The Whole Hog!

Do you know where your pork comes from? I mean like really and truly? And don’t say a pig because that just makes you a smart ass and don’t say the grocery store because that just makes you a- well I’ll try to keep my judgin’ pants off.

As many of you know, I was a long time vegetarian until I moved to Italy to go to culinary school. I decided to eat meat there for the educational and cultural value as well as the fact that I appreciated the relationship and connection to the animals that is possible. (Do I need a ladder for this high horse?)

“Blah, blah, blah,” I’m sure you’re thinking. Another militant PETA crazy. But wait. This story ends with hacksaws and intestines and flesh peeling off boiled faces. I’m not some tree hugging, tofu eating (it is delicious though), condemn your lifestyle vegan. No, I just like to know that whatever I’m eating was happy and healthy and to be able to look it in the eye before I shove it in my mouth kind of guy.

Enter Dai Due, Jesse and Tamara, the awesome Austin couple who’s bringing us all things local and delicious. These guys run a dinner club that hosts parties every week or so at farms or private homes here in town.

They are usually themed by some sort of seasonal ingredient or animal and they work hard to procure all of the fixin's from within a few hundred miles. Jesse (an Italian trained chef) is so serious about it that he says he’s giving up olive oil for pecan oil because he can’t find a reliable local e.v.o.o. supplier. That’s hardcore.

In addition to dinners, Dai Due occasionally hosts instructional classes on a variety of food related topics. Specifically, every late fall/early winter Jesse does a hog butchering class. Remember now kids, slaughtering and butchering are different. Slaughtering is the one with all the blood and squealing. It’s also the one tightly regulated by the FDA so just the butchering for us thanks.

Our lovely half a hog came from a fantastic family farm in Kemp, Texas called Full Quiver. Some of you may recognize the name from the Discovery show Fourteen Children and Pregnant Again. Mike Sams and his family, who run Full Quiver farms are part of the Quiverfull movement; a Christian branch that eschews birth control and aggressively condones procreation.

That being said, the Sams make wonderful cheese. As a bonus, they use the leftover whey from the dairy production to feed/fatten their hogs – just like the Parmesan makers do in Parma. Can you say “intramuscular marbling!”?

The day started off at the Dragonfly House, a lovely and modern home located in a beautiful part of East Austin. Eight exuberant folks showed up for the class. We began with some basic pig talk and then moved on to a much needed anatomy lesson. All those muscley bits and bone parts can get confusing if you’re not used to seeing them in their original unshrink-wrapped locations.

The first thing to go was the head. Jesse and Chris (another helpful chef) sawed it off and put it in a large stockpot with various herbs and spices in preparation for making a delightful headcheese (we have got to come up with a better label for that folks. I think it’s delicious but even little old me feels a bit queasy if I dwell on the name too long.)

Next, we removed the kidney and the tenderloin and set them aside. Then off with the ham or hind leg as it were. Then we moved onto the bacon; carefully removing belly from ribs in one large fatty piece. The bacon immediately got a dry cure of salt, sugar and spices and got slapped into an ice chest.

This is probably an appropriate time to mention that all of the work we were doing on this animal wasn’t purely for show. The next day there was to be a large dinner party where we and about 30 other pig aficionados could gorge ourselves on the meats of our labor.

Ok, after the bacon Jesse skillfully filleted out the loin. This is the part that pork chops are traditionally cut from, but apparently you need a band saw or some such to do it properly. Lacking our shop class tools, the loin made its way into a large icy brine to await further instructions.

At this point, Jesse broke out the meat grinder from the freezer (don’t underestimate the need for cold when you start cranking pieces of pig through fast moving metal.) The first item up for particularization was the leaf fat- the softer fat that lines the abdominal cavity. This went into a large cast iron Dutch oven to be rendered for lard.

Following the fat fun, we went to work breaking down the shoulder and the hind leg. Now normally, you would cure or smoke the ham, but we were in need of an abnormal amount of sausages so the leg got the slightly less traditional treatment.

Some of the mixed leg/shoulder meat and a healthy dose of fat went into a pot for the making rillettes, that delicious French porky spread. Some went towards a delightful pate and the rest was divided up to make several different kinds of sausages.

We started with a spicy and tangy chorizo- this is Texas after all.

Meanwhile we boiled some more meat and a few organs for a Cajun style boudin. Boudin is one of the few sausages that is actually cooked before you pack it into the casings. It also happens to be one of the yummiest. Boudin is po’ folk food and is traditionally made with a lot of rice as a filler. So when the meat was done, we used the leftover liquid to cook the grains and soak up all that additional flavor- genius I tell you.

Next was a poblano sausage that Jesse wanted to make because he had just come into a surplus of fabulous peppers. It seemed like a good idea and damn it if it didn’t actually turn out to be one too.

At this point in the festivities a break was in order. After all that pig choppin’ a man deserves a decent glass of wine or two. And possibly some cheese. And fruit. And maybe some buffalo jerky…with local candied pecans. But nothing else. And honey.

As a quick note, both of the cheeses were wonderful. The cheddar was from Full Quiver and the Blue (which is really, really good) is from Veldhuizen Family Farm in Dublin, TX. Buy them both.

After our well earned down time, we all meandered back inside for the finishing touches. First order of business: boiled pig face.

It was done and all of the meat needed to come off. There is a surprising amount of meat on a hog’s head, including some seriously succulent cheek meat- the same stuff that makes guanciale for you bacon lovers out there.

When all the removable parts had been removed we shifted over to stuffin’ some more snawsages.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t hang around to finish off the headcheese (who the hell came up with that name?!) because the liquid had to reduce to get the right gelatin proportions. I remained undeterred though as the class was awesome and copious samplings of everything would be had the next evening at the Dai Due dinner/feast hosted at the lovely and amazing Rain Lily Farms! Stay tuned for details.

Props to Jesse and Tamara and Big Thanks to Chris for all y’alls hard work spreading the eat-local-and-love-it gospel!

-L. Pants

Comments

[auntie]

Wow. Ewww. Amazing. Horrifying.

Get Basic Cable.

ap

[Sue]

That is dedication to the the cause if ever I saw it. I admire that and I totally agree with making a conscious decision to eat meat. If you want to eat, you have to be able to kill it, eat it on the bone and stare an animal in the eye and know its steak. Its a big responsibility and one that I am a lil scared of. I try where possible to eat organic and free range. Its still no guarantee that the animal had a good life but its a start. Maybe I should just go back to being vegetarian!

Thanks, auntie? Hey, it's a good thing. And we're going the Netflix route instead of basic cable for the time being.

Sue, I'm still not sure I could look an animal in the eye and kill it... Husbear says he could. It certainly is a big responsibility trying to eat sustainably and healthfully in the age of huge agribusiness; we've made a decision to buy all our meat from the farmers' market. We may not be able to stick to this always (no fish at the farmers' markets here, and very little duck) but at least we feel like we're helping a little.

[adam]

i would have never guessed that you were (once) a veg logan. going from sprouted grains, smugness and tofu (which is delicious) to simmered hogs head and dressed up offal is an achievement i applaud. where does one go to sign up for next years class?

[Boots in the Oven]

I know, Adam! He was a vegetarian for 10 years. I think it's not too much of a stretch for him to go straight to offal, since a good portion of the reason he turned veg was because of factory farming.

Dai Due has classes going on fairly often - next one's chicken in January. Here's their website: http://www.daidueaustin.com/