grants come from.

yea this is what happens they cherry pick the studies which themselves are merely correlative and tailor the information so that it fits their paradigm. i do this too btw except my paradigm is sausages + beer and as you might guess the studies start off neatish and then end up with grease spots and indecipherable writing.

that muffin recipe you raved about april 7

Dude... I have completely forgotten what this even was.

i just made some almond muffins last week that were fucking BOMBBBBBB - they had fig paste inside

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, April 7, 2010 5:37 AM (1 month ago) Bookmark

ok so i put all the skin and what not in my crock pot friday-sunday and was a little disappointed by how much fat i got. not enough to cover both ducklegs, however i was thinking it might work if i confit one at a time. i did end up with a handful of the most delicious scraps of stuff tho. also i put the duck breasts in a bunch of salt so as to make duck prosciutto.

Could you put both legs in a canning jar thick end down and cover them with the fat that way? The jar would stand up to the low heat you want for making confit and give you a small volume to fill vs. a flat dish.

hmmm i dunno if they would both fit in the jars i have. i guess they are quart or whatever 32 oz. this type of idea might find use for me tho

You might be surprised how much will fit in one of those. I got a dozen hard-boiled eggs in a quart jar when I was pickling.

It does help if the jar is the wide mouth kind, not the narrow one.

i have wide mouths exclusively now cuz of the extra utility

Lunch today: duck confit sandwich with cranberry jam and sliced cabbage on a banh mi roll.

http://quizilla.teennick.com/user_images/T/TA/TAK/TAKENBYSURPRISE/1243668321_7518_full.gif

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd210/jdchurchil/food%20porn/DSC_0223.jpg?t=1275400649
this is how the duck legs look now. do y'all think that's too much in the water phase?

Yes. Did you end up cooking them in the jar? If so, the big difference would be so much less surface area for the water to escape while cooking. I didn't think that through. I'll bet it's delicious still - you should just use within a week or so.

damnit.

this duck 'confit' was kinda salty and i was thinking it's cuz it cooked in the super reduced duck stock, the pink lower portion in the jar pictured above. when i took the legs out of the jar, it was like demi glas or whatever is a step reduced beyond that: like jello. also now it's all mixed in with my fat so should i just do my best to scrape out the fat from the jello or try to cook it off on low heat? or both

also ate some of my duck prosciuto last night. i need to figure out a way to slice it super thin so if anyone has a tip on that hook it up yo

i was part of an SF charcuterie/salumi tasting mission yesterday evening where we tackled three of the better gran selections available.

Rillettes de Lapin was the clear winner for the best dish we had. I'd be interested in trying this at home.

yeah i've been thinking of making rillettes as well... doesnt seem like it would be that hard?

Lunch today: duck confit sandwich with cranberry jam and sliced cabbage on a banh mi roll.

― righteousmaelstrom, Tuesday, May 25, 2010 2:43 PM (1 week ago)

haha you mean "a baguette"?

a way to slice it super thin

One way is to partially freeze it, but that might change the texture a lot.

How are you going to use the confit? Mine's usually pretty salty due to the cure prior to cooking. But I usually just make cassoulet or risotto, so the salt's no problem. That geleè duck stock would be great in either, too.

haha you mean "a baguette"?

― _▂▅▇█▓▒░◕‿‿◕░▒▓█▇▅▂_ (Steve Shasta), Friday, June 4, 2010 4:59 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

most banh mis are on rolls that are baguette-like but a bit more spongy iirc

Banh mi baguettes usually have some rice flour added so they're not as dense as regular ones.

not gonna lie, i didn't know that.

this coming from a dude who ate close to 60 banh mi all over VN!

local shops here in SF use regular* baguettes...

*american style baguettes...

had a killer pork rillettes sandwich for lunch today

speaking of duck fat I ate a can of beans earlier this week that consisted of just white beans in goose fat:and this was just a generic store brand! I love this country (France) so much.

rillettes is a helluva lot like pulled pork, dudes if that opens up yr recipe frontiers. in a little bit when i get home i will post the recipe from charcuterie book

i guess i could freeze one a little and see if that helps. but when i cut them last night i was hasty and drunk so it might go differently were that not the case

oh and i ate the confit with a salad. my gurl dint like it so i ate her scraps straight up

I had cured duck breast at Taste a few weeks ago - it was cut fairly thick (1/8" maybe, def not paper thin) and they had seared the skin side briefly. Really good.

So I've made this a couple of times and it's cheap, easy as hell and so unbelievably good:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/16/dining/161prex.html

I had some in the freezer and broke it out when a friend was here last weekend. Holds up pretty well frozen but not as good as fresh.

classic pork rillettes (from p267 of ruhlman and polcyn)
1 lg leek
1 sm bunch of thyme
3 bay leaves
1 celery stalk
8 black peppercorns
1 md onion studded w 5 cloves
3 lbs very fatty pork butt cut into 1" dice
kosh
2 qt white veal stock or water
freshly ground black pepper to taste
abt 8 oz rendered pork fat
some cheesecloth
1. split the leek lengthwise in half stopping abt 1" from root end and wash it well. lay the thyme and bay leaves inside the leek, lay the celerystalk next to it and tie it up with string (an aromatic bundle called a bouquet garni)
2. crack the peprcorns and tie it in cheesecloth
3. preheat oven to 300F/150C
4. put pork in 6 qt pot and cover with water by 2", bring to boil, the drain and rinse w cold water (a way to quickly eliminate blood and impurities) return pork to clean pot and add leek bundle, peppercorn thing, and onion and 1 tbsp kosh, and the stock bring to simmer cover and put in oven 4-6 hrs or the meat is falling apart tender
5. remove the pork to cool, strain liquid set aside
6. pork goes into the stand mixer with paddle on low slowly adding strained cooking liquid until the meat shreds thoroughly and takes on a moist spreadable texture, abt 1 or 2 min. taste: salt and pepper as necessary (remember this will be served at room temp so it should be seasoned assertively)
7. spoon meat into ramekins or crocks, fridge until chilled the pour abt 1/8" rendered fat on top to seal them ramekins. return to fridge for up to 2 wks
8. remove rillettes at least 2 hr before serving, cuz they best and easiest to serve at room temp

addendum: veal stock
8 lbs veal bones cut into 7.5 cm lengths (have butcher do this, yo)
1 c fine dice onion
1/2 c fine dice celery
1/2 c fine dice leek, white part only
2 bay leaves
2 tsp black peppercorns
1 bunch thyme
6 qt water

1. bones in a pot taller than it is wide cover with water and boil. drain and rinse
2. back in pot and add remaining ingredients. water should cover by 1" bring to boil skimming the stock frequently then reduce heat to lowest possible. skim the stock and simmer for 6-8 hrs or overnight
3. strain and let cool then fridge or freeze

whew! good on y'alls that do it

oh i'm thinking of doing rabbit (see "rillettes de lapin" upthread). have the Robuchon recipe. it's dope.

duck prosciuto
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd210/jdchurchil/food%20porn/DSC_0223-1.jpg?t=1275744194

speaking of duck fat I ate a can of beans earlier this week that consisted of just white beans in goose fat:and this was just a generic store brand! I love this country (France) so much.

― Euler, Friday, June 4, 2010 6:42 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

canned food in france = revelation

actually, pretty much everything in supermarkets there = revelation

even the cheapest store brand stuff is like miles ahead of n america

going to barcelona in june and am so psyched to try jamon bellota

good stuff. in fact the food (and wine) in spain is amazing & the prices seemed relatively cheap (especially compared to NYC). my son would now like to subsist on jamon y pan con tomat. don't recommend eating tapas twice a day, though.

this place was SO awesome: Cervecería Catalana Restaurant Carrer de Mallorca, 236 Barcelona

jokers joggin 'round spain makin me mad jealous, yo

had some bellota over the holidays, had memories of phil-two in paris and tokyo~~~~

wow 1st i googled bellota and found it was a spider, or the best kind of jamon iberico cuz a bellota is an acorn in spanish
and them pigs eat alot of them.

did it taste of acorns steve shasta?

ok i am finally getting around to actually making this stuff. just doing sausages right now like mick jagerwurst

I saw this recipe and thought of you guys.

hey dudes i made motherfockin headcheese!
srsly if any of u chi town ilxers want some i will bike deliver it to you cuz i made way too much!

Wow, thats amazing :)

my ex has italian family on farmland in WA who make all manner of whatever the italian word is for chacuterie. His zio makes an amazing, dense and dark pork sausage that is deadly spicy, and once or twice a year he vacuum-packs up a link or 3 and mails it to R. Dried, intense pork salami. I cant eat it, its just way way too hot for my palate but I am so impressed by the work that goes into it - they dont grow their own pigs but they work from a full pig carcass and make sausage and meats from it every year.

perhaps you should suggest that the put a little less spice in there? then you could eat it too!

Nah they're sicilian, thats heresy that is ;P

i don't know any sicilians but i just thought wtf it can't hurt, right? i mean it's a suggestion so they can ignore it if they choose

Oh i just mean sicilian food has soooo much chili in it. Heh tbh I dont like pork anyway :)