My original idea of turning The Spectacle in on itself to end up with something more honest fell a bit short; setting aside what I wanted, on its own terms, I couldn't have asked for anything more from my adventure with a pig.A few pictures from the two dinners--
From dinner number two:
We were very happy with how it all turned out and I'd encourage any of our readers to give it a try.
Some numbers.
From the 94 pound half pig we made -
- 25 appetizer portions of testa
- 25 appetizer portions of pork terrine with tenderloin inlay
- 40 appetizer portions of sausage
- 40 appetizer portions of rillettes
- 25 servings of rib pasta sauce
- 5 pound cured shoulder roast - 10 servings
- 15 pound house cured ham - 30 servings
- 18 pounds porchetta (belly wrapped around loin, stuffed with fennel) - 30+ servings
- 1 pound cracklings
- 16 quarts gelatinous pork stock
- 10 pounds cotechino sausage (need some more pork shoulder for this) - will serve 15-20
The ingredients cost roughly $450, with the pig accounting for a little less than half of that. I'm guessing that it took about 150 hours to put it all together.
More photos in the slide shows.
Dinner #1 -
Dinner #2 -
5 comments:
Everything but the squeel! What a sense of accomplishment you guys must have. Bravo.
There was one item though that didn't come from the pork that was just as memorable. Those crackers!!! They were so good. People often ask me for recipes and I find myself on the asking end here!
Thanks for the compliment Art.
It's amazing how much food can come from one animal. And to think that we only used half of the pig!
Heidi discovered the cracker recipe and did a post on it, here. They're not only good, they're relatively easy to make.
Art and Chel:
You are so generous. Those crackers can be addictive.
Also: based on the two double batches I made for supper club, I'd recommend buying a boatload of sesame seeds to have on hand as extras. I probably use half again the seed weight in sesame, just because I like the dough fully impregnated with them.
I grind my own rice flour in the java grinder now from organic brown rice. SO ENJOYED MEETING YOU!
Thanks much for the recipe link. And it was great to meet you too Heidi.
So these crackers appear to be (wheat) gluten free? I will be sure to pass this on to me mum!
The recipe calls for both white and wheat flour, but don't see why you couldn't swap those for non-gluten flours.
The crackers don't apparently need gluten to rise (like bread does), which I why I subbed rice flour for part of the gluten flour. Worth experimenting for gluten-free...
Post a Comment