Cochon & Charcuterie: Workshops from Gascony

Cochon & Charcuterie- a workshop with Gascon farmer/butcher Dominique Chapolard

and American cook/teacher Kate Hill of the Kitchen-at-Camont.

In Gascony where Chapolard farms and Hill teaches at her 18th century Kitchen-at-Camont, good pork, duck, lamb and beef provide the backbone of classic charcuterie. Kate and Dominique are bringing their savoir-faire and love for this good Gascon food on tour to America with Cochon & Charcuterie: a workshop from Gascony to demonstrate the intricate art of butchering traditional French pork cuts for the preparation of authentic charcuterie. Professionals, cooks, food lovers and Charcutepalooza’ers will learn the basics of traditional French seam butchery and authentic charcuterie from these two passionate teachers and their welcoming hosts.

Cochon & Charcuterie full day workshops are scheduled in two locations on the East Coast- Stonyman Gourmet Farmer near Little Washington, VA and Claddagh Farms Cookery School near Belfast Maine; two half-day workshops are scheduled at The Herbfarm in Woodenville WA near Seattle, an evening workshop at the Portland Meat Collective in PDX created by former student Camas Davis in Portland Oregon and a Special XL version 2 -day workshop at Woodberry Kitchens in Baltimore. Links to the individual workshops are posted below and links will be lit as they go live:

March  14 & 15 9:00 am -1:30 pm     The French PIG: the elegance of the cut- The Herbfarm Restaurant Woodenville WA.

March 16 4:00- 8:00 pm                       Working with the Master- Portland Meat Collective- Portland OR location TBA

March 18 9:30am -5:00 pm                 Seed to Sausage Charcuterie- Claddagh Farms Cookery School (aka Podchef Farms), Montville ME (Special 10% Discount available for official Charcutepalooza participants)

March 20 9:30 am-1:00 pm or 9 am – 5 pm                The French PIG: glorious Gascony comes to  Stonyman Gourmet Farmer Little Washington VA

March 21 & 22                                            Two day XL Workshop  Mon 2pm -9pm, Tues 9 am-4 pm  Woodberry Kitchens Baltimore MD

In the half day workshops, Dominique demonstrates, using seam butchery method, the breaking down of half of a pig, a farm-raised fully-mature animal, into premium French cuts. Kate and Dominique then transform some of these basic cuts using traditional recipes- a repertoire of authentic Gascon charcuterie recipes using only salt and pepper, curing, and storage techniques. In this workshop you will learn to make and cure: ventrèche (pancetta), coppa, noix de jambon (a specialty cut of the Chapolards) and other whole muscle charcuterie.

The full-day workshop begins in the morning focusing on seam butchery and a hands-on option devoted to learning  the important anatomy, knife skills, professional techniques, meat hygiene, and skills to safely butcher a whole farm-raised pig in the French manner. During the Tasting Lunch, prepared under Kate’s expert guidance, we’ll talk about French full-circle farming as the Chapolards practice in Gascony. We call it Seed-to-Sausage farming. The afternoon we will transform the charcuterie cuts into traditional terrines, patés, ventrèche, poitrine salée, coppa, jambon and filet sec. We will also prepare the head for tete de fromage and other cooked charcuterie. In the full day workshop we will explore the four corners of charcuterie: cooked, salted, cured and  dried.

“…As soon as he made the first cut, the whole class shut up. Not a word. After a couple of minutes I realized I had my mouth wide open. I wasn’t the only one. Dominique’s skill with a knife was honestly like nothing I had ever seen…” Matt Wright

Team Camont: From the Kitchen-at-Camont in Southwest France come two of our valued teachers. Kate Hill created the Kitchen at-Camont as a culinary retreat on the foundation of an 18^th century Gascon farm. She teaches and organizes year-round programs, writes and blogs about her “artisan life’. Dominique sells Kate great fresh pork and charcuterie every week at the market. Over 15 years of good pork, they became friends and now teach these travelling workshops to share their love of all things Gascon, especially its Cochon & Charcuterie.

Dominique Chapolard, along with his 3 farmer/butcherbrothers and their wives, prepare eight to ten of their own farm-raised Large White/Pietrain/Duroc pigs each week. Fifty-two weeks of the year. 500 pigs. That’s a lot of charcuterie. Dedicated to the l’Art du Cochon on their small farm near Mezin, France, the Chapolard family grows all the grain and seed that the pigs eat for their entire 12-month-old life. Each week the humanely killed pigs are transformed into fresh cuts (roti, cotelettes, jambon, jarret, etc.) and charcuterie cuts (jambon, coppa, filet, tete, saucisson etc.) to sell at four weekly markets. All their charcuterie is cured using the time-honored traditions of just salt & pepper, smoke and time.

Kate Hill is a great cook, a patient teacher, a lyrical writer and the founder of the Kitchen-at-Camont. Since 1990 Kate has moored her Dutch canal barge at the foot of this historic French farmhouse, while patiently transforming a nettle infested and bramble covered hectare into a trio of organic gardens. A towering pigeonnier became a guest house, its piggery transformed into a pantry, and the two meter wide fireplace defined the ultimate Gascon kitchen.

Kate acquired her deep knowledge of Gascon cuisine from her friends and neighbors in France- the artisan food producers. Today, when she’s not tending bees or chickens, or weeding her vegetable garden, she’s guiding a novice’s hand in the kitchen, rolling out a buttery pie crust for guests, or challenging visiting chefs to explore beyond the kitchen’s walls and into the fertile Gascon countryside. An accomplished cook and teacher Kate has studied traditional and authentic Gascon cooking, home butchery and charcuterie for over two decades.

Kitchen-at-Camont presents Cochon & Charcuterie, a workshop in traditional French techniques and savoir-faire.

What others say:

Michael Ruhlman: http://ruhlman.com/2010/04/the-saving-graces-of-pigs-and-charcuterie.html/comment-page-1

Matt Wright: http://mattikaarts.com/blog/charcuterie/the-pork-pate-the-french-butcher-the-pig/

Hank Shaw: http://honest-food.net/2010/04/26/humbling-win-humbling-experience/

Camas Davis of Portland Meat Collective: http://ladebrouillard.com/?p=238

Chez US: http://www.chezus.com/traveling/charcuterie/

For more information contact: katehill at email dot com.

DUCKFEST Deux- East Coast Dec 3-5 w/ Neal Foley at Claddaugh Farm

Duckfest New Year on Pod Chef Island 2010. What Ducky fun was had by all! To anchor down the end of 2010, Neal Foley and I team up again, this time in his new digs in Mid-Coast Maine for a pre-holiday, get your terrines ready Duckfest Deux at Claddagh Farms. Thanksgiving is over, Christmas has yet to begin, what better time to come learn about French Ducks from Confit to Rillettes.

Just in time for the winter holidays, we’re going to start the season off with a three-day weekend of good food and fat ducks at Neal’s new Maine farm.  Three days/two nights of good food, conviviality, duck butchery and confit-making. Come and learn the little secrets of French farm-wives and time-honored traditional recipes for preparing and preserving confit de canard, terrine de foie naturale and le Grand Cassoulet.

December 3rd—Friday:

• Arrive on at the farm, mid-day, and join Kate and Neal at Kitchen Garden Headquarters on Claddagh Farm for a traditional French, super-authentique, Camp Cassoulet class & feast. We will be pairing red wine and armagnac with the cassoulet. Enjoy this early winter dinner, full of locally sourced & foraged ingredients—many from the farm itself.

December 4th—Saturday:

• Breakfast: We will set ourselves up for the day with a light breakfast of coffee, tea & home baked pastries– Kathy Foley’s baked goods are not to be missed! I still remember bagels, scones, muffins…
• Morning: Duck Butchery- Neal will lead a how-to workshop on Duck Butchery. A primer for the professional or home chef, come to the farm to learn humane slaughter methods, plucking, eviscerating & processing. This course is for beginners, chefs & cooks who want to know where and how their food gets from the farm to the table.

• Lunch: Kate and Neal will prepare a winter pique-nique of found and foraged foods to share the diversity of mid-coast Maine and Kitchen Garden Headquarters.

• Afternoon: Traditional French Confit Making Part 1- The importance of proximity becomes apparent as we work with the fresh carcasses, removing the natural fat livers, learning the meat cuts, then trimming and rendering the fat while learning the nuances of salting and seasoning. Fatted Ducks are larger and meatier than roasting ducks. Preserving meat by poaching in fat (confit) is the perfect way to showcase that flavor as well as store at room temperature.

Dinner: We will learn from Kate how the French dine as we pull together to improvise a dinner from the farm, the day’s activities, and the mood.

December 5th—Sunday:

• Breakfast:Start the day off right with coffee, tea, conversation, and more fabulous farm made delights. Did we talk about CREAM?Buckets of fresh thick cream?
• Morning: Cooking and preserving Confit Part 2- We begin the confit process, cooking the duck to perfection in a slow and patient process. No rushing allowed: stir, stir, rest. When cooked, we will preserve the tender meat for pantry storage with its translucent golden fat in glass jars.

• Lunch: A farm Feast: Field & Shore, severed with homemade breads and inspired by our time spent together.

• Afternoon: Final wrap up of thoughts while our new friends—you—prepare to depart with a basket of Ducky Delights in hand.

Cost:

Duckfest 2010- $495 per person 3 days/2 nights (accommodation available- request information)

Contact Us For more information and follow the daily Duckling on Twitter with @podchef and @katedecamont!

Winter Workshop in Artisan Butchery & Charcuterie: Special 3-week course.

What can you learn about whole hog butchery and charcuterie in a 3 weeks? Enough to fill your plate everyday for 19 days and return home with a suitcase full of savoir faire. At Camont, it’s farm to table everyday.

This is intensive study for serious students, professional cooks, and farmers who wish to refine their knowledge or begin to acquire the foundation of a traditional apprenticeship in French butchery & charcuterie. Based on the French methods of alternating theory and practice, students follow a curriculum designed by farmer/butcher Dominique Chapolard and cook/teacher Kate Hill especially for English-speaking culinary arts students and professionals.

This is a complete program- 3 weeks of intensive practical study. Perfect for those looking for hands-on training and experience with working with whole carcass butchery, ‘short circuit’ farm to consumer production and nose-to-tail cooking. At the end of three weeks, you will understand the raison d’etre of the farm-raised pig, from French field to French kitchen.

AB&C Three Weeks:

• half of our work days are spent on the Chapolard farm and in the ‘salle de coupe’ or butchering room under the guidance of the butcher/farmers are balanced with days in Camont’s kitchen where we refine and practice the techniques learned as they apply to your own professional needs.
• Workshops are 5 days a week plus an optional extra day of working the Saturday Market with the Chapolards. Weekends are free and left to your own discretion to travel, sightsee and shop. Agen is located 1 hour+ from Toulouse, Bordeaux.
• You will need and learn a working vocabulary in both French and English; Kate is there to translate for you as needed. Simple questions and dialogue relating to the work at hand are taught in special Kitchen French classes weekly.
• Tools, jackets, aprons and boots are provided at Baradieu, however personal knives are allowed and encouraged at Camont. More info on this later.
• Although most of the butchery & charcuterie we work with is pork based at the Chapolard’s farm, we also have access to a small cattle farmer/butcher and foie gras duck and geese farmer/butcher.
• Week One is a complete overview of the farm process from grain to slaughter, seed to sausage. The week begins with two days of butchering on site preparing for the market, a day excursion to other butchers and farms, a day to focus on charcuterie cuts at Camont followed by a day back in the butcher shop.
• Week Two begins again with hands-on butchery at the farm, followed by two days of curing charcuterie at Camont (including duck) and a day of working with foie gras, terrines and pates. An excursion to the abattoir or slaughter house is planned.
• Week Three completes a breakdown expertise by working with your own half hog. The initial breakdown will be at the farm butcher shop, followed by transformation to sellable cuts and charcuterie at Camont. An excursion to another smaller producer for comparison and inspiration is planned.

All Recipes for Natural Charcuterie using only salt and pepper.

Saucisse de Toulouse.Pate au four.Fricandou.Paupiettes.Brochettes.Pate de tete.Boudin.Jambon Blanc. Noix de Jambon.Saucisson.Saucisse seche.Coppa.Chorizo.Merquez.Rillette

Winter 2010 Dates: Dec 20 2010- Jan 7 2011. 19 days total comprising of 15 days of workshops and 4 days of free time for study or travel.

Winter 2010 Rates:  6000€ includes room and board.

For further info about availability, comment here

AB&C: Artisan Butchery & Charcuterie- Seed to Sausage in Gascony

Bruno Chapolard

Beginning this September 20 2010, the first six-week Artisan Butchery & Charcuterie: Seed to Sausage in Gascony, a program for students interested in learning the skills of traditional French butchery and charcuterie in France. Developed by Kate Hill of the Gascon Kitchen at Camont and Dominique Chapolard of G.A.E.C. Ferme Baradieu for restaurant chefs, specialty butchers, and novice charcutiers, this program follows a unique European model of alternating hands-on experience with a solid curriculum designed for Americans in France. This six week program follows the production of a premium quality artisan charcuterie from farm field to pork production to market stall.

AB&C is the acronym for Camont’s Artisan Butchery & Charcuterie program and reflects the fundamental approach to creating quality fresh and cured pork products as taught by Dominique & Christiane Chapolard and brothers Jacques, Bruno and Marc on the family farm Baradieu and by Kate Hill in the Gascon Kitchen at Camont. Long relationships working with the Chapolard family as well as neighboring farmers have informed our cooking classes at Camont since 1991. In 2008, we formalized the first butchery and charcuterie apprenticeships working with students on customized programs from 5 weeks to 6 months. Now in 2010, we offer the first Artisan Butchery & Charcuterie introductory program: a six-week apprenticeship of practice and theory based on a classic French standard for artisan butchery and charcuterie.

Perfect Ventrèche

Just four students per session will work and study at Camont and Ferme Baradieu. Working alongside the Chapolard family on their farm, students learn:

• the basics of small scale pig production as the foundation for establishing meat quality.
• to choose quality meat by recognizing excellence
• an economical approach to working with a whole carcass
• hand-cutting with boning knife, cleaver and saw.
• basics of first cut to finish fresh and charcuterie cuts
• utilization of every piece, making clean cuts results in no waste
• European seam butchery which is based on muscle structure and articulation points and anatomy
• Economy of movement while butchery and how to use the weight of the animal in your favor

The artisan level of butchery and charcuterie implies an intimate knowledge of many related fields. The goal is to teach, refine and practice knife skills on whole carcasses while learning the French lexis of meat cuts and traditional nitrate and nitrite-free curing methods. The four basic approaches to pork are learned and mastered each week: fresh, cured, cooked and preserved.

Some prior level of French language is highly suggested, though not required.  This is a program for self-motivated cooks seeking an in-depth traditional French experience in authentic and traditional charcuterie and butchery skills. Tuition start at 1€ a week: room, board and local transportation is 400-€ a week.

Artisan Butchery & Charcuterie: Seed to Sausage in Gascony    Sept 20- October 30 2010

Dominique Chapolard

Features:

• Six weeks of instruction and tuition (Monday-Friday) following the weekly breakdown from slaughterhouse to Saturday market.
• Foundation of  continuous artisan pork production as practiced on the Chapolard family farm, Baradieu: each week focuses on a essential component of butchery and charcuterie.
• Each week consists of 3 days of working alongside the Chapolards and 2 days of study and practice at Camont as well as weekly visits to other producers and butchers.
• excursions and field trips to abattoirs, butchers, producers throughout Gascony.
• The six weeks reflect a flow of working with the whole carcass

1. intro to whole process, from field to market stall, animal husbandry and basic anatomy
2. primal quarters for fresh cuts- shoulder, loin, ribs, belly, hams, hocks, head
3. charcuterie & the art of salting, smoking & curing – hams, saucisson, saucisse seche, ventreche (french bacon)
4. cooked pates, sausages & confit
5. offal- boudin (blood sausage, liver, heart, tongue, beret, head cheese, rind
6. mastering the whole carcass breakdown on your own and creating a charcuterie master sheet

A limited number of spaces are available each 6 week session; applicants will be chosen on the basis of a completed form that includes a resume.

For further information, email for an application to katehill (at) email (dot)com

French PIG- the butcher & the cook workshop + DATES

FRENCH PIG ~ The Butcher & the Cook

French PIG- an intensive hands-on and demonstration workshop with Gascon farmer/butcher/charcutier Dominique Chapolard and American cook/writer/teacher Kate Hill of the Gascon Kitchen. Together they offer the intricate art of butchering traditional French pork cuts and the preparation of authentic charcuterie recipes for professionals, cooks and food lovers alike. French PIG is an exceptional opportunity to learn the basics of traditional and authentic French butchery and charcuterie in America.

April 16- Friday  Napa CA.  The Fatted Calf at the OXBOW Public Market. Evening participatory demonstration-$195     Booking info coming soon.

April 17- Saturday Sonoma CA. Kelley & Young Winery. Full day hands-on + demo workshop plus PINK: Porc & Rosé Tasting Dinner. $395 http://frenchpig.eventbrite.com/

April 24- Portland OR.  IACP conference session “Meat Revival”, w/ Michael Ruhlman & Adam Sappington. SOLD OUT

April 25- Portland OR Portland Meat Collective sponsored at Robert Reynold’s Chefs Studio. Hands-on, limited to 12 participants, includes a generous share of fresh pork. $250 9:am-1:pm Book here: http://frenchpig.eventbrite.com/

April 26 Woodinville WA  The Herbfarm- Two part workshop: #1-French Cut Seam Butchery Demo, #2-Authentic French Charcuterie Preparation plus Lunch Discussion “Seed to Sausage”. Full day workshop plus lunch- $395.  (Part 1 & Part 2 workshops: $150 &$250, lunch $45.)  Booking info here: http://theherbfarmfrenchpig.eventbrite.com/

May 5- Los Angeles CA location to be confirmed-  French PIG for the homecook- Cooking Only Class

The Butcher- Dominique Chapolard, his wife Christiane and his French family, three brothers and sister-in-law, run a ‘full circle farm’ in Southwest France, a pig farm in Gascony. The full circle is an apt description of how they run their not-so-traditional family farm. They grow the grain and cereals that they feed their own breeding stock, those classic pink and spotted pigs- Large Whites and Gloucester mix. They slaughter (at the local cooperative abattoir) and butcher in a white-tiled, pristine cutting room housed in an old barn on the farm; they transform and cook in an adjacent European Union approved kitchen. Then, four days a week, donning red aprons and black berets, Dominique, his wife Christiane, and youngest brother Marc drive their pork-laden market wagons brimming with fresh rôti, côtelettes, ribs, sausage, saucission, ham, boudin, ears, tails and pieds du cochon to four village farmer’s markets, each week. All year long. That’s about 450 pigs, 135,000 pounds of meat and 280 markets a year. Direct from producer to consumer.

The Cook- Kate Hill first met butcher brother Marc Chapolard and then the rest of the French clan as one of the consumers while shopping and cooking her way through an entire pig, from brains to tail. Each week at the farmers market, Kate would stand in line and listen to the ample orders of the older generation of French housewives and bachelors asking for ‘le beret, des traverses, la couenne,’ while she contemplated her usual pork chop or tenderloin request. One day Kate asked Marc how to cook boudin noir or blood sausage. The conversation that followed held up the market line, confounded the locals and challenged the American Cook to become more French in her shopping and cooking. Twenty years on, she teaches her cooking clients and students to expand their limited horizons beyond the center cuts and embrace the tasty lower cuts of hock and collar, belly and jowl.

Now, the family of French farmer/butchers, wives, kids, pigs and dogs and the American cook are close friends. As Kate began to field requests at her Gascon Kitchen School from young chefs looking to learn and apprentice with French butchers and charcutiers, she naturally turned to the Chapolard family at their farm, Baradieu- the Charcuterie Farm. Together they have created a unique apprentice program based on hands-on butchery, charcuterie and marketing balanced with study, language and cooking. Invited to present a Butchering seminar with Michael Ruhlman and Adam Sappington at the spring 2010 Portland IACP (International Association of Culinary Professionals) international conference, Chapolard and Hill are also offering independent workshops while on the West Coast. April 16-21

FRENCH PIG is a traveling preamble to the longer study program at the Gascon Kitchen School in Southwest France and offers curious and interested students, cooks and professionals an opportunity to learn the basics of traditional and authentic French butchery and charcuterie with Dominique Chapolard and Kate Hill. For information about our French programs- www.kitchen-at-camont.com.

The programs:

FRENCH PIG- Hands-On-Knife Butchery Workshop featuring traditional French Cut Seam Butchery and Authentic Charcuterie Recipes. Dominique and his 3 butcher brothers prepare 8-10 of their own farm-raised pigs each week. 52 weeks a year. That’s a lot of experience. On the farm side of the equations they grow all the grain and food that the pigs eat for their entire 12 month old life. Each week, the humanely killed carcasses are transformed into French fresh cuts( roti, cotelettes, jambon, jarret, etc) and charcuterie cuts (noix de jambon, filet, tete, pied, etc). In the morning workshop, Dominique takes you through the steps to transform the entire carcass into premium French cuts. In the afternoon, Kate and Dominique transform basic cuts into traditional French recipes: fresh, cooked, cured and dried. You go home with inspiration, knowledge and pork.

A full day workshop, broken by a tasting lunch in which students learn the necessary anatomy, knife skills, professional techniques, meat hygiene and safety to butcher a farm-raised pig, a tasting lunch and discussion period of French Full Circle Farming, followed by an afternoon charcuterie workshop teaching a repertoire of traditional charcuterie recipes, using fat, curing and storage techniques. Students will receive a generous share of the pork to take home.

once again, these fabulous pix are by co-conspirator Tim Clinch

at www.clinch-hill.com