Ham- Eric Ospital’s Ibaiona brand from the Basque Country.

Asparagus- local, just picked and carried to the market so fresh it snaps.

This week, my Kitchen Godmother, Vétou Pompele,  came by for weekend breakfast (a decidedly not French event) and asked me what I would make for her.

I grabbed a copy of my first cookbook that chronicled my early days sailing on the Julia Hoyt and said,

“Your Asparagus and Ham dish, of course”.

She had forgotten about what was long one of my favorite dishes.  It’s easy. When you cook everyday, EVERY DAY, that’s a lot of recipes under the bridge. We have both forgotten half of the wonderful dishes we cooked together over years of sailing the canals and rivers of France on the Julia Hoyt. This was always one of my Spring favorites, because unlike my life BF (Before France), asparagus is a once a year event, a few scant weeks of spear-ful delight. 

ASPARAGUS: Not only does this showcase the first thin green asparagus barely warmed in a saute pan, but gives green garlic, spring onions and the first mint leaves a supporting role to join in the Spring celebration. Wild foraged asparagus would work great as well.

HAM: The Ham? oh, the HAM. This is indeed HAM spelled in big letters. Eric Ospital’s Ibaiona hand-crafted HAM is aged in sechoirs or drying rooms near Hasparren in the Basque Countries. As sweet as salty, and barely both, there is a toasted nut flavor that lingers as the ham melts on your tongue. It has spoiled me forever. No more cheap ham! or maybe your home-made wild boar ventreche, Hank Shaw?

GREENS: We gathered, some garlic shoots- a good reason to plant garlic last November- thanks Lisa! Then hunted down the mint which is just sprouting after a hard winter, and picked some thyme. I call this ‘frontdoor foraging’- the things I planted, let go wild and then provide my kitchen with high points all year long.

This is a great dish to just use the tips and reserve the stalks for soup or my gingered aspargus stem pickles. I served the barely cooked asparagus while Vetou poured Champagne. The poached eggs have yolks as deep orange as only home-grown eggs can be so I slipped one over a nest of asparagus; more ham was left to pile on the plate, the thin slices waving like little Basque flags before we popped them in our mouths.

These are the meals I love best. Friends, family, some good food and a great idea. Merci Madame Pompèle!

and now the recipe…

Asperges de Vetou 

• 1 tablespoon duck fat (you forgot I was in Gascony?)
• a couple oz or 60-80 grams of thinly sliced ham, ventreche, bacon, etc…
• 1 small bunch new spring onions, sliced in half lengthwise
• a few fresh green garlic shoots- we call them aillets, also sliced lengthwise
• 1 bunch perfectly fresh asparagus- white or green, peeled, trimmed and cut in thirds
• 1 mint leaf (swear that Vetou only uses one!)
• a few springs of fresh thyme
• seas salt and freshly ground pepper
• half a glass of white wine

1. heat the duck fat in a heavy saute pan over medium high heat. Add the ham and warm briefly.
2. add the onions and garlic, sauteing gently until half-cooked.
3. add the mint leaf, a little thyme, salt & pepper. Now cover, turn down the heat a little, and cook for 10 minutes or so. keep an eye on it, you don’t want mushy tips, but nether do you want a crunchy mess. the flavors have to melt into each other. No need to add water because the asparagus is so fresh it gives up it’s sap and makes a nice pot liquor.
4. now, take off the lid, add the wine and let it become sauce as it finds the fat and flavor.
5. when the asparagus is perfectly done, remove to a warm dish, and crank the heat up to reduce the sauce further if desired. for those so inclined, a knob of butter swirled around the pan will emulsify and enrich the sauce. Because we are serving this with poached eggs, I skipped this unnecessary addition. The egg yolks are the sauce!
6. serve with poached eggs and copious rashers of thinly sliced very good ham.

Enjoy a weekend breakfast with friends…

What is the difference between involved and committed?

In a ham and egg breakfast, the chicken was involved, the pig was committed.

I love that joke. It conjures up the very differences that help define ‘artisan’ to me.

So in my capacity as Head of Butchery & Charcuterie at the School of Artisan Food on the Welbeck Estate,  I sent out that joke as an invitation to several involved and committed British Charcuterie companies  to  join us here at SAF for a day of meaty talks about “the emerging state of British Charcuterie.” At least that’s how I described it. The response was strong, the turn out was epic and as 18 people (with a few special guests dropping by) came together around our Butcher’s Table, it was clear that there is indeed a new British Charcuterie movement strongly afoot. Look who showed up…

While the obvious, well -loved and respected traditional British small goods like pork pies, brawn, country hams, sausage rolls, pasties, bacon & bath chaps were represented, it was the dry cured, aged fermented sausage continental style goods that took the limelight. The British foodie consumer now buys chorizo, salami, confits & rillettes regularly. Do they make a distinction between imported goods versus homegrown fare? Do they choose industrial versus artisanal? How do people make their choices and how do we educate their palates?

The group was a well represented but by no means complete cross section of small, and even very small family operations to well established and successful artisan businesses. What they shared in common was stronger than their differences. What they shared generously around that table was passion.

After a busy morning of getting to know one another followed by shared tastings and lunch, the group continued to raise the questions that they had in common. So what will the future hold for Britain’s top artisan charcutiers and those seriously committed players? More than just bacon & eggs my friends.

If you know a good British Artisan Charcuterie maker, traditional or contemporary, drop us a note below on comments and we’ll start assembling a map of British Charcuterie makers. I think there are more people out there then we know and we want to include as many people as possible on a resource list.

Thanks to all who showed up!  Thanks everyone for your great energy! And keep a look out for more news of BRITISH CHARCUTERIE….

The happy faces looking rather… well, Charcuter-ish!

• Viv Harvey- Master Butcher
• Sally and Jeremy Levell- Forest Pig
• Illtud Dunsford – Charcutier
• Michael Boyle -Welbeck Farm Shop
• Ian Whitehead –  Suffolk Salami
• Andrew Spooner- freelance
• Struan Robertson- SAF student
• Lisa Scothern- SAF alumni & butcher
• Gary Dickenson-  http://www.norfolkdeli.co.uk/
• Kate Hill- SAF & Kitchen-at-Camont Charcuterie courses in France
• Mat Leaver- Student SAF
• Nick Brake- Student SAF
• Matthew Bedell– SAF alumni, Native Breeds & Fat Food Taxi
• Jules Jackson – Norfolk Deli Comany
• Jean & Martin Edwards- Deli Farms Charcuterie
• Henrietta Green – Food Lovers Britain

The Foire au Jambon in the colorful Basque port of Bayonne.

A memory of a Bayonne surfaces from a long ago road trip looking for marine goods along the Atlantic coast for my barge, the Julia Hoyt. Rope, cord, and lines I was searching. I drove along the river port of the Adour outside of Bayonne in the very southwest of  Southwest France looking for some fishermen, a working boat or chandlery.  The newly fitted nose of wooden fishing boat peeked out of an over-sized hanger; I braked for a quick look inside. Yes. Men working with wood and fiber glass, paint and canvas. Ocean going small fishing boats. Sturdy, serious and hard-working. The boats and the men. I knew they would know. I have a nose for these things.

I thanked them for the directions to the Co-op Maritime in St. Jean de Luz, I turned to say au revoir  and stopped dead in my foodie tracks. Although the Captain in me was looking for cord, the Cook in me spotted a treasure trove of maturing hams hanging from every square foot of rafter space. A boat yard/charcuterie shed? Welcome to Baiona!

The image remained for years locked in my barge memories until this weekend when I dragged my petite soeur down the long diagonal chemin des vacances to the Basque coast for some ‘fun with ham’. Those crazy Basque jambonneurs know how to throw a fête!

First you need ham. Lots of it! Not your every day made-in-a-factory and way too salty ham… but smooth as salty silk, sweet and nutty, melt in your mouth, slow grown, properly-cured Jambon de Bayonne- a world-recognized mark of terroir. More than 25+ artisan charcutiers and salaisonniers were on hand to fête and share their wares especially the traditional salt rubbed, air cured, slightly piment d’espeletted Jambon de Bayonne. R&D here I come!

I was letting my nose lead me to the people I needed to meet through the ever increasing crowd of young, old and party goers. I stumbled and grabbed first a cornet of ham slices, then a sandwich of epic baquette and thick sliced chorizo, a plastic cup of red wine, then a taloak- a corn cake rolled out with a wine bottle, slapped on a dry griddle and rolled up with nutty Pyrenees cheese slices. The crowd grew louder, Basque songs erupting from crowded bars spilling out from the stone arcades along the quai of the Nive. It was a PARTY. A Ham Party!  The dark sky broke open, the drinking set smashed into already packed bars and we ducked into the inviting Au Bon Coin Les Pied de Cochon (the little red trimmed building in the middle  below!) where a happy marriage of good pork and fresh seafood, Madiran and Jurançon wines consoled our sodden spirits.

The next morning before the Easter bunny made his rounds, I was back at the fair set up along the Nive. Alone with a convivial group of producers setting up for the last day of ham madness- before the ham mass, the ham dancing and the ham parade. There were lots of slices, shavings and sandwiches to produce. My strategy was to arrive too early, grab some pics, some names, and buy some large pieces of the best ham I could find. I hit pay dirt, ham motherload, pink gold.

I met the man. The Ham Man. Eric Ospital. Son of Louis. Smiling here with his mentor and kitchen godfather- Gabriel  Biscay on the left- one of France’s Meilleur Ouvrier de Cuisine ( in other words- a Chef’s Chef) I got the inside scoop of all things ham. It was no surprise that he and two other young elite producers, Christian Montauzer and  Eric Mayté, were the second generation continuum who produced the exceptional Ibaïona mark of distinction. “We’re the inner circle, like Romanée Conté… in ham.”

Just these three producers work to a credo established by their fathers. Ibaïona  branded hams are only made from pigs grown slowly on quality barley, wheat and corn, achieving a minimum weight of 150-180 kilos, and then cured and air dried in the four winds of the Basque Country for a minimum of 15-20 months. Branded on the rind and draped in a medallion, these fine hams and the fresh pork from the pigs are earmarked for the best restaurants and houses in Europe from the French Presidential Palace to top Parisian restaurants- la crème de la crème de Jambon.

After a coffee and another few slices of ham with Eric, Gabby and Christian, I loaded my basket with samples to bring back to Camont and taste with friends and professionals- a Noix de Montauzer Ibaiona ham, slices of Ospital Ibaiona, and the dried beret saucission of Maison Mayté. The Ham Party in Bayonne might be over for this year, but the Ham Chronicles-at-Camont are surely just beginning…

Friday roars with Thunderstorms that strip the Cherry Tree and carpets the grass in pale petals.

Bacon left his latest love bunny out in the storm.

The Easter Pig heralds ham for chocolate and the four coqs crow a rainy morning.

Saturday south we drive to Bayonne and the fresh salt breeze that dries mountain hams.

Sunday will be sunny and warming through Espelette and the Pyrenees homelands.

Spring beginnings for new month long Charcuterie-at-Camont courses, limited spaces available for October.

In the UK, Sally and Mat will be tweeting from Forest Pig in the Wyre forest; Struan with Ruth and James at Trealy Farm; Nick is with Northfield Farm; Jane in Norfolk Diet Country with Blakeney Deli, De-lish and Brays Cottage Pork Pies.

How will we stay in touch? By Twitter, of course-t he official meaty communication darling of the whole darn Charcutepalooza Charcuterie world! For a list of the SAF meaty tweeters see my new list at @KatedeCamont/saf-uk.

Peter Barrett's Rubber Boots

Bravo.

Bravo, Bravo, Bravo to you all!

And especially to Peter Barrett, the persistently innovative, mouthwatering edgy talent from cookblog who swept the votes to become the Grand Prize Winner of the ‘Year of Meat’ called Charcutepalooza.

Peter’s contemporary tastes on traditional charcuterie reflects a new look at the oldways of curing and cooking we are discovering across the globe. I like it. I like the slipping of a bit of dried duck breast into a bowl of noodle & soup and the shaving of an overcured bresaola to make dashi. His Lamb Pastrami was damn cute and on cue and the miso-ed bacon tarte renversée an invitation to jump the traditional Gascon ship.

But here in Gascony, I stay the course and preach the old Frenchways.  I stray not far from the classic French farm methods of salt, smoke and time. In this Kitchen at Camont, there is very little equipment a food geek could love but an 8ft-wide chemineé and an airy pantry. Clay cassoles, glass jars of confit and summer fruit line the open shelves. The focus is always on the pure product, the nearby producers and the authentic luxury of time to get it right. Keeping the door open to the past is my chosen job.

So, I breathed a soft sigh of relief when I spotted those rubber boots on Peter. There will be Gascon muddy March fields to tramp, pig farms to explore, rainy markets with dripping umbrellas to scour and duck farms to quack over. Pack your Paris togs for the Grand Ham Shindig with Cathy, TrufflePig‘s Jack Dancy and the rest of the Charcutepalooza gang.  But when you come here bring the boots, Peter, bring the boots.

Interested in a week’s charcuterie adventure like Peter will experience?  Click here to find dates and more information…

Red Deer- 160 lbs., estate shot, delivered to our Butchery training room door by a crew of gamekeepers in green oil-cloth coats and caps.

This is why I am at the School of Artisan Food. This is why the students are here, too. To learn the not-so-gentle arts of Butchery and the sweet salty side of Charcuterie.

I challenge anyone to find a location like this in which to learn: the camaraderie of a group of 20+ students, a willing staff and teaching team of 20+, the old stones anchoring us to the traditions of past, a new approach to define the Artisan Food trades of the butcher, the baker, and yes, the cheesemaker.

• From this hanging carcass, after a morning with master butcher and teacher Viv Harvey, we begin the thoughtful process of creating products with the terroir of Welbeck in mind:
• salt cured hind hams
• salted loin
• strips of venison jerky
• sausages
• meat for pies
• terrine & pates

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.

Since this month’s November Challenge (as described on Mrs. Wheelbarrow’s site) is curing and since we are proud here at Camont to be offering the Grand Prix (along with Trufflepig travel company and some other French friends) I want to help you all out- need a little inspiration? a bit of Gascon guidance? than take a look at this short video on boning and trimming a big Gascon ham to make the famous little Noix de Jambon like we do at Chez Chapolard.

Noix de Jambon Video

Part 2 will be posted shortly. stay tuned…

No, not dinosaur ribs. Yes, a full rack of ribs from a Chapolard pig-  a sow. And these  two are the latest smiling butcher students, Bryan Rudd of Portland, Oregon and Renzo Garibaldi of Lima, Peru who are training here on the Chapolard family farm through our Artisan Butchery & Charcuterie program.

 Bloody Bryan

With a new nickname and head full of ideas, Bryan and partner Mike back in PDX are getting ready for a new look at making great sausage at  http://gorillameats.com/. While they may not be making  these fresh boudin noir/black pudding/blood sausages every fresh Monday morning like Bryan was learning here on the farm here in France, we may see a variation on their sausage menu in PDX soon…It’s been a great 3 weeks with Bryan here in Gascony. We wish him the best as he gets ready to leave (with a brief stopover at SAF), Dominique (here with younger brother Marc) send their best wishes back to all our friends in Portland. As we say here at Camont around the big round terrace table- here’s to those who show up!

This is one of my all time favorite photographs taken over the years in my kitchen at Camont by bon vivant photographe extraordinaire- Tim Clinch.  It a celebration of the marche au gras (the fat markets) in the Southwest of France, an homage to the honest cooking of Gascony, and an encouraging reminder of the season ahead. November is Confit Season.

If you have been following along or creating the wonderful Charcutepalooza challenges posted by Mrs. Wheelbarrow here for the Grand Prix finale, then you know I hold these traditional cooking and preserving methods dear to my heart.  I am listing some of the archives on making duck confit, the traditional Gascon way- here:

• http://kitchen-at-camont.com/2009/01/30/confit-de-canard-duck-confit-part-1-how-to-buy-a-4-headed-duck/
• http://kitchen-at-camont.com/2009/02/04/confit-de-canard-duck-confit-part-2-like-meat-loves-salt/
• http://kitchen-at-camont.com/2009/02/10/confit-de-canard-duck-confit-part-3-7-french-tips/
• http://kitchen-at-camont.com/2009/01/26/fat-ducks-everything-you-need-to-know-from-confit-to-foie-gras

Grrlchef Sarah Wong dreaming up a little duck confit at Chez Bernard Daubin. Montreal-du-Gers.