Seed-to-Sausage. I’ve used the phrase before to describe the ‘full circle’ farm of the Chapolard family- GAEC Baradieu of Mezin, France.

Never has the phrase resonated as soundly as last Saturday in the crowded teaching kitchen of the Art Institute campus in Portland Oregon at the 2010 IACP conference. The audience was an attentive group of international culinary professionals- writers, publishers, chefs, cooks, butchers, and bloggers as well as some of Portland’s own bright culinary stars- Vitaly Paley of Paley’s and Elias Cairo of Olympic Provisions.

Camas Davis, a 2009 student of the Gascon Kitchen who returned from France to found the Portland Meat Collective, presented Michael Ruhlman, co-author of ‘Charcuterie’, Adam Sappington- owner and chef/butcher of The Country Cat , and “Team Gascony”- my neighbor and good friend pork producer/butcher/charcutier Dominique Chapolard of GAEC Baradieu- and me in a demonstration of American and French butchery called “Meat Revival.”

The five of us shared the space with two halves of PIG-  a well-reared animal provided by Sweet Briar Farm. The premise was to discuss and demonstrate the difference in approach between standard American Pork Cuts and traditional French Charcuterie cuts. Dominique and Adam approached their craft with as much respect for the carcass as they had shown for each other from the instant they met earlier in the week.  Adam treated Dominique like a long lost French Brother, Dominique deferred to Adam as Chef (with a French accent on its true meaning as ‘boss’) and what began in a show and tell of meat craft, ended three hours later in a mutual celebration of the revival of one of civilized man’s most basic life skills. In a sweet post on his blog here http://blog.ruhlman.com/2010/04/the-saving-graces-of-pigs-and-charcuterie.html/comment-page-1#comment-58756 Michael Ruhlman writes, “Three hours of intense interaction with people who truly care about this world, the earth and the animals, who care about cooking, about serving people, who do it the hard way, the long way, these grounded wonderful, big big souls.”

I won’t talk about the reasons why this ‘meat revival’ is on everyone’s plates; why the best restaurants in town star house-cured charcuterie on their menus. Others can and do explain it better. Ruhlman remarks in ‘Charcuterie’- “the way the sunlight hit the fat of the dried meats, the way it glistened, the beauty of the meat” reveals his inner carnivore’s poet describing our attraction to the raw/cured meat as both forbidden and seductive. Jim Harrison says it over and over again in his classic tribute to hunting, cooking and savoring the good life- “The Raw and the Cooked.”

I can however talk to the French side of this meat equation as demonstrated by Dominique with the skill and understanding of the beast as only a pig farmer could have.

I can speak for the work, the care, and the understanding of the foundation of the Chapolard farm as they transform fertile fields that lay across the Gascon landscape in yearly rotations of wheat corn, barley, peas, beans, and sunflowers. Theirs is an edible patchwork stitched by hand on battered tractors and harvesters that run on sunflower oil. As award winning blogger Hank Shaw writes, “The first thing I learned was not so surprising  — that it all starts with the hogs.” You can read more of Hank’s humble words at http://www.honest-food.net/blog1/2010/04/26/humbling-win-humbling-experience/

I can speak of the commitment to quality food that begins with breeding not fanciful named or decorative breeds but a healthy heritage stock that lends itself to Gascony’s climate, and food palette.

This commitment takes time. From spring seed to fall harvest is 6-8 months; from farrow to weaning to fattening to slaughter is 16 months; add a week in the butcher room and 4-8 weeks of curing; then 4 days a week at the markets until our ‘seed’ is ‘sausage’ and in the consumers hands. Add that up and it’s a 2 year and 9 month investment before they see any of the 8€ a kilo (or 3.63 euro a pound) they are paid for their artisanal products.

The Chapolard pigs are slaughtered at 12 months and weigh around 160-180 kg (350-400 lbs)- the meat is deep in flavor, brightly colored pink to red and has the structure needed to produce excellent charcuterie. Jacques Chapolard, Dominique’s younger brother, tends the breeding program for GAEC Baradieu. Cradling a piglet in his arms, he explains that the unlike pork rushed to fit a industrial standard with the pig killed at 6-8 months, Baradieu’s 12 month old Large White (Yorkshire) pigs has fully developed skeleton, the structure to support the muscle meat we eat as chops, roasts, & bacon, are satisfying to the palate and tooth. The meat taste is fully developed, the texture supports a diversity of cooking techniques. This same pork destined for charcuterie, cured by salting, brining and air drying, also needs to be from mature animals. Imaging trying to dry age veal, rather than beef? or drinking an unaged cabernet? eating yogurt only instead of 18 month old cave-aged Roquefort. The technical discussions for this fully formed meat revolved around the natural acid present in mature pork. If the Chapolards could produce a quality charcuterie product in half the time, they would. What farmer wouldn’t?

I can also speak of the hunger for knowledge as evidence in the four sold out workshops- over a 100 eager chefs, students, and producers attended during our 2 week visit to the west coast. With so much myth and misconception concerning the ‘why’ behind the ‘how’, I was excited to see professionals as well as students looking for more information- the details, the finesse. More than the elegant technique of European butchery-the techniques used to define cuts of meats by following the natural connective tissue seams between muscles that Dominique demonstrated to his confreres and students, more than my expat quips or literal translations (Now, I’ll liberate the ham bone.), I think we got across what Dominique- the butcher and I- the Cook wanted you to understand. The passion that moved Michael Ruhlman is what fuels the Gascon Kitchen. It stands on a millennium of civilized market/farmer/consumer traditions that supports family as the center of artisan production. This passion for food, a cliché of French cuisine, is the foundation of our future here in America.

This was just an amuse bouche to the big feast yet to come.

The close to the earth gastronomy is as vital to teach as it is to produce and consume. As Dominique Chapolard taught everyone he met over the last 2 weeks,

Tout seul, tu meurs – work alone, you die.

GAEC Ferme Baradieu is unique for its commitment to this future education and artisan production but not alone.

We wait for you in Gascony.

Camas Davis at the Nerac Market – Summer 2009

For more information about the 2010-2011 “French PIG: Butcher & Cook” short workshops and Artisan Butchery & Charcuterie courses- click here.

photos by tim clinch

and

Eugenie Frerichs