I went to two butchers in the area and neither of them had pig fat. They could both order it for me - in lots of thirty-five pounds. I found a place online that sells it . . . for $10/pound. Which is just crazy ( Read more... )

Because Adrienne is away, she's reading my LJ to get an idea of what's going on in my life. We chat most days so it isn't like we're totally out of communications, and we've spoken a couple of time since she left - only eight more weeks! - but I might talk about my personal life a little bit more so she hears about it at her convenience. ;) ( Read more... )

Today, I had a total food snob moment. I don't say that in a good way, hehe. I'm a pretty white trash guy and my cooking is heavily oriented towards turning cheap food into good eating, thus I'm heavily invested in stuff like grilling which often uses the cheapest cuts of meat like ribs and chicken thighs and such. But I got suckered today by a ( Read more... )

The people who wrote Charcuterie are crazy people. They are all about properly emulsified sausages. I'm not going to be getting any sausage making things until Adrienne gets back, but I'm going through everything in the book because . . . I like to cook, hehe. Anyway, they talk about this test to do to see if your sausage has emulsified properly ( Read more... )

I got a book on charcuterie, cleverly named Charcuterie, and . . . WOW, this stuff will kill you. I mean, okay, I know that all sausage is bad for you, as is all bacon, terrines and confits, etc., etc. But the academic knowledge of the awfulness of how "bad" cured meat is changed when you see what actually goes into it. It stops being academic ( Read more... )