Two days of butchery and charcuterie

Another busy weekend .... this time our two-day course on pork butchery and charcuterie. Several members of the group were about to, or seriously considering, setting up a food business, while another kept pigs.

Marc was in charge of the first day when a whole pig was butchered. The pig was a good size, an 86 kg Tamworth x Duroc, supplied by Dan from his herd at 12 Green Acres.  Marc butchered the two sides of pork slightly differently,one for pork, and the other side for curing. As well as having a go at some of the butchery, the group cured some bacon from the belly and loin. The nape muscle from  the shoulder was cured for coppa.

Day 2, led by Dan, was spent processing all the meat. There was plenty to do, but their excellent team work meant they whizzed through their tasks. By the end of the course the group had produced an impressive range of products  - traditional sausages,  burgers, chorizo,  coppa, streaky and back bacon,  faggots, pate, rillettes, pork pies, pork terrine, stock, and some pork scratchings.

During the day, the group quizzed Dan on costings and retail prices and by the end of the course they had a good appreciation of how to add  value to meat and just  how much work was involved.

Just to liven things up, Lobelia, one of our Kune Kune sows delivered her pigs at lunchtime on Sunday - so perfect timing. 

Here are just a few images from the course:

 Sausage-making with Dan

The pate, made to Dan's recipe proved to be very popular with the group.

The individual pork pies looked very professional. We used Marc's recipe for hot water pastry. Dan was very impressed and slipped one in his bag to try at home.

Hanging in the chiller at the end of the course - traditional sausages, chorizo, two pieces of coppa at different stages of air drying.

This photo shows the four stages in making coppa -  the raw nape muscle on the left, taken from the shoulder, this is dry cured for about 10 days and then rolled in paprika and  placed in an ox-bung. This stops the meat from drying out too quickly. After three weeks, the coppa has started to dry out. It will remain there until it has lost one-third of its mass.

And of course, the Kune piglets that caused such a stir at lunch time.

Organic farming trumps conventional farming in 30 year trial

The results from a 30-year long farm trial, comparing conventional with organic farming by the Roedale Institute  are fascinating.

Here are the headliners from the study

• organic farming over the 30-year period was found to be 3x more profitable
• organic farming uses 45% less energy than conventional
• conventional farming releases 40% more greenhouse gases
• soils are healthier under organic crops
• during times of drought organic crops do much better

To read more visit http://www.rodaleinstitute.org/fst30years

2012 off to a flying start

It was a busy weekend at the Farm School. Marc had a full house for his Curing and Smoking Course, the first course of the year. This is one of our most popular courses and it had been fully booked for some time. Another lovely group of people.  We had the pleasure of the company of Giancarlo and Katie Caldesi who run the well known La Cucina Caldesi in London, as well as Monique Borst. Monique is running her Food Business Start-up Boot Camp at the Farm School in March. 

Monique is London-based and came down  by train. She was unlucky that the trains were diverted around Woking, so the journey was 2.5 hrs and not the usual 2 hrs. She  was busy with her camera and some of her photos of the day can be seen here.

Marc covered a range of cured products, including gravadlax, bacon, ham,  pancetta, duck ham, and biltong. We had both the hot and cold smokers in action and there were plenty of cured and smoked foods to taste at lunch. This time we had a play with our new smoker, a ProQ Excel with the cold smoke generator which we will use as a cold smoker. We tried smoked sea salt and garlic. Despite only having 4 hours of smoke, both picked up a smoky flavour.  Thanks for Alison at Hot Smoked for giving us a good deal on the ProQ! She also sent up a few samples of speciality woods which will be interesting to try out on future courses.


It was Dan's turn on Sunday with Pork Butchery and Sausage-making. This time we had had people attend from as far afield as Lincolnshire. They combined their course with an overnight stay in Salisbury to make a super weekend away. 

The morning was spent covering all aspects of pork butchery while the afternoon was devoted to making sausages. As usual everybody had a chance to make up their own recipe of sausage, so this time we had herby sausages, spicy sausages and some made with apple and cider. This group proved to have really good  hand-to-eye co-ordination and linked their sausages in record time! There was enough time during the afternoon for Dan to prepare a  coppa ham for air-drying,  and cure another piece of rib eye muscle for the next course. 

The next Curing and Smoking Course takes place on 24 March but if you are interested don't delay as we only have a few places left. 


If you are interested in sausage-making, Marc is running an Advanced class on 28 February when he will be covering sausages such as  chorizo, boudin blanc, mortedella, and salami.

Curing and Smoking with a Christmas Twist

The last of the Curing and Smoking Days took place last weekend and Marc was asked to provide a Christmas twist which he did in style.

The course, which had long been fully booked,  was jammed packed with ideas. During the morning Marc brought out the two whole salmon which he filleted and cured in gravlax style. Fortunately there was enough left for me to have some prepared for Christmas - excellent, I hope I can refrain from trying it before then!

Everybody prepared their own piece of salmon and then made a wet brine for their poussin.  After soaking for a couple of hours, the poussin were boned and rolled up with a piece of guinea fowl, pork forcemeat and wrapped in bacon.

After lunch Mark tackled the pork. There was a piece for everybody to dry cure. He also removed the neck muscle from a piece of shoulder which was used for coppa. The rest of the pork was minced and used to make a stilton sausage which was cooked, wrapped in bacon and placed  in a kilner jar with pork fat. This confit of stilton sausage can be stored until Christmas when the jar can be heated to melt the fat. The sausage wrapped in bacon can be pan fried for a few minutes to reheat.

As usual the group has a hot smoked chicken for lunch along with other cured goodies and a piece of hot smoked salmon for try later in the afternoon.

Full marks must go to the supplier of the salmon Real Scottish Salmon from Westeross (http://www.realscottishsalmon.co.uk/shop/fresh-salmon). I ordered Wednesday afternoon and the fish arrived the next morning, looking super on their bed of ice. The fish were fresh with bright gills. If you ever have a need to buy whole salmon online, look no further than this company that operate to very high RSPCA welfare standards.

Meet Vivien at the Bookshop in Bath

Vivien Lloyd is appearing at The Bookshop in Bath for a delicious evening of preserve, jam and chutney tasting.

From The Bookshop: "With over 20 years experience of making and demonstrating award-winning preserves, Vivien  is recognised as a leading authority on domestic preservation. With a number of prizes and accolades behind her, including numerous first prizes for her preserves at the Royal Welsh Show, Vivien’s passion for preserving has seen her featured in the Sunday Telegraph, on ITV Central’s ‘Heart of the Country’ programme and on BBC Radio 4 ‘Food Programme’. Passionate about ensuring the age-old traditional recipes are not passed over in favour of more modern (and often incorrect) interpretations, Vivien is now keen to share her expertise and knowledge and to revive what she feels is a declining and misunderstood art. There will be plenty of samples on offer, and this will be the perfect opportunity to think about buying – or making – your own tasty Christmas gift."

Venue: The Bookshop, BA1 5LS

Tickets £6 with £6 off First Preserves.

for more info http://www.toppingbooks.co.uk/events/bath/vivien-lloyd/

New books

Here is some essential reading written by two of our tutors .....

Marc Frederic has published his long awaited book on charcuterie,entitled 'Le Charcutier Anglais' which covers many aspects of charcuterie plus some stories and hints and tips. Price £30















               


Vivien Lloyd has published 'First Preserves', a book aimed at people new to the world of jam, marmalade and chutney making. Its full of lovely photos and even has a section on competitions. I am sure this section will be well read, following Kirsty Allsop's Handmade Britain. So Vivien was well ahead of the game there! You can buy a signed copy direct from Vivien (£17.99 incl postage)  http://www.vivienlloydpreserves.com/marmalade/shop/

Two great books which come highly recommended.

Three-day butchery course

Last week we held the first of our three-day butchery and charcuterie courses and I must say what a lovely group of people. As on all of our courses, the students  come from varied backgrounds, Charlotte and Gary were leaving the military, Rosie was taking some time out to do some woofing, Suzanne ran a large farming enterprise in Herefordshire, Andy a keen foodie, Robert (Yogi)  chef and  smallholder,  and the youngest Michael, straight out of college and looking to set up a farm shop. The three-day format gave plenty of opportunity for the group to get to know each other and I am sure some friendships and links have been established.

Day 1 was devoted to venison and lamb and Marc showed the group how to skin a deer and butcher it, followed by the butchery of one of our Dorset x Southdown lambs.The group made venison sausages with a spicy seasoning and some chorizo made with venison and pork. 

Day 2 was led by Dan who arrived with a whole pig  (from the abbatoir!). The morning was spent on the butchery of one side for meat cuts rather than curing. Then we all departed to the Stapleton Arms where chef Mark had prepared a lovely meal for us. The tasting platter of seafoods was delightful as was the spicy squash soup (using crown prince squash, my favourite).  Back to the classroom to complete the butchery, with some hands-on practice and lots of  butcher's knots. By the end of the day everybody had had a go at linking sausages,  wrapping pork in caul fat to make faggots, and pressing out some apple burgers.

Day 3 and it was Marc's turn again. This day was devoted to curing and  processing. The group made bacon (streaky and back)  and were shown how to make pancetta and coppa. Then onto processing, making pork pies, pates, and rillettes. Lunch of course was bangers and burgers which were really tasty - everybody was really pleased to think that they had made them all themselves.

So a great first three-day course. Hopefully some photos to come!