Pork Butchery

There is nothing more primal than butchery. To understand where the animal comes from, every cut, every dish, is cooking at it`s purest. If you truly understand where your food comes from, you should understand that nothing should be wasted. It`s the understanding that an animal gave up its life for a meal and it behooves us to ensure it`s welfare and to not waste a single part of the creature.

I chose the pork course at Northwest Culinary school simply because I felt that it was a good sized animal to work with. Anything larger would be unwieldy while anything smaller would not yield quite as many interesting cuts.

Recipes

Tourtiere

Stuffing

1 tbs oil
1/2 diced medium onion
500 g lean gorund pork
1 tsp allspice
2 tbs flour
1/3 cup milk
salt and pepper to taste
1 large potato, cut into medium dice

Pastry

11/2 cups flour
150 g cubed, chilled butter
1/2 t salt
75 ml, cold water

Method

Pastry

1. Whisk flour and salt
2. cut cold butter into flour until pea sized
3. incorporate enough cold water to bind
4. wrap and rest in fridge

Tourtiere

1. Cook meat and onion, add flour to form a roux. Add milk and simmer for 5 -10 minutes, season
2. Add cubed potato and cook covered until tender
3. Cool mixture, fill pie, close lid
4. Bake at 400 degrees F until golder brown

Wiener Schnitzel

Pork or Veal
breadcrumbs
eggs, whisked
flour
salt and pepper

1. pound slices of pork until thin
2. season with salt and peper
3. dip in flour
4. dip in eggs
5. dip in breadcrumbs
6. Pan fry in a pan with about 1/2 inch of oil until golden brown

Pate or Terrine

2 Tbs Pistachios, chopped
1 egg
2 tsp flour
1 tsp salt
Qautre Epice as needed

Quatre Epice
1 cup ground black pepper
3 tbs ground cloves
5 tbs ground ginger
5 tbs ground nutmeg

Forcemeat
1 kg cubed pork 30% fat
70 ml Brandy
1 tbs quatre epics
1/2 diced onion
3 diced garlic cloves
1 tbs fresh thyme

1. Rub spices into pork, add brandy and marinate overnight
2. sweat onion and garlic in fat with thyme, cool and add to cubed pork
3. grind mixture in food processor
4. emulsify meat and keep cool

Recipe

1. Mix egg and flour into a paste
2. add 1 kg forcemeat, pistachios, egg, flour and salt
3. pack mixture in terrine and bake at 350 F until it reached 140 F
4. Cool and press pate overnight with cans