From the left shoulder of the pig I made this batch of sausage. It has garlic, black pepper, red wine, and lots of salt. Making sausage takes some skill, there’s lots of air pockets which might cause the casings to burst when they’re cooked. But they taste really good.
The egg co-op is raising chicks to get more eggs, but half the chicks are roosters. I took this guy, he looked the largest. He wandered around the back yard all day yesterday, eating lots of grass. Plucking the feathers is quite laborious as some are stuck very well, especially on the wing. I had to dunk him in a pot of hot water to loosen the rest. Tomorrow I’ll cook him according to the coq au vin recipe in mastering the art of french cooking.
I got a little pig today from Sweet Briar Farms and am practicing my butcher skills. The loin I cut out right away, marinating it in mustard, coriander, and white pepper, then grilling it for dinner. The rest will be salted and smoked in various ways appropriate to the cut. One ham I’ll make in the mild manner, brining, smoking, then boiling. With the other I’ll do a Westphalian stlye of smoking and marinating. I’ve been reading about that in the book ‘Salt’. I’m also planning on making pulled pork, sausage, bacon, and some kind of pate. This is turning into a bit of a gruesome week, I also have a rooster in the back yard which I’m set to slaughter tomorrow. A little beer might help me through that a little easier.
Sundays seem like good days to make beer. I’ve been busy with the wine and thus putting beer making on hold. As a result there’s a little stockpile of barley in the basement. I used the half spent bags to put together something approximating a pale ale. The beer will ferment in my bedroom closet, behind a door where Felix can’t pee on it.
