For centuries marble miners in the Apuan Alps region of Tuscany have loaded their lunchboxes with fat hunks of bread smeared with lardo di colonnata. The process of creating this relatively obscure bit of charcuterie is simple. Fatback is sliced off a freshly slaughtered hog then rubbed with “salt…garlic…rosemary and sometimes sage, star anise, cloves, or other spices.” After a few months the fat-meat is ready for consumption.

Slobbering like a redbone hound about now aren’t you? more

Food and Wine’s Jordana Rothman came to New Orleans to investigate Piece of Meat, the new-ish charcuterie house and restaurant opened up by butchers Leighann Smith and Daniel Jackson. It must have passed muster as the shop was awarded a top 10 placement on the magazines best new restaurants list. more

I traveled to Lexington, Kentucky three weeks ago to check out Ian Noe at the Burl. While I was up there I made a big pot of Northern beans with country ham sourced from Critchfield Meat. Their butcher, Mike Critchfield, had just retired after 50 years on the bone-saw. The Lexington Herald did a nice human interest piece on the old meat man more

The Telegraph has a stunningly easy method to convert raw pork chops into cured bacon chops. You can do it in as little as 12 hours but we recommend allowing 24 more

Sam Edwards III has a lawsuit against his insurer, Selective Way Insurance, that will be heard in the state of Virginia’s Supreme Court this fall. His old smokehouse burned to the ground three years ago and since then he’s been in a legal struggle to get what he reckons he’s owed. more