A deli in our kitchen

When our new kitchen was installed late last year I never imagined that the weight bearing steel beam across the centre of the room would be used for hanging smallgoods. Turns out it is the perfect environment for air drying pancetta, guanciale, bacon and coppa hanging from butchers hooks and cooking twine in ideal autumn humidity and temperature. Re-installing our wood fire, which raised the room temperature, thankfully coincided with taking the smallgoods down and wrapping them in butchers paper for storage in the fridge and freezer. 

This year we raised an intact boar for five months and for the first time Duncan handled the kill and butchering with the help of our teenage sons.  Even at just five months old the boar weighed more than 100 kg and wasn't easy to move. Duncan adapted an old four burner gas barbecue, cutting it down to rest on the ground and heat a claw foot bath to scalding temperature. We borrowed a mobile cool room from neighbours and cooled the carcass before Duncan began butchering half using UK/American cutting methods, and half Italian.

The Italian cuts were air dried in our kitchen for six weeks and we still have diced pork, shoulders, and hams to be made into sausages - with the convenience of an electric mincer.    

It is a joy to cook what Stanley Tucci calls the famous pastas of Rome, carbonara, all gricia and all'amatriciana, using homegrown, home butchered guanciale and pancetta.

For more pork see Porkucopia of smallgoods and fresh cuts 30/7/23.

 

 

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