Category Archives: Meat

Meat, Pork

Pork Cutting: Primals

4 Comments

This is something I’ve been meaning to write for a while: a series of posts on cutting pigs.

Like many Button Soup entries, the next few posts will be nit-picky, unnecessarily detailed, and lengthy.  Oh: and graphic.

 

Regional Pork Cutting Traditions: American v. Austrian

There really is no wrong way to take apart a pig, so long as you end up with the cuts you want to cook or cure.  There are, however, many traditional methods.  References like Larousse describe the American, British, and French traditions, though there are countless others.  In Canada we use a system almost identical to the American.

When I was cooking in Austria last summer, I came across some fantastic cuts of pork that … Continue reading.

Charcuterie, Ham, Meat, Pork

Easter Ham 2012: Brine Injection

6 Comments

Injecting brine into a hamI like roasting large joints of meat.  The largest that I typically cook is the Easter ham, which is the better part of a pig’s hind leg.  This year’s fresh leg was fourteen and a half pounds.

In years past I’ve had problems with brine penetration.  Though I made the brine with the proper concentration of curing salt, and fully submerged the leg for the recommended week, when I carved the ham I found a patch of grey pork in the centre.  The year after that I brined the ham for a few extra days, but it still wasn’t pink all the way through.

This year I bought a syringe for injecting brine from  Hendrik’s.  It holds 2 fl. oz, … Continue reading.

Bacon, Charcuterie, Meat, Pork

Bacon

6 Comments

The word “bacon” usually refers to pork belly that has been cured and then smoked.  An exception is back bacon, which is cured pork loin. “Canadian bacon” is what Americans call back bacon that has been smoked.

Below are some notes on making bacon at home.

 

A Quick Tour of the Pork Belly

Before I started buying pork by the side, I ordered slabs of belly from Irvings Farm Fresh.  A 5 lb slab was typically around $25.

Below is a slab of pork belly.  You’re looking at the inside of the pig; the opposite side is covered with skin.  The right side of this slab would have connected to the front shoulder of the hog.  The left … Continue reading.

Charcuterie, Pork, Sausages

Beginner’s Sausage-Making

16 Comments

A detailed introduction to sausage-making at home: ingredients, equipment, theory, and procedures.

What are sausages?

Sausages are ground meat, usually stuffed into a casing, though there are certain sausages that aren’t in casings.  For instance there are sausage “patties” and sausages en crepinette, which are patties wrapped in caul fat.  For now let’s be content to say that sausages are ground meat stuffed into casings.

Why do we grind meat?

1.  To tenderize

Meat is made of fibers that are surrounded by connective tissue, which are then bundled together in more connective tissue.  Highly exercised muscles tend to be higher in connective tissue.  Examples include:

  • on a pig: shoulder, hock, neck
  • on a cow: chuck, brisket, shortrib, shank
  • on
… Continue reading.
Charcuterie, Ham, Pork

On Ham Hocks

7 Comments

A fresh hockTraditionally, in North America the hock is a section of the front arm bone of the pig.  On one end the elbow joint is severed.  On the other, where the arm of the pig meats the body, a cut is made and the arm bone is sawed through.  So on one end of the hock there is a clean joint, and on the other the circular cross-section of a bone.

In traditional British butchery it is the analogous section from the hind leg that is called the hock; that from the front was known as the hand.

Nowadays, whether taken from the forearm or the hind leg, both cuts are considered hocks.  They are almost always processed into ham, that … Continue reading.

Lamb

Roast Lamb Leg

1 Comment

The first cut of our Tangle Ridge Ranch lamb that we cooked was a whole leg roast.

There is nothing quite like roasting large joints of meat and carving them tableside.  A bit of pageantry with dinner.

A down and dirty recipe:

Roast Lamb Leg

Ingredients
  • 1 whole lamb leg
  • garlic, minced
  • thyme, minced
  • rosemary, minced
  • kosher salt
  • coarse ground black pepper
Procedure
  1. Trim the leg: remove the fell, clean the meat from the shank bone, and trim back the fat to an even, thin (1/8″) layer.  For detailed instructions on trimming up a whole lamb leg to make a roast, see this post.
  2. Score the fat in a diamond pattern, with about 1″ between each slice.
  3. Rub the
… Continue reading.
Lamb

The Economics of Buying Whole Lambs

4 Comments

A whole lamb carcass, ready for cuttingIf you’re unfamiliar with Tangle Ridge Ranch and their pastured lambs, here’s some information to digest:

Last week Tangle Ridge killed this year’s lambs, and Lisa and I were fortunate enough to get a whole, uncut carcass.  My primary motivation was securing lamb meat and offal for this January’s Burns supper.  Here’s some details on the purchase.

The Numbers

Compared to most other meats, lamb is expensive.  My side of pork this year was $2.15/lb for a 110 lb side.  This whole, uncut lamb … Continue reading.

Game, Pie and Pastry, Poultry

Pheasant Pot Pie

4 Comments

Hanging pheasantsLast November we started getting game birds, chiefly grouse and pheasant, from Mr. McLarney, who hunts them with his English pointer.  In exchange for the wild poultry, I provide Mrs. McLarney with a recipe for their preparation.

Cooking grouse and pheasant is fairly new to me, and I’m still figuring out the whole hanging-plucking-gutting-cooking thing.

From the cook’s perspective, the ideal game bird (or rabbit) is shot cleanly in the head.  That way there’s no shot hidden in the meat.  You get a higher yield, and diners won’t unwittingly bite down on a piece of lead.  I have very little experience with guns, but apparently getting that head shot is relatively easy when the slow-witted bird is standing on the … Continue reading.

Bacon, Charcuterie, Pork

Back Bacon

4 Comments

In the States this preparation is called Canadian bacon, but we usually call it back bacon.  It’s more or less the same process as regular bacon, only done to a section of the loin instead of the belly.  There’s an old style of back bacon from eastern Ontario called peameal bacon, in which a cured section of loin is rolled in peameal (crushed split-peas) before being smoked.  Peameal bacon is still made down east, though nowadays cornmeal is used.

Back bacon is usually made from the eye of loin: the large, round muscle often made into centre-cut pork chops.  You can also use the rib- and sirloin-ends of the loin, which have more fat and flavour than the centre.  I … Continue reading.

Charcuterie, Ham, Pork

Bath Chaps, Revisited

2 Comments

A while back I wrote a post on cold-cut Bath chaps: a boned-out pig’s head, cured, rolled around the tongue, tied, poached, and sliced.   While I was extremely happy with the look of those Bath chaps, they were pretty bland.  I figure that the cure leached into the poaching liquid.

I had another go at the chaps with this fall’s pig.  This time, instead of using a whole head, I used only one jowl, cured, and wrapped around the tongue.

After rolling and tying, I seared the meat over high heat.  Once chilled, I vacuum-packed the chaps and simmered them for two or three hours.  This was not proper sous-vide: though the meat was vacuum-packed, it wasn’t cooked in … Continue reading.