{"id":6294,"date":"2019-02-03T15:20:54","date_gmt":"2019-02-03T22:20:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/villasentieri.com\/?p=6294"},"modified":"2023-04-26T17:03:31","modified_gmt":"2023-04-27T00:03:31","slug":"calabria-dispatch-8-pig-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/2019\/02\/03\/calabria-dispatch-8-pig-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Calabria Dispatch #8: Pig Week"},"content":{"rendered":"

February 3, 2019<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The pig arrived on Sunday in the back of a van (well, actually it was a pig and a half).<\/p>\n

\"\"
Lifting half a pig out of the van<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The pigs were raised by a local family that also has a restaurant.\u00a0 They were fed restaurant scraps (really good food) and finished with hazelnuts and chestnuts for the last three weeks or so.\u00a0 Hazelnuts and chestnuts are plentiful here.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Carrying half a pig down the steps to the school<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Each half-pig weighed about 165 pounds.\u00a0 Getting to the school from the nearest access point for a vehicle involves at least one staircase.\u00a0 Getting a 165-pound side of pig down a staircase is a group effort requiring strength and coordination.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Cooking frischilimiti and eggs<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The pigs went into our walk-in cooler to await class on Monday.<\/p>\n

In addition to the 13 of us who are on this three-month odyssey of Italian Regional Cuisine, we were joined by 5 additional students for Pig Week.\u00a0 We refer to them as the Pig People.\u00a0 Apparently, we will also be joined by Gelato People, Conserve People, and Cheese People for a week each, during the remaining 10 weeks.\u00a0 That leaves about seven weeks where it\u2019s just the 13 of us.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think we\u2019re joined by any Alcohol People for our week of mixology and distilling.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Things we made from our pigs<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On Monday, January 28th, Chef John demonstrated how to butcher a pig into the primal cuts for processing into traditional Italian salumi (plus discussing a few variations on the cuts based on the objectives of the person doing the butchering).\u00a0 Afterwards the other two half-pigs were brought into the kitchen for us to butcher.\u00a0 I have three pages of (sometimes cryptic) notes on how Chef butchered the pig.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Chef John demonstrates how to butcher a pig<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But first, of course, we had to taste.\u00a0 We tasted at least seven different cured meats, all but one of them made at the school.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Cured meats ready for tasting before we start butchering pigs<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After being butchered into primal cuts, several large cuts were salted as part of the initial cure.\u00a0 These included:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Pancetta Rotolo (rolled pancetta)<\/li>\n
  2. Pancetta Tesa (flat pancetta)<\/li>\n
  3. (American) Bacon<\/li>\n
  4. Capocollo<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    \"\"
    The first course for Monday’s dinner: ‘nduja-stuffed potato puree on caciocavallo fonduta<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    Chef wanted to completely disinfect the kitchen so we didn\u2019t prepare dinner that evening.\u00a0 Instead we went to La Tavernetta<\/a>, the restaurant in the hotel on the same property as the school, for dinner.\u00a0 It was a special event with one table full of local chefs and us at another table.\u00a0 The meal was intended to highlight three versions of a local stewed trip dish, Morzello di Catanzaro, each flavored with a different hot pepper.\u00a0 The first course, was an \u2018nduja-stuffed potato puree on top of caciocavallo fonduta.\u00a0 Then came three courses of stewed trip served inside of bread.\u00a0 After the second, Mariana asked that we just get the stew, minus the bread, for the third round as the bread was not getting eaten (much of the tripe was not getting eaten either but that\u2019s a different matter).\u00a0 The meal finished with pistachio gelato on cr\u00e8me anglaise, topped with melted chocolate.<\/p>\n

    \"\"
    One of three servings of Morzello di Catanzaro (stewed tripe), each made with a different hot pepper<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    On Tuesday, we continued with making:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Franken-Fileto [see below]<\/li>\n
    2. Guanciale (cured pork jowl)<\/li>\n
    3. Porchetta [see below]<\/li>\n
    4. Pickled Pork (like corned beef but made with pork)<\/li>\n
    5. Lardo (a yummy slab of cured pork fat\u2014similar to salt pork but better\u2014not to be confused with rendered \u201clard\u201d which is called strutto in Italian)<\/li>\n
    6. Prosciuttino (similar to prosciutto but smaller as the weather in Calabria is not conducive to curing an entire ham)<\/li>\n
    7. Speck<\/li>\n
    8. Tonno del Chianti<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      \"\"
      Another of the half pigs comes into the kitchen for us to butcher<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

      Butchering a pig for Italian Artisan Salumi (salumi is the Italian word that is equivalent to the French word charcuterie) creates a whole new perspective.\u00a0 In the States, cuts like the loin and tenderloin are among the most expensive.\u00a0 When purchasing a whole pig, every part of the pig costs as much as every other.\u00a0 The most valuable cuts for curing are not the loin and tenderloin because they are too lean.\u00a0 Much of those cuts ended up being made into sausage!<\/p>\n

      \"\"
      Tommy removing the jowl to be cured into guanciale<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

      One of the tenderloins was turned into a Frankenstein version of a cured meat (Franken-Fileto).\u00a0 The loin was carefully butterflied and topped with a layer of fatback that was pounded thin.\u00a0 The combination, about 80% tenderloin and 20% fat, was salted for curing, tightly rolled in plastic wrap for shape, and hung in the refrigerator for 48 hours before being, unwrapped, tied and hung in the hanging room.<\/p>\n

      \"\"
      Michael pounding fatback to make a Franken-Fileto<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

      Traditional Porchetta is made from a whole suckling pig with the bones removed.\u00a0 Porchetta-style roasts abound in Italy.\u00a0 The one we made consisted of a slab of pork belly (the cut from which bacon and pancetta are made) rolled around the loin, tied, and roasted for hours.\u00a0 Traditional seasonings include garlic, rosemary and fennel.\u00a0 Chef opted to slater the meat, before rolling, with a massive quantity of pureed truffles.\u00a0 [We have consumed an obscene quantity of fresh truffles since starting this course.] \u00a0The Porchetta went into the fridge to be pulled out for dinner on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

      \"\"
      Chef Juan ready to carve porchetta filled with truffles<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

      Chef got creative and demonstrated the production of Rabbit Porchetta using 20 rabbit bellies and rabbit fat (remember the rabbits we butchered with stone knives<\/a>?).\u00a0 The Rabbit-chetta was cooked sous vide, then chilled, smoked, and brushed with maple syrup (OK, so it\u2019s not Italian but it was good!)\u00a0 He also made a Lamb-chetta from four lamb bellies that ended up being served as a snack of Lamb and Eggs a few days later.<\/p>\n

      \"\"
      Lamb and Eggs, another mid-morning snack, made with Lamb-chetta<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

      Dinner was at a local pizzeria as the kitchen, once again, needed to be sanitized.<\/p>\n

      Wednesday started with a lecture on the science of meat curing by Chef Juan.\u00a0 Other than herbs and spices for flavoring, the only product used at the school to cure meat is salt.\u00a0 Absolutely no nitrates or nitrites are added.<\/p>\n

      \"\"
      Chef Juan and Maria filling casings to make soppressata<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

      The previous days as we were butchering the pigs, anything not destined for a specific purpose was put into one of two piles labelled Bollito #1 and Bollito #2.\u00a0 Bollito simply means boiled.\u00a0 Bollito #1 contained bones (like ribs) with some meat attached.\u00a0 Bollito #2 contained all the other bits and pieces (specks of meat, gristle, silver skin, fat that wasn\u2019t good for sausage making, etc.).\u00a0 These were all soaked for a day in cold water in the fridge and then boiled\u2026and boiled\u2026and boiled.\u00a0 The head and ears were also boiled.<\/p>\n

      \"\"
      Capocollo is first salted and cured at room temperature before being coated with red pepper and hung to age<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

      Bones with meat attached (like ribs), from Bollito #1, were served with some broth, salsa verde, and bread as a snack!\u00a0 The fat skimmed off the top of all the bollito pots was turned into strutto (lard).\u00a0 Bits of meat from the head were turned into \u2018nduja or coppa di testa (head cheese).\u00a0 Any remaining bits became frischilimiti.\u00a0 The broth was concentrated to make gelatin.<\/p>\n

      \"\"
      Bollito with salsa verde<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

      Frischilimiti (all those tiny bits of cooked pork) were crisped in a saut\u00e9 pan with lard (of course, being pig week), eggs were nestled on top and when appropriately cooked, served as a morning snack with cotechino and bread.<\/p>\n

      \"\"
      A mid-morning snack of frischilimiti and eggs with cotechino and bread<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

      The rest of Wednesday was devoted to seasoning batches of meat for our cured salami and fresh sausage.\u00a0 The cured salami included:<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Salsiccia (which is cured and not served fresh)<\/li>\n
      2. Sopressata<\/li>\n
      3. Salame Napoli<\/li>\n
      4. Salame Brianza<\/li>\n
      5. Salame Gentile<\/li>\n
      6. Ciauscolo<\/li>\n
      7. Salame Milano<\/li>\n
      8. Salame Fabriano<\/li>\n
      9. Salame Felino<\/li>\n
      10. Strolghino<\/li>\n
      11. Lucanica<\/li>\n
      12. Salame di Mugnano<\/li>\n
      13. Tartufo<\/li>\n
      14. Cotechino<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
        \"\"
        Ciauscolo tied and ready to age:\u00a0 my first attempt at basket-tying.<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

        After those were made, the 18 of us were set free to each make a fresh sausage of our choosing.\u00a0 Mine was 75% lean pork and 25% fat, seasoned with hot red Calabrian pepper, sweet red Calabrian pepper, coarsely ground black pepper, fennel seed, garlic, and red wine.<\/p>\n

        \"\"
        Salami ready to be hung to age<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

        Making salami is serious business.\u00a0 There is no approximating the proportion of fat and lean.\u00a0 When butchering we separated completely the meat and fat.\u00a0 These were then recombined in specific proportions based on the requirements of each recipe.<\/p>\n

        Thursday started off with Chef continuing the bacon that had been salted three days earlier.\u00a0 The salt and sweet mixture (different for each) was washed off with some sort of alcohol.\u00a0 The one cured with salt and brown sugar was washed in Jack Daniels, smoked over chestnut wood, then glazed with maple syrup.\u00a0 The salt and white sugar one was rinsed with Amaretto, smoked over pistachio shells, and glazed with a concentrated coffee syrup.\u00a0 The salt and honey cured one was rinsed in brandy, smoked over chestnut wood, and glazed with honey.\u00a0 Each was put in the fridge where they would stay, uncovered, for about a week to allow the glaze to crystallize.\u00a0 At that point they could be used or vacuum packed and kept in the fridge for up to six months.<\/p>\n

        \"\"
        Speck being coated with black pepper before aging<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

        The speck was rinsed in grappa, coated with finely ground black pepper, smoked, then put in netting to be hung and aged before use.<\/p>\n

        On the spur of the moment, mid-morning, Chef took some of the concentrated liquid from Bollito #2, mixed it with orange-zest-infused 97.5% alcohol and some sugar, to make \u201cJello\u201d shots.\u00a0 These went in the fridge and appeared at dinner on Saturday.<\/p>\n

        \"\"
        Tonno del Chianti, boiled pork packed in olive oil with herbs and aromatics<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

        Chef then made Tonno del Chianti which means Tuna from Chianti.\u00a0 It is a well-known and beloved pork product that resembles oil-packed tuna.\u00a0 When butchering the pigs, we carefully removed the flap meat.\u00a0 This was boiled in a mixture of half vinegar and half water abundantly flavored with onions and bay leaves until fork tender then cooled in the cooking liquid.\u00a0 It was packed into jars with seasonings and either covered with extra-virgin olive oil or the cooking liquid and processed in a boiling water bath.\u00a0 We tasted some Tonno del Chianti from the previous production.\u00a0 I am most definitely making this stuff!!!<\/p>\n

        \"\"
        Chef Juan expertly grilling our sausages for dinner<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

        The rest of the day was spent stuffing all the salami and our personal sausages.\u00a0 The ground pork that was left after each of us took our portion for sausage the previous day had been seasoned for soppressata; nearly 20 pounds of it!\u00a0 A few of us assisted Maria, one of the dishwashers, stuff it into large intestine, as is traditional.\u00a0 Although Maria\u2019s job is to wash everything and keep the kitchen tidy, she is an expert at curing meat.\u00a0 A warm, caring and wonderful person she feels like a grandmother though she\u2019s a decade younger than I am.\u00a0 Apparently, she and her sister kill, butcher, and cure four pigs every year\u2014all within about a week!\u00a0 I cannot imagine how they do this.\u00a0 It took four days for 18 of us, not counting staff, to do a pig and a half.<\/p>\n

        \"\"
        In the hanging room, Chef Juan and Maria light olive branches to create a light smoke which acts as another preservative<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

        We went to the hanging room to hang the meats that were ready.\u00a0 Some need to be kept under refrigeration or cured at a warmer temperature before hanging.\u00a0 Cured meats are given a light smoking two or three times a day for the first four days, or so, after hanging.\u00a0 They do not taste smoky but the smoke acts as another preservative.<\/p>\n

        Friday morning we went to the mercatino.\u00a0 Friday afternoon saw the production of Coppa di Testa (head cheese) and \u2018Nduja.\u00a0 We tasted several different versions of head cheese made a few weeks earlier, all were very good and quite different from anything I\u2019ve had in the States.\u00a0 The best thing made with all the \u201cbits\u201d was \u2018nduja.\u00a0 \u2018Nduja is a spicy, spreadable salame.\u00a0 Chef\u2019s version is approximately 1\/3 cooked meat (mostly from the head), 1\/3 raw fatback, and 1\/3 Calabrian red chile (both a \u201cpaste\u201d that resembles tomato paste as well as dried in powdered form).\u00a0 Everything is stuffed into a casing and hung to age.<\/p>\n

        \"\"
        Tonno del Chianti on a dinner buffet<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

        Chef Juan made blood sausage and bratwurst.\u00a0 Neither was particularly Italian, though Italians do make blood sausages.\u00a0 Both were great.\u00a0 The blood sausage was revelatory!\u00a0 With the main part of class over for the day, several of us stuck around to complete \u201cmaintenance\u201d of salumi that had been started earlier in the week.<\/p>\n

        \"\"
        Capocollo ready to be hung for aging<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

        That evening dinner consisted of all fresh the sausages that we had made, expertly grilled by Chef Juan, and an array of accompaniments.<\/p>\n

        \"\"
        Spaghetti alla Carbonara made with duck bacon cured and smoked at the school<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

        With Pig Week over, Menu Planning and Execution, our next adventure, was scheduled to start on Saturday at 11 AM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        February 3, 2019 The pig arrived on Sunday in the back of a van (well, actually it was a pig and a half). The pigs were raised by a local family that also has a restaurant.\u00a0 They were fed restaurant scraps (really good food) and finished with hazelnuts and chestnuts for the last three weeks … Continue reading Calabria Dispatch #8: Pig Week<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","wpupg_custom_link":[],"wpupg_custom_link_behaviour":["default"],"wpupg_custom_link_nofollow":[],"wpupg_custom_image":[],"wpupg_custom_image_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[363],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people-and-places"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6294"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7415,"href":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6294\/revisions\/7415"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}