"Les Noiracochon"
home of
The Black Pig Competition BBQ Team
home of
The Black Pig Competition BBQ Team
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What We've Got Cookin'
Our goal with Les Noiracochon is to explore and experiment with the best that the food world has to offer, with a strong focus on the crafts of charcuterie (salting, brining and curing) and barbecue. As well, we will be looking to showcase our creations both online and in culinary competitions in the Ontario region. This area of 'What We've Got Cookin' will grow and expand as we take on more projects. Perhaps even an on-going blog will be the way to fully document our efforts, but for now, here are some pictures of our results to date.
BERKSHIRE HOG
In our pursuit of the finest ingredients available to us, we have discovered a local breeder of the famed Berkshire hog. Currently we are researching and debating what we are going to make from the various cuts of this fine beast! So far we are looking at simply smoking (southern bbq style) one of the shoulders, doing Parma ham from one of the legs and perhaps a Kentucky blackstrap molasses style ham with the other. Loins, sirloins, tenderloins are still up for debate. There is the idea of a black forest ham from the leg muscle associated with that cut, but then that precludes making one of the hams...but it does open the door to a nice artisan style sausage! The possibilities are practically endless, but we really want to pick items that will let the quality and depth of flavour associated with this breed shine through in the end product.
With a group our size it can be difficult to set a date that is workable for all involved, but we are currently working on a Sunday in February to tackle the whole Berkshire hog. We're all looking forward to it! Stay tuned for updates, and pictures, of our much-anticipated B-Day (Berkshire Day) gathering!
BRESAOLAOne of the first recipes we tried from out of the book 'Charcuterie' which both Mikes owned, was that of 'Bresaola', which is a cured, air-dried beef roast, which is traditionally served sliced thin with shaved parmesan and olives. The directions made it clear that the eye of round roasts were best to be 3" in diameter and under. What we found keeping to this recipe was that the smaller roasts tended to dry at a rate a little too rapid to capture them at just the moment where they were finished but not too dry. Of the five roasts we ended up with, we would probably say that 2 were very good, 1 on the edge of being too dry and the other 2 were more along the lines of a 'proscuitto jerky'.
As it is with most of these projects, even the 'failures' were plenty tasty.
For next time? The roasts will be bigger, meaning a little longer cure time (perhaps 20 days versus the 14 for previous effort), and we will try better to keep humidity in the hanging box as close to 70% as possible for the full hang time and again, we will try to catch them when they are firm, but not rock solid. It appears that this window of 'ideal finish' is only about 2-3 days, so we will attempt to remove and slice the roasts when they are at that peak finish next time.
As well, next time we may stray from the published recipe a bit as we feel a little fresh garlic in the seasoning (predominantly rosemary in the original) would not hurt at all. You'll soon find that Les Noiracochon are huge fans of garlic! When we next do this project, hopefully we will have the blog in place so that we can give a full account of the recipe so you too can give it a try.