More Pig

Earlier this week we received another half of a pig. Unfortunately, I didn’t get many pictures of this one.

We cured the ham, cheek and back fat, everything else went into sausages or was used for service. We will have 3 hams for next summer which I am really looking forward to and I have more lardo right now then I know what to do with.

More Pork

Another half a pig arrived the other day, it was a Berkshire and weighed in at over 300 lbs. Our half, 150 lbs. It was a gorgeous pig with lots of marbling and some very good fat back and cheeks.

The ham was amazing. We started the curing process for this as well as the cheeks and fat back. Next summer is looking up with all this ham curing.

The caul fat was awesome too, not to sure what’s going to be lucky enough to be wrapped up in it yet, probably rabbit loin or maybe a pate.

We are brining the belly and then going to confit it over 2 days. With the shoulder we made pate and sausages for brunch.

A whole half a pig processed and started to cure within 2 hours. We will be getting another half a pig at the end of this month. You can never have to much pork.

The New Team Member

I would like introduce everyone to 290.1 (tag number), 290.2 did not make it back to Allium with us, he stayed at Mezze. We received 290.1 from a local farm in the northern part of Mass. Hes going to be around our restaurant for a little while.

Once we broke him down, we started with the curing. First was the ham which I decided to make into a country ham. Just did it in a simple cure because we really wanted to keep a strong flavor of the ham. It was cured with TCM, salt and brown sugar.

I was reading online last night that when making a country ham, use an opened brown paper bag to wrap around the ham; I decided to give it a try.

We wrapped that in cheese cloth to hang in the walk in for the next 50 days and then we’ll wash off the cure and hang it for another 6 months.

Next we moved on to the lardo and the cheeks. For this cure we used TCM, salt, sugar, thyme, juniper berries, red pepper flakes, and anise seed. These should only take a couple weeks until they are ready and let me tell you, I can’t wait!