Category Archives: Food
Cured Meats – Red Wattle Pancetta
Between the arrival of the pig parts, and the speed of ripening fruits, I haven’t had the time to write about all of the kitchen action as I’ve gone. I decided to make pancetta out of the pork belly pieces … Continue reading
Posted in Cured Meats, Food, Slow Food
Tagged Bacon, heritage breed, pancetta, pork bellies, Red Wattle
3 Comments
Better Living Through Chemistry – Ripening Peaches
I bought a 25 pound case of peaches at our local food co-op. When the peaches arrived, they seemed rock-hard. I waited a day or so, then did a blanch test, to see if the skins would come loose, so … Continue reading
Posted in Food, Recipes, Slow Food
Leave a comment
Better Living Through Chemistry – Flaky Pie Crust
As the title of the 1996 Fatboy Slim album suggests, this post is about Better Living Through Chemistry. With apologies to Mr. Slim, (whose stage name is perfect for a food blog written by a compulsive exerciser, don’t you think?) … Continue reading
Red Wattle Ham Under Salt – Prosciutto Attempt #2
Some of you who know me personally may know that my love of prosciutto is the real reason I got into curing meats in the first place. My lofty goal is to personally cure my own prosciutti at home. My … Continue reading
A Whole Red Wattle Pig
This year I decided to go whole hog, and buy a Red Wattle pig for our freezer and my continued meat curing activities. I got it locally, from the Kreidermacher family at Pork and Plants, in Altura, MN. The pig … Continue reading
Fun with New Tools
I’ve been spending a fair bit of time with two new tools in the kitchen- a meat slicer, and a vacuum sealer. These have allowed me to package slices of the cured meats in a way that is easy for … Continue reading
Posted in Cured Meats, Food
Leave a comment
Food Systems and Film
I’m still learning new things about food systems, and I’ve been supplementing my reading of books and blogs and periodicals with some documentary films. The films have been great sources of information about industrial food production and distribution, which I … Continue reading
Cured Meats – Pastrami Phase Two
After the meat sat in the brine for 3 or 4 days, it was time for the fun parts of making the pastrami- the rubbing, smoking, and roasting, transforming the meat into tasty sandwich contents! Here’s what our meat looked … Continue reading
Posted in Cured Meats, Food, Slow Food
1 Comment
Cured Meats – Pastrami Phase One
Though it appears that most of my recent charcuterie projects have started with 5 pounds of pork shoulder, I thought it would be good to cure some more meat that isn’t pork-shoulder based. After all, other meats like curing and … Continue reading
Posted in Cured Meats, Food, Slow Food
Tagged beef, brine, brisket, roasting, smoked meat, steaming
Leave a comment
Smoked Meat Sunday – Andouille and Bacon
As my cured meat marathon gets close to its first major tasting party, I’m working on bacon and sausages that require smoke to reach their highest levels of tastiness. Today’s task is smoking the andouille sausages I made two days … Continue reading
