Swine Is Fine All the Time
All right, everyone. It’s time to give up the ghost of holiday gift giving and concentrate on feeding yourself and your loved ones. What all of us like to eat at Serious Eats is swine in all its glorious forms. These great purveyors will satisfy anyone’s desire for a serious pork fix any time of the day or night.
BACON from Allen Benton
Allen Benton makes some of the greatest bacon you’ve ever tasted. It’s meaty, smoky, and has the perfect fat-to-meat ratio. Phone: 423-442-5003. $18 plus shipping.
SOPPRESSATA from Paul Bertolli
Paul Bertolli was the chef at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, for many years before opening his own Oliveto’s in Oakland. Now he’s given up the restaurant business to make sublime fresh and dried sausage. Nine pounds of his spectacular soppressata is $210, but that includes shipping. Now I know that nine pounds of soppressata is an awful lot of swine for any one family, so form a pig-eating cooperative, order the sausage, and divvy it up however you want. framani.com.
JAMON IBERICA BELLOTTA from Tienda.com
Jamon Iberica bellotta is the prized Spanish black-footed ham that is fed only acorns (bellota is Spanish for "acorn"). Finally, after years of keeping this serious pig out of the country, the feds are allowing us to eat this ham in the States. Tienda.com is now taking orders for bone-in Iberico bellota hams for winter 2008 delivery. At $79 a pound and with an average weight of 15 pounds, an order will set you back about $1,200 (price is determined on final weighing). If you have the means, you won't regret it. This is ham as God would make it—sweet, just marbled enough, and fantastically porky. tienda.com, $199 deposit on $1,200 approximate total, plus shipping.
PORK ROASTS from Flying Pigs Farm
There are the everyday pork roasts you buy at your local supermarket or butcher and then there are the amazing pork roasts you can buy from Flying Pigs Farm. Two college administrators in their spare time (sic) humanely raise heritage-breed pork that tastes fabulous. A pork roast from Flying Pigs Farm is a revelation. The meat has a wonderful rich flavor and a satiny, buttery texture. flyingpigsfarm.com, center cut loin roast, $15 a pound plus shipping.
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1 Comment:
A new glory time for swine is dawning in the US! Let me add one producer whose products will take you straight into hog heaven - La Cuercia artisan cured meats from Herb and Cathy Eckhouse in Norwalk, Iowa. I like all their products but am definitely addicted to their Pancetta Americana (green label) made from organic Berkshire cross pork. Rich and melting like the best Italian lardo (take that, you sadist customs agents who took away my cinta sinese lardo), its creamy aftertaste, redolent of spices, will stay with you forever. Other standout products are Heirloom Breed Culaccia and diverse prosciutti (http://www.laquercia.us/iowa.php?id=6). I first tasted the Eckhouse products at a Slow Food event in Iowa and was delighted to see DiBruno Brothers of Philadelphia selling these quality products in my neighborhood.
Thor Thorson at 4:34PM on 12/23/06