Charcuterie

This Week In Charcuterie News: Master Meat Crafter Rick Reams, Jeanfreau’s Meat Market, Wild game Italian sub sandwich at Dai Due, The Best Ham in Dallas

Cured sliced pork belly from the charcuterie kitchen of RL Reeves Jr

Rick Reams of RJ’s Meats in Hudson, Wisconsin gets feted in The Growler. Reams is a ‘Master Meat Crafter,’ and went through an extensive training program at University of Wisconsin to attain that title. Continue Reading

Charcuterie

This Week In Charcuterie News: Matthew Secich, Richmond Kentucky Country Ham, Chef John Folse Fête des Bouchers, Asitane in Istanbul

This Week in Charcuterie News: Matthew Secich, Richmond Kentucky Country Ham, Chef John Folse Fête des Bouchers, Asitane in Istanbul

Hearts were heavy last week when our treasured five year old Penn country ham was deemed unservable by the crack team of butchers at Salt and Time in Austin. Continue Reading

Charcuterie

How To Cure An 8lb Appalachia Red Heritage Pork Belly

This is the site of my grandpa Big Jim Sullivan’s former hog pen in rural Knox County, Kentucky. Big Jim raised Duroc hogs on this plot of land from the 1920s through the 1970s.

For the past few years I’ve been making a 430 mile drive to Madison, Alabama to purchase pork bellies from one of the top hog breeders in the U.S.A.

Henry Fudge has been breeding Duroc pigs since the early 70s and is nationally famous for raising some of the finest heritage pork available on the domestic market. Continue Reading

Charcuterie

This Week In Charcuterie News: Harry And Ida’s, Kenny’s in Chattanooga, Salmagundi, The Resurgence Of Country Ham

Washing off a pork belly in the charcuterie kitchen of RL Reeves Jr

We normally dismiss out of hand any vegan’s attempts at charcuterie but when Florence Fabricant of the New York Times speaks we listen. It’s doubtful we’ll ever get a chance to try a vegan carrot “hot dog” from Harry & Ida’s but we appreciate anybody who will cure a freaking carrot for seven days and then smoke it for a few hours to keep the vegans well fed and satisfied. Take it away FloFab

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Charcuterie

This Week in Charcuterie News: Lardo di Colonnata, Piece Of Meat, Critchfield Meat, 24 Hour Bacon Chops, Edwards Virginia Smokehouse

House-made jowl bacon from the charcuterie test kitchen of RL Reeves Jr

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. Continue Reading

Charcuterie

2019 Scott Louisiana Boudin Festival

2019 Scott, Louisiana Boudin Festival

The 7th annual Scott Boudin Festival is April 5-7 on Lions Club Road in Scott, Louisiana.

Scott is approximately 5 minutes west of Lafayette. The two cities have been locked in a death struggle for boudin primacy over the years with each camp having their acolytes as well as their naysayers.

We have no dog in the fight. Our boudin coverage carries us far and wide across Acadiana from Bayou Lafourche to as far north as Marksville. Scott is the “boudin capital of Louisiana” but Lafayette boasts Johnson’s Boucaniere with Wallace Johnson holding down the grinder/extruder. His family brought the very concept of commercial boudin to Louisiana.

If you go to Scott for the big boudin party please report back.

Charcuterie

This Week In Charcuterie News: Bavaria Boebel Bratwurst Bed and Breakfast, Allan Benton, Barcelona La Boqueria, German Butcher’s Association

A specialty sausage that you will only find in Louisiana: Andouille sausage and crawfish

I hope I find out I’m going to die a week in advance so I can hurry over to Bavaria to visit butcher Claus Boebel who has opened the Boebel Bratwurst Bed and Breakfast, a sausage-themed hotel near Nuremberg (26 miles). Continue Reading