Comments on: Pork Fat Orgy

By: Ed

Ed — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 00:59:38 +0000

Hank, Wonderful site! I’ve been reading Charcuterie and making stuff since Christmas. I ran across your site and discovered you were in Sacramento, as am I. Wonderful surprise, as you provided me with a great source of pork.

By: hank

hank — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:46:39 +0000

Jon W. Why can’t you carry out the whole hog? I’d suggest getting a linen or muslin game bag from a sporting goods store and putting the pieces in that.

By: jon w

jon w — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 22:11:16 +0000

I’ve deboned a few wild pigs in my day, but I need some education. I usually take home the shoulder and front legs with bone, and also the tenderloin and the rear legs without bone. As well as the liver, kidneys and heart. So I recently got a nice adolescent pig that lived in an old macadamia orchard, and was so impressed with his fat that I hope to be coming back for his neighbors, and see what mac nut fat on a pig tastes like. What’s the best way to save the back and belly fat of a wild pig, given that I can’t carry out the whole body? Assuming I cut off the fattest areas of skin, and roll it up somehow to avoid getting the inside dirty, what happens at home? I tried barbers clippers, but that chokes up on the thick hair and then leaves stubble. I know you can boil and scrape, but it’s hard to do when the skin is already cut up. Any ideas on the optimal way to do this.?

By: hank

hank — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:44:59 +0000

Hey Bill (and anyone else who is interested): John Bledsoe operates his orders mostly via email, so drop him a note if you want his most excellent pork:

jrbledsoe AT sbcglobal DOT net

By: Bill

Bill — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 09:03:50 +0000

I’m just ‘over the hill’ from you in Carson City. Any chance you’d share the contact info for John Bledsoe?

You have one fantastic site here. I surfed in here from Cowtown Cop and it looks like I’m going to be spending a lot of time here!

By: KathyG

KathyG — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:11:37 +0000

Oh man I love your blog. Not only is your writing great, but the commentors are a kick in the pants. Shoot, I’ve been reading too many tame gardening blogs. But no more! On to pork fat and paprika. I’ve made my own paprika for years, but no more smugness — I can see I’m just a lightweight. Must resurrect childhood fishing pole from attic and cultivate a local organic meat grower for Beyond Beef.
Dude, I am so dedicated a reader from here on out!

By: Scott

Scott — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 22:00:32 +0000

Hey, Hank. I’ve had issues with the binding as well. I’ve found that the issue is not directly related with the starter so much as the food FOR the starter, i.e, dextrose. I find between .5%-.6% dextrose/total meat weight, and .09% starter/total meat weight works pretty consistently.

Scott

By: matt wright

matt wright — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:44:53 +0000

YUM. LOVE pork fat. I second you on the terrible quality of supermarket pork fat, or just pork in general really.

The River Cottage Cookbook is really great – a lot more diverse than the meat book, but doesn’t have such lofty weight to the writing. Both are really great books in my opinion, but I have learnt a lot more from the meat book.

By: hank

hank — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:00:58 +0000

Brady: I have a standard smoker with an offset firebox. I put a load of ice cubes in the drip pan to cool the smoking chamber down. Works OK, but I cannot do a legit cold smoke outside of December to February.

Rob: There are TONS of recipes here your wife won’t eat…

WeAreNeverFull: First, I’m with you on the pork fat thing. It makes life better.

Second, I’m with NTSC on the supermarket fatback: DO NOT use it — like I said in the recipe, factory hogs are full of hormones and antibiotics and other nasties, and a lot of that lodges in the fat. What’s more, the fat of a factory hog will be thin and chewy and tasteless. Why would you want to highlight that through curing?

So sadly, this is a case of you get what you pay for: Find high quality fatback before making lardo.

NTSC: I have the River Cottage Meat Book. It’s one of my faves. Their fish book isn’t very useful, though, as it focuses on fish that live in the UK. River Cottage Cookbook is supposed to be good, as E. Nassar says.