Noix de Jambon- part one: boning and trimming a French ham
If you are following that great global charcuterie project- Charcutepalooza either virtually or in your own kitchens, then here is a special cadeau from us admirers- here on the Gascon Farm.
Pancetta + Ventrèche= it’s about the pig…
Pork Belly by Tim Clinch
I swim in a sea of charcuterie every week as I plow the waves of good food produced by the neighboring farms of the Lot-et-Garonne: salted hams, meaty saucisson, head cheese, terrines, patés, and other cured and confited parts of the fatted pig. As a cook, I began my sea trials in meat here as I discovered the extraordinary flavors of each cured piece of the pig. I started to learn my hind leg for jambon from my forward leg- shoulder for fresh saucisse de Toulouse. Then it was loins and chops, ribs and collar. Next came the innards…
Like all novices, I worked my way up and down the coast of liver, kidneys, brain, lung, and blood. I watched as pigs were slaughtered and butchered on family farms, one at a time, with care and respect for the ‘year of meat’ to come. Then I began to help- trimming meat, carrying ourt orders from the grand-mères as whole pigs were put up in jars- canned, sterilized in a water bath and stored, or salted, peppered, and hung to age in a corner of the barn. But it wasn’t until I barged into the life of a small pig farm that I learned the most important past of this ocean of charcuterie. It’s the pig. Just simply the PIG.
Imagine the first visit to the Chapolard farm in 1997 with my good friend Elaine Tin Nyo. She wanted to do a series of photographs and videos for one of her edibly inspired art exhibits. I had already begun cooking my way through the pig with the market advice of Marc Chapolard, who selling me a piece of pork a week talked me through the process of cooking boudin, salting a tail, or roasting a collar. There is an image of that first visit to Baradieu- Marc holding out his hands full of ground grains- grain that they grew on the farm to feed their pigs.
Oh, Pigs eat too. I want to know what I am eating eats. What? What do pigs eat?
lil'pig by Tim Clinch
My brain was moving slowly forward. These pigs eat wheat, barley, corn, oats, sunflowers, favabeans, soy… How big are they? Oh, big. Very big as these meat growing pigs are intended for charcuterie as well as fresh meat. Twelve months old, 400 lbs+ of solid red meat and firm flavorful fat. The Chapolards know that their mature pigs’ meat is fully developed in both flavor and structure. Here in Gascony, we believe that the best charcuterie is not just from certain types of breeds finished on fancy diets, but rather from a well balanced diet fed its entire life and a ‘grownup’, fully mature animal. Oh, this pork meat is like beef. Not veal. Can you imagine making corned veal, veal jerky, or veal bresaola? The meat cells must develop sufficiently to be able to cure properly both in flavor and in texture.
There are technical reasons behind all this, but for us amateurs of good meat our best chance to getting good pork is to ken your pork producer or artisan butcher and learn as much as you can, piece by piece. I have the luxury of, after 14 years, knowing the Chapolards well. Baradieu is not a pigshit-free showcase farm; but they raise their Large White/Pietrai/Duroc pigs with the sort of care over 12 months from birth to slaughter that produces delicious and tasty meat. Like this slab of pork belly I used for my ventrèche géante.
“THE PRESENCE OF A BUTCHER IN A DISTRICT SAYS AS MUCH FOR ITS INTELLIGENCE AS FOR ITS WEALTH. THE WORKER FEEDS HIMSELF, AND A MAN WHO FEEDS HIMSELF THINKS.”
H. De Balzac- “The Country Doctor”
Charcutepalooza- Le Grande Prix with Kitchen at Camont & TrufflePig Travel
What: Charcutepalooza: Le Grand Prix
Where: Gascony, France
When: After a Year of Meat- March 2012
Who: You, Me & Trufflepig
Why: il faut venir ici..
I once interviewed Michel Guérard- one of France’s 3-star Michelin chefs- about the secrets of making armagnac. When I asked what final words he had for those wanting to learn all about making Gascony’s evocative amber brandy, he had a simple response, “Il faut venir ici- You must come here.”
Those four magic words became my philosophy as I leapt head first into creating an artisan life crafted around the extraordinarily good food of my Southwest France. From the quotidian artisan breads to special occasion vintage armagnacs, I embraced it all- from foie gras, truffles, and wine to oysters, caviar and salt. Gascony is a perfect place to study terroir. Everything we touch, from the dark chocolate alluvial Garonne River Valley that anchors the roots of thousands of orchards to the rolling hills that march toward the blue shadowed Pyrennees covered in summer sunflowers and winter wheat, is about a sense of place. The geology of this fertile land, laced with abundant rivers, streams and springs, and tempered by a moderate continental influences four distinct and delicious growing seasons. Oh, and did I say it was beautiful? Beautiful like in a Monet painting? This kitchen is a part of the terroir of Gascony, too.
Here, too, we grow meat, good meat.Meat with French names like the Blondes of Aquitaine beef cattle, prized Cou Nu Poulets de Landes, and Piétrain and Gascon Noir pigs; small production on small farms. But it was meeting the farmers that husbanded these meat animals that changed how I saw …and cooked, my food. I fell in love with a place and the people who have tended it’s crops and flocks for a thousand years of civilized agriculture.
So now it’s your turn. Il faut venir ici. You, too, have a shot at coming here on us- me, my Gascon neighbors, the Meat Dames and Xtreme Gasconophiles of Trufflepig. Just follow ‘the Ruhls’ and enter into the spirit of Charcutepalooza as Cathy and Kim (Mrs. Wheelbarrow and the Yummy Mummy) have described so well here.
My new Best Friend in Paris, Jack Dancy with Trufflepig Travel and I have spent an afternoon giggling long distance about all the fun things we could do with you. So join in and start making that bacon now!
For more information about the details of le Grand Prix see here on the official site.
Charcutepalooza: Le Grand Prix with Kitchen at Camont and Trufflepig Travel
- March 9th– Fly overnight to Paris
- March 10th– Transfer to hotel St Thomas d’Aquin; private guided market and food-shop walk; welcome dinner with local food-writer guest at L’Ami Jean restaurant.
- March 11th– TGV to Agen; pick up and transfer to Camont to meet Kate; introductory Gascon lunch; afternoon class of French farmstead butchery breaking down ducks, chickens and rabbits to prepare terrine de foie, pâté de campagne and confit de lapin; transfer to hotel; dinner at leisure.
- March 12th– Visit Baradieu, the Chapolards’ pig farm and farm butcher shop as the family starts the week’s order of breaking down ten whole pigs to sell at the market as fresh and cured pork. After learning about the specific needs of raising charcuterie pigs with Jacques, lunch with Christian and Dominique in their home before returning to work in the salle de coupe with Bruno, Marc and Cecile to learn how to make French pancettaventrèche, how to bone and seam-butcher the shoulder, and trim and tie the neck or coppa for curing as delicious home-cured Gascon charcuterie. Return to Camont to prepare a dinner of roast coppa with our new friends.
- March 13th– A full day learning the basics of European seam butchery. Working on your own half of pig, you can now more easily define the meat cuts by use and muscle- loin roasts, coppa for curing, belly for ventrèche and bacon, ham leg and shank for curing, shoulder for sausage, etc.
- March 14th- After a shopping trip to the morning market at Lavardac, we take a butcher’s tour of Nérac’s six artisan butcher shops where each butcher shares his trucs and secrets with us including a class by Maître Charcutier Bruno Saclier in making his famous Terrine Néracaise, a 500 year old favorite of the court of Henri IV.
- March 15th- Devote the morning to the high art of duck charcuterie- specifically foie gras and magret seché or duck pancetta, with a visit to the working Fatted Farm of Jehanne Rignault where she raises and prepares duck and geese for confit, pâtés, and other delices! We pack a bag of savory goodies for a high-speed train pique-nique recapping the week as we travel to Paris arriving in time for drinks & dinner.
- March 16th– Rise early for a visit of the professional Marché de Rungis, the unimaginable large food market that feeds the city of Paris. Visit the meat section with expert guide, before returning to Paris for lunch and the afternoon at leisure, before meeting up in the evening with the city’s most tuned in bloggers and twitterati for the Bloggapalooza Jambon & Wine fête.
- March 17 – transfer to the airport for flights home.
Charcutepalooza Grand Prize Offered by Kate Hill’s Kitchen at Camont & Trufflepig Travel
www.kitchen-at-camont.com & www.trufflepig.com
PDF to download with details about the Grand Prize
You say Pancetta. I say Ventrèche. It’s all rolled pork belly @Charcutepalooza!
This is always a funny one.
Ventrèche is bacon.
A sort of fresher, peppery, meaty, and naturally porkier bacon.
Almost all the Gascon recipes I know start with a little this- duck fat, a little that- thyme and bay, and a handful of lardons…usually cut from a thick slab of ventrèche. Salted just overnight, the ventrèche (ventre means belly in French) is covered liberally with fine fresh ground pepper then rolled tightly and tied before gently smoking overnight. It flies off the market stall chez Chapolard at Nerac in large pieces, thick slabs or sliced thinly. This is cooking charcuterie that adds flavor to civets, daubes, and cassoulets; or cooked and served as part of a main course, on a meaty salad, or with a couple golden-yolked, fresh farm eggs. Tim Clinch makes these meat portraits look so delicious!
This particular piece of ventrèche is made from a 12 month old Yorkshire/Landrace/Duroc cross, fed on home grown grains (wheat, barley, sunflower, corn, soy and feverol) and slaughtered, butchered, cured and sold- all within a 20 mile radius. I call it Seed-to-Sausage. You can read more about the Chapolard farm here. Tim photographed it as part of a Natural Light/Natural Food photography workshop. on my terrace table, outside under the vines.
Our Artisan Butchery & Charcuterie students usually work wrapped in white at the
Chapolard’s Baradieu farm in the cold stainless steel and white tiled cutting room build inside one of the old wine barns or chais. It’s not fancy, but it’s modern and meets the EU norms for hygiene. This is Marjorie, a French apprentice butcher in the cutting room. She’s attacking a ham to be cut into chucks for making saucisson.
But when real hand-to-hand patience is needed, we sometimes take a field trip over to the centuries old house where Madame and Monsieur Chapolard live- grand-pere and grand-mere to us. This day they were teaching Sarah Wong, Chef Educator at the Seattle Culinary Academy how to roll and tie the ventréche that are sold at the Saturday Morning market at Nerac. I shot some video on my Canon G11 without a thought of editing, sounds track etc. Now with Charcutepalooza at hand and the February challenge being salt curing, I thought I’d share how we do it …down on the Gascon farm.
The ventreches are salted overnight, sprinkled liberally with fresh ground pepper, then rolled and smoked over night. They are sold the next day at the market. Fast and delicious!
So for all my Charcutepalooza friends, here’s a taste of Gascony and some some Gascon/Basque music by Xarnege to discover and enjoy!
Winter Sunday Lunch Chez Chapolard: friends & tartiflette
French Lunch. French Sunday Lunch.
Lunch in the French countryside with Christiane and Dominique Chapolard.
And a few of their friends… Sophie, Maxime, Phillipe, Genevieve, Lisa, Minty Rose, Lucinda, Sebastian, Angus, Jehanne, Bod, Julian, Judith, Melissa, Miles, Gilles…. you get the idea. A lot of Friends. from age 1 to… Dom calls these their Intergenerational Lunches. Young families and old friends, getting together at the long French table, laden with good food, liberal spirits and talk. Lots of talk. In French, in English, in Franglais!
When I first met the Chapolards at the Saturday Market in Nérac, they were like most farm producers there- friendly. Very friendly. It was only after I got to know both Christiane and Dominique, their 4 grown kids and the rest of the extended Chapolard family that I realized just how friendly and wonderful they are. Every few months, they gather a growing group of friends, market clients, passers by and newcomers around their long ever expanding table. In the sunny summer, the table is laid out under an awning under the plum trees. But on this spectacular mid-January Sunday (ask me why I live here in Glorious Gascony?), we stretched the tables in the long dining room of the old house at Barici.
The table is set simply but with wonderful flowers by Lisa Maiklem, known locally as Lovely Lisa or just Fleur.
With local snowdrops, and catkins (of course, they’re called chatons) and a warm sunny day around us, we could almost taste le printemps. We took aperitifs outside in the sun as Dominique welcomed us all- from toddler to eminence gris and Christiane toasted friendship, health and happiness for this new year. After abundant Charcuterie (if you’re new to these pages, then click here to see what the Chapolards do in their day jobs!) and local sweet wine, we passed to the table where several platters of TARTIFLETTE made the rounds. Again and again.
Good food, friendship and a beautiful day in Southwest France gathered around a long French table. Thank you, mes amis!
la tartiflette
&
the InterGenerational Sunday Lunch Slideshow
