Basic Breakfast Sausage

Adapted from “Home Sausage Making,” by Susan Mahnke Peery & Charles G. Reavis

• - 3 pounds ground pork
• - 1 tablespoon kosher or coarse salt
• - 1 1/2 teaspoons dried sage
• - 3/4 teaspoon freshly ground white or black pepper (fine grind)
• - 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• - 1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram
• - 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• - 1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper

In a large bowl, combine the ground pork and herbs, mixing thoroughly with your hands.

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Home-Cured Bacon

Adapted from “Charcuterie,” by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn, and “Well-Preserved,” by Eugenia Bone

Time: 2 hours, plus 7 to 8 days’ refrigeration

• - 2 1/2 pounds pork belly, rind removed
• - 2 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
• - 1/2 teaspoon pink salt, optional

FOR A SWEET CURE, ADD:

• - 1/4 cup maple syrup, or honey, brown sugar, white sugar or molasses
• - 2 tablespoons cold strong black coffee, bourbon or apple cider

FOR A SAVORY CURE, ALSO ADD:

• - 2 garlic cloves, smashed
• - 1 tablespoon black peppercorns, crushed
• - 2 teaspoons fresh thyme
• - 1 teaspoon fennel seed, toasted
• - 1 teaspoon coriander seed, toasted.

1. Place the pork belly in a large Ziploc bag. Add the salt (and pink salt if using) and the cure additions. Rub the cure into the pork belly, turning the bag over and over and pressing the cure into the flesh. Close the bag, squeezing out all the air and refrigerate for seven days. Each day, flip the bag over. Some liquid will begin to gather in the bag.

2. After seven days, wash the cure off the meat, rinsing thoroughly. Pat the bacon dry with paper towels and set it on a rack over a baking sheet. Allow the bacon to air-dry in the refrigerator for 6 to 24 hours.

3. Preheat the oven to 225 degrees. Roast the pork belly in the oven to an internal temperature of 150 degrees for about 90 minutes. Chill the bacon well, then slice thick or thin, to preference. Any bacon that doesn’t easily slice may be cut into chunks, for starting a pot of beans or soup. Wrapped in parchment paper, then wrapped in plastic wrap or foil and placed in a Ziploc bag, the bacon will keep for three weeks in the refrigerator and three months in the freezer.

Yield: About 2 pounds.

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Ham in Hay

Recipe by Fergus Henderson, The Whole Beast – Nose to Tail Eating.

Ingredients:
– a big bundle of hay (organic, for obvious reasons)
– 10 juniper berries
– 14 black peppercorns
– 10 cloves
– 6 bay leaves
– 1 whole fresh leg of pork with bone in; brined (see brine recipe below) for 12-14 days but not smoked (We’ve used this recipe on a 1/2 leg of pork and brined it for 6 days)

In a big pot make a base of hay, sprinkle on your spices and bay leaves, and lay the ham in your hay nest. Cover with more hay around and on top. Cover with water. Bring to a boil, then straightaway turn down to the gentlest simmer. Put a lid on and cook either in the oven or on top, making sure that it is not boiling too fast. Cook until tender all the way through (check by probing with a thin, sharp knife) for 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 hours. The hay is sadly not edible.

Serve with mashed rutabaga (if possible made with goose or duck fat). The pink ham and the orange rutabaga look like a sunset on a plate.

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Making a Brine

Recipe by Fergus Henderson, The Whole Beast – Nose to Tail Eating.
You can use this brine to preserve many meats including pork belly, beef brisket, bottom round, or tongue.

Ingredients:
– 2 cups superfine (caster) sugar
– 2 14 cups coarse sea salt
– 12 juniper berries
– 12 cloves
– black peppercorns
– 3 bay leaves
– 4 quarts water

Bring all the brine ingredients together in a pot, and bring to a boil so the sugar and salt melt. Decant into a container and allow to cool. When cold, add your meat, and leave it in the brine for the number of days required for your recipe.

Even though the brine is a preserving process, we are celebrating its flavor-enhancing properties, so just in case in these somewhat bacterially anxious days it is probably no bad thing to keep your brine and it’s contents in the fridge.

Some Briny Thoughts: Your brine bucket (made of a non-corrodible substance), kept in the fridge, will become a nurtured friend, whose character should improve with time and should give delicious results. Think of a corned beef sandwich. Your bucket makes a very useful holding tank if you are trying to amass some of the less readily available piggy parts – ears or tails, for example.

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The Very Best Thanksgiving Turkey Ever

Following this recipe will result in the juiciest, yummiest turkey you’ve ever eaten—especially if you use one of our turkeys. (Really truly. We’re not just saying this. People rave about this recipe!)

This recipe takes time, but it’s worth it. Be ready to plan ahead.

Overview

Here are the 5 basic steps in preparing and roasting your turkey.

1. Thaw your turkey. (This can take several days in the refrigerator if it’s a big turkey.)
2. Prepare your brine. (Turkey brine recipe below)
3. Brine turkey: about 1 hour per pound. (Brining enhances flavor.)
4. Slow roast your turkey in the oven: about 1 hour per pound at 180o. (Slow roasting retains juices, flavor, and nutrients.)
5. Cool for about 1 hour before carving.

Brine the Turkey

Begin this step Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning, depending on the size of your turkey.  Remember, allow about one hour per pound for brining plus one hour per pound for baking.

Remove the giblets from inside the turkey.

Mix up the following:

• 2 ½ gallons good water
• 2 cups kosher salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 bay leaves, torn into pieces
• 1 bunch fresh thyme (or 4 tablespoons dried)
• 1 whole head of garlic, cloves separated and peeled
• 5 whole allspice berries, crushed
• 4 juniper berries, smashed

Place the turkey in the brine and the whole thing into a refrigerator for 1 hour per pound of turkey.
(If you don’t have refrigerator space, try a cooler with ice surrounding the container. If you don’t have a large enough container, try a new plastic garbage bag inside of a cooler with ice.)

Baking the Turkey

Begin this step Wednesday afternoon/evening or early Thursday (Thanksgiving Day) morning, depending on the size of your turkey.

1. Remove turkey from the brine and pat it dry with paper towels.
2. Dispose of the brine.
3. Place turkey on a rack in a roasting pan and place in a 180 degree oven.  You don’t need to baste the turkey; the skin is all the cover the turkey needs while in the oven.
4. About 4 hours before your scheduled dinner time, check the temperature of the turkey with a meat thermometer.  You need to use your judgment here.  If it’s looking like it’s not going to reach temperature in time, increase the oven temperature.  I try to never turn the temperature up higher than 200 degrees.
5. About an hour before dinner, remove the turkey from the oven, cover with aluminum foil, and let it rest on the counter top.
6. Carve, serve, and be prepared for rave reviews!

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Using Giblets in Fantastic Ways

Giblets (neck, gizzard, heart & liver) are tucked inside your bird and provide wonderful flavors for appetizers and gravy.
When preparing to brine your bird, remove the giblets. If you decide not to brine the turkey, remove the giblets before baking it.

Reserve the liver for pate.

Put the neck, gizzard and heart in 6 to 8 cups of water in a sauce pan. Add:

• •    ¾ cup onion
• •    1-2 stalks of celery (leaves and all)
• •    ½  carrot
• •    1 bay leaf
• •    Some thyme leaves
• •    A little sage
• •    Dash of black pepper

Simmer for at least 4 hours. Strain broth and save for gravy. Retain the giblets and neck. Discard vegetables and seasonings.

Gizzard & heart pate

Here’s a pate for folks who don’t like liver. It’s easy and good.

1. Chop gizzard and heart, place in food processor or blender.
2. Sauté and caramelize a large onion in small amount of olive oil.
3. Add sautéed onion (equal in volume to heart/gizzard) to food processor.
4. Add ½ volume melted butter to food processor.
5. 1-2 Tbsp white wine, and blend.
6. Season with a few grains of ground clove, ¼ tsp smoked paprika, dash of black pepper, small clove garlic, and salt to taste.

Liver Pate

And here’s an easy, tasty pate for liver-lovers.

1. Over medium-low heat, add 1 – 2 Tbsp olive oil to sauté pan and sauté chopped sweet onions in volume equal to the volume of liver (livers vary in size).
2. When onions begin to caramelize, add chopped liver to pan and continue sautéing until liver is gently cooked through.
3. While still warm, transfer ingredients to a food processor. Add:
   •    1 – 2 Tbsp melted butter (or more if you have a very large liver)
   •    1-2 Tbsp white wine
   •    ¼ teaspoon thyme leaves
   •    Salt to taste
4. Blend thoroughly and transfer to a ramekin, smooth top and cover with clarified butter.
5. Chill, add sprig of thyme to top for decor and enjoy on crackers.

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