Guanciale is like bacon or pancetta, only better: It’s made from the jowl of a hog, not its belly. And, like most charcuterie, what kind of hog you get your jowls from makes all the difference.

A hearty stew with homemade linguica, white beans and real Portuguese cabbage inspired by the caldo verde eaten in the Azores.

I live in California’s Central Valley, home to one of the nation’s largest Portuguese-American communities. Linguica is their national sausage, and I thought it high time I made some.

And you thought bacon was a Western thing, didn’t you? Not so. In fact, this Chinese bacon might be my favorite style yet…

Wanted to pick up some tips on how to butcher a pig? Or how to get more out of your wild game? Come to the Sportsmen’s Expo in Sacramento this weekend, where I’ll be doing demos.

A duck hunting trip on the San Francisco Bay was radically different from the sort of duck hunting we normally do. But it was a thrilling experience matched by the challenge of cooking sea ducks.

Canada geese get a bad rap. Sky carp. Stinky, arrogant hissing birds. Yeah, Canadas can be nasty. But cooking a real, wild, Canada goose offers pleasures other waterfowl simply lack.

For me, charcuterie is the endgame of every successful hunt, but each animal needs a different treatmeant: sausages, cured whole cuts, salami, etc. This is what I did with my deer from Catalina.

While I won the Best Blog award from the International Assn. of Culinary Professionals last week, the conference – especially a French butchery seminar – showed me how much I need to learn.