Charcutepalooza Month 12: Procrastipalooza

Well, we did it. Twelve months of Charcuterie.

I would love to say that I have some great words of wisdom to impart, huge lessons learned, tales of mystery and meat, but I took away something pretty basic from this last year.

Cured meat isn't so scary after all.

I've hung duck breasts over my baby's crib, started fires in my apartment (on purpose! Helloooo All State!), and had one or two tremendously gross failures (I'm looking at you mortadella, get your meat stench out of my house!), but all in all this was very good fun.

One thing I knew about Charcuterie already, that it was a sort of magical alchemy taking the humble to the sublime - is nowhere more evident than in this, my last post. I did manage to hit up the market on my way home, opting to check out Agata & Valentina on the way to daycare. They had the chicken livers I needed but when I asked the guy at the counter for pork shoulder he demurred, "It's too fatty for our regular customers, it doesn't sell." He then tried to sell me rib chops. I told him I was making sausage. He said, "Well, we have the pork already ground, why not take that?" (Would I ever have been having this conversation 13 months ago? Probably not.)

So, I did the sensible thing. I left the fancy grocery store and headed up home to Spanish Harlem, baby in tow. My local market, a truly humble place, had everything I required. Chicken livers for $1.69/pound. A lovely bone-in pork shoulder for just under $8. Garlic for $3.99.

What I thought would take hours took Rob and me about an hour all told. We prepped the garlic and set it to a slow simmer in a veritable lake of olive oil. Sweated an onion in some butter and added liver, thyme, cognac and seasoning. I de-boned my final pork shoulder of Charcutepalooza (of 4) and diced it, grinding it together with garlic, bunches of sage, ginger, pepper and salt to make a half recipe of bulk sausage which yielded three lovely rolls of sausage for the freezer and a patty for now. What could have seemed daunting one year ago was easy. It was comfortable. It eased me into my evening.

So, thank you to Kim and Cathy for this inspiring idea. It's been quite a journey. I've conquered my fear of the botch. We've cured our own bacon, made chorizo, duck prosciutto and corned beef. We smoked a pork loin using a wok, some tin foil and a grate (it's like Breaking Bad! with pig products!). I'm so grateful to them for giving so many of us the push we needed to take a step we wanted.

What's next ladies? Brewstock? Cheesefest? Burning Can?

I'll fire up the van and grab my love beads. I'd follow you two girls anywhere.