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Joined: Sep 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
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WW notes that the recipe says that brawn made of a pig's head is "seasonable from September to March."
Somewhere in Jeffrey L. Steingarten's second book -- It Must've Been Something I Ate: The Return of the Man Who Ate Everything, he relates a trip to Paris to witness the slaughter of a 400-pound pig, the collection of its blood and the creation (and canning) of the perfect boudin noir. In the essay, he mentions that pigs are properly killed only in the winter in France. Why this is true, he does not disclose.
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Joined: Oct 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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black pudding, is a fine accompiment to eggs over easy, and brown bread (hot from the oven)--it one of a few meal i eat that i actually think taste good with a cuppa, (and not breakfast coffee)
in times past, pigs (which need to be dipped in a vat of boiling water, in order to loosen the skin) were only slaughtered in winter months, because the meat tasted best, and 'cured' best if it was rapidly chilled after the 'blanching'--nature provide the cooling, not a refriderated slaughter house. it was 'hot work' to dress a pig, and best done in cool weather.
and hams (if they were only salt preserved, and not salted and cooked with low heat (smoking) need to be keep cool for a few weeks in order to be properly preserved.
most european 'ham' is cured, but not cooked. USDA requires hams to be cooked as well as salt cured.
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Joined: Sep 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
Hogs were slaughtered on Granddaddy's farm to the south of our own in late autumn. Piggy proceeds were hung in the smokehouse, a wonder of a dark place that I visited often as a child, huge slabs of bacon and all sorts of hams hanging in smoked display from the rafters. It was a house of plenty that never looked empty to me. Pig slaughter was religiously kept from the grandbabies' eyes. I never witnessed the event, thank God. It ripped my heart in two to occasionally witness the catching and killing of a chicken by my docile, lovely, darling Granny. I heard that Teresa Kerry had performed the same vile act, and I must conclude that I am made of lesser stuff, for I could never kill a chicken (or even scale a fish) unless under dire circumstances. Even then...I'm not sure.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I could never kill a chicken (or even scale a fish) unless under dire circumstances. Even then...I'm not sure.
vegetarian = old Native American word meaning "poor shot."
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