We picked up a 13lb Henry Fudge Duroc pork belly last week in Madison, Alabama. It’s in the cure. Around the 12 day mark we’ll pull it out of cure and smoke it for a few hours over cherrywood. It’s proven to be our favorite bacon-smoking wood over the past few months.

We love having Kris Doll’s Shank Charcuterie in our neighborhood in New Orleans. Ian McNulty breaks down what’s happening at the cured meat house.

Not going to link to it but a company is claiming to be producing ‘meatless’ charcuterie. This does not exist; much like ‘uncured’ bacon-there is no such thing, and feel free to deliver a ringing clap to the side of the head of any person who lies to you in this fashion.

Do you start salivating at the prospect of reading a treatise titled Curing and Smoking Meats for Home Food Preservation Literature Review and Critical Preservation Points? Us too.

Roads and Kingdoms speaks eloquently on Salamanca in Spain “In a city paved in pork, hornazo may be Salamanca’s purest expression of porcine affection, a pork-fat pastry stuffed with chorizo, cured loin, and jamón.” We could die happy with but one nibble.

Charlie Denno on Madison, Wisconsin has a dream job. He leads product development for ‘Underground Meats’ a charcuterie making concern that provides unusual, cured meats to both Underground Butcher as well as 40+ area restaurants. Read his tale.