Yesterday, after surprisingly little prodding, I managed to successfully coerce the Everyman into joining me for an afternoon at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair.
As far as I can recall I don’t think I’ve ever visited “The Royal” before, but if I did, it was probably during some grade school field trip or something nearly 20 years ago. I can vividly recount visits to the Winnipeg version of The Royal, if for no other reason than the presence of Bonhomme (du neige). Bonhomme is the mascot of the Quebec winter carnival, but there’s a surprisingly large French population in Winnipeg, so for some reason he makes an appearance there, too. The toboggan slaloms were pretty awesome as well, which unfortunately isn’t something we’d ever see in Ontario, I imagine.
Up until a few weeks ago I really had no yearning to go to the Ontario Royal. But, when I met my editor Sheryl at Pantry for lunch a few weeks ago (aside from having an utterly scrumptious mushroom and oxtail tart) she made an off-the-cuff remark that made me wonder how much of a foodie destination The Royal might be.
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Tags: Beau's Natural Beer, beer, Bonhomme, butter, Carmichaels, cheese, cows, cured meats, European Quality Meats, From These Roots, jam, Kernal, LCBO, Monforte Dairy, pantry, peanut butter, Pristine Gourmet, Purveyors, Rootham's Gourmet, Southbrook Winery, The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, Traditions Of Thornloe, Upper Canada Cheese, vinegar, wine, Woolwich Dairy
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For weeks now I’ve been plotting, planning, calculating, formulating my next meaty project.
From the get-go I knew it would have to be a bacon.
The hard part was determining what sort of bacon it would be. The belly from my pig was around 15 pounds, and once I divided it up, I figured I could get around 6 batches of bacon out of it if I didn’t resort to roasting any for dinner.
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Tags: bacon, belly, cured meats, honey, New Projects, pork, Preservation, The Sausage Debauchery
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For a while now I’ve been meaning to get around to doing this.
Several of you have not let me forget that, either.
Thank you.
If it weren’t for your regular prodding reminders, this project would not have seen the light of day for several more weeks, at least.
And surprisingly enough, last night everything finally came together to begin day 1 of my 547 day homemade prosciutto adventure.
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Tags: cured meats, New Projects, pork, Preservation, prosciutto
Posted in New Projects, Preservation | 3 Comments »
Yesterday morning I finally found the place to procure the rest of my sausage-making software.
Or rather, a friendly group of fellow ‘hounds pointed me in the right direction, to an online vendor called Malabar Super Spice. It’s funny because when I first looked into sausage-making at the beginning of the year I had looked up Malabar, but promptly forgot about it. Having gotten reacquainted with their website, I managed to order myself something that goes by the dubious name of beef middles, among other things. According to all the sausage-recipes I’ve been planning lately, beef middle is what I need to stuff the meat into. I’m not quite certain exactly what part the middle comes from, but I’m pretty sure I’d rather not know.
When it gets here on Tuesday, it’ll be time to start working on my much anticipated ‘nduja (even though it has to cure for a year) and also the other item I’ve been contemplating, some spicy Hungarian csabai. I’ve always wanted to make a prosciutto, but I don’t think I have the room, ideal temperate zone or expertise to properly pull that one off without killing myself (or more likely the Everyman, since he’s the real prosciutto fiend in this household).
I’ve been slowly trying to increase my comfort level with cured meats this year, but I still don’t have that gut feeling like I know what I’m doing. And unfortunately with stuff like this where molds can be involved, not knowing what you’re doing is somewhat dangerous. That’s why I always sample my homemade products first. If they don’t kill me, then I’m ok with the Everyman or others trying them. But I’m not going to make other people sick because of my own stupidity.
In other news, I received word of my first Daring Bakers challenge yesterday. I don’t think I’m allowed to share what it is with you right now (I’m still a little fuzzy on the rules) but come May 27th, photos of my failure (or success) will be posted on this blog for all to see. Having read through the recipe a few times already, I’ve got a mild case of anxiety about whether I can pull this one off. Only time will tell, I guess.
Until next time…
Tags: 'nduja, csabai, cured meats, Daring Kitchen, Malabar Super Spice, New Projects, Preservation, sausage
Posted in Daring Kitchen, New Projects, Preservation | No Comments »
