Charcuterie, smoking, curing, brining and all things porcine. Brought to you from deepest, darkest Cambs, England by Chris Bulow. In the smoker or in the kitchen....Salutate porcum!
Length: 6 mins Do I really want to go near religion in this piece? Especially at this time of year when the insanity reaches its annual crescendo and the twin obeisances towards both Mammon and bearded sky pixies seems unending ? Yeah, I… Read More »Pigs may eat crap; we shouldn’t treat them like shit…
Length: 5 mins For those of you of a certain age and British — especially if there are any of you still involved with horse trading or selling rams — that description will immediately sound some melodic chimes. Its significance may be slightly less… Read More »21 shillings…
Length: < 1 min Any guesses what this is? “Fresh blood black pudding mix” I hear someone shout? A round of applause to that lady in the back row. Correct! And something that most people won’t have seen (or even eaten) unless they have… Read More »Now THAT’S fresh!
Length: 2 mins Why not? They’re good with mirrors after all. But a Sarah Palin or David Cameron nightmare to haunt your dreams this isn’t, don’t worry. Scientists see the ability to understand how to use a mirror as a sign of complex… Read More »Lipstick on a pig?
Length: 3 mins “Craftsmanship is never unfashionable“. That statement is precisely on point, on so many levels and it was a comment I heard whilst listening to this recent fascinating BBC piece on Lobb shoes*. * (And at less than £4k a pair, that… Read More »Craftsmanship. Worth paying the price?
Length: 3 mins More plated servings of vom schnörrli, zum schwänzli goodness. And another reminder that meat doesn’t come pre-packed in styrofoam, brightly coloured, packaging; at least not naturally. Which is why I keep talking about offal, in all its mis-shapen and bizarre looking… Read More »Another helping of ‘internals’ from Fergus H (and others)…
Length: < 1 min But some of us (inc. yours truly) are more infatuated than others… Tom Adams — star of Pitt Cue and Coombeshead Farm amongst others — rhapsodises about them and they’re served on the menu at the new Pitt Cue near… Read More »We all love our Mangalitsas
Length: < 1 min No, not some bearded sky pilot or religious pixie voices talking in your head, shit, but instead the basis for so many great cuisines around the world. We first came across the phrase being used in its cookery sense when… Read More »The Holy Trinity
Length: 4 mins I’ve mentioned before the Tripe Marketing Board. Instrumental in helping to make people love the “not so nasty” bits, as April Bloomfield memorably calls them, they existed as an organisation in England in the 50s and 60s. Tripe was a… Read More »Let’s hear it for the “The Lard Information Council”!
Length: 2 mins The female equivalent of the sainted Fergus Henderson has to be April Bloomfield who, apart from him, has perhaps done more than any other chef to promote nose-to-tail cooking and eating. And the front cover of her “A girl and her… Read More »A girl and her (many) pigs
Length: 2 mins A question asked (possibly apocryphally) by a Sgt Daniel Daley of his fellow US Marines. As I’m guessing not too many of you are likely to have to do that same fighty, killy fellow humans, type of things as he, instead, how… Read More »“Come on, you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?”
Length: 3 mins How about both sides winning? Or at least, between them, can agree to an honourable draw? I’m continually reading — when not eating — looking to get as much new information as I can find on this whole food thing;… Read More »In the battle of idealism v. pragmatism, who wins? Or how do we scale sustainability?
Length: < 1 min “Nothing to hide, nothing to fear” The exact origin of the phrase is unknown, but it’s commonly attributed to Goebbels – who was the Nazi minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. And quoted by Tory MPs when supporting the disastrous… Read More »Publish and be hammed.
Length: 2 mins I told you before how smart are pigs. Smart enough apparently to cure King Bladud back in the 9th century BCE. According to the historian Geoffrey of Monmouth, Bladud was the eldest son of the legendary King Lud (Lud Hurdibras)… Read More »A cure for leprosy? And a baby for the bard.
Length: 5 mins Or, as the Swiss saying goes — the equivalent of our own “nose to tail” — “vom schnörrli zum schwänzli”. I’ve banged on about this before (and no doubt will again in the future) but everything from the pig is edible… Read More »A truly offal project: from the oink, via the feet to the tail
Length: < 1 min Here is an ancient Greek memorial to a pig killed in a traffic accident. The poor pig is praised as “Everybody’s Friend”… I’m not 100% sure what breed this is however.
Length: 2 mins Before I get into this latest post, just a reminder that the very lovely & hard working people at Crisis, the homeless helping charity, need your money, day in, day out, to help their clients, the (expanding in numbers) homeless… Read More »Blades of glory (or tools of the trade)
Length: < 1 min Two beautifully observed & executed pieces; again, there aren’t many pictures devoted to women butchers. Camille Pissarro, The Pork Butcher (1883) Edouard-Jean Dambourgez, A Pork Butcher’s Shop (French, 1844-1890)
