Woman, Pig, Knife.

WARNING: this post has graphic description and pictures of butchering a pig carcass.  Faint of heart - read no further!

I took my second butchery class this weekend.  And, it was awesome.  Somehow I had convinced my seven months pregnant sister that she should join me - and we spent the day carving up a few pigs.  The class, taught by Bailie at The Fatted Calf in Napa was called "Woman, Pig, Knife."  I got a kick out of finding out that Bailie had created her exclusive women's butchery class as a nod to the Women's Studies degree that she had never used in her culinary career.  Perhaps some day I can write the history of American butchering and finally put that American History degree to work!

What I love about these classes is that they just usher you back into their working kitchen, hand you a knife and put you to work!  As we stepped into the kitchen this Saturday, this is what we were welcomed with:

Half of a pig and a really cute little pig head!!

So what did we learn?  Well, the first step is to cut off the trotters (feet) and the hocks (the piece that will be smoked and put in pea soup).  I cut off one trotter - still haven't tried eating one though.  Does anyone know any recipes?  I heard it is a real delicacy in some cultures. 

Step two is to cut the pig into it's primal cuts - shoulder, loin, belly and ham. 

That's me sawing the ham off the loin!!

With one of our pigs, we didn't cut the belly off, but made a porchetta roast.  Once again, I haven't tried porchetta yet, but I'm thinking this may become a family holiday tradition.  Basically you keep the belly (which would become bacon if cured and smoked) attached to the pork loin and tenderloin, debone the whole thing, season it, then then roll it up skin side out and roast it.  The outer layers of the roast are fattier than the inside layers so they keep it all moist, and the skin (supposedly) gets crunchy like cracklings.  My, oh my.  Google it. 

Professor Bailie seasoning a soon to be porchetta. 

Third step is to cut these primals into subprimals or gourmet cuts, depending how you're planning to use the meat.  A butcher shop would probably be looking for mostly pork chops, pork loins, hams, and sausage.  At our class we saved one ham to be cured into prosciutto (yum!), but we deboned the the others to chop into 2 inch cubes that we seasoned and skewered to make brochettes. 

How good does that look?  Pork seasoned with Herbs de Provence, garlic and Onion

We also deboned the shoulders from our pig and ground it to make crepinettes (a word my husband LOVES to say with a French accent...)  A crepinette looks a lot like a hamburger patty, but then it's wrapped in caul fat (which comes from around the pig's kidneys, but basically looks like a spider web of fat.  We seasoned the sausage with some Vietnamese spices and herbs, and I'm telling you, if you've never had a crepinette before, as Tommy Boy said, "Get ready to Live!"

Second only to the fact that this is awesome hands on butchery experience, the best part of these classes is the food.  Through the entire class you can take charcuterie breaks to snack on the Fatted Calf''s best, then about 2/3 through the class they bring out the wine, so by the time we headed outside for a lunch of roast pork loin, served with beans that taste like cassoulet and a wild rice and artichoke salad finished with fresh strawberries most of my classmates were a wee bit tipsy.  At least they were talking louder and laughing more!!  Too fun.  I suppose now is as good a time as any to admit that the reason I wasn't drinking the gorgeous unfiltered Chardonnay that they were serving wasn't out of sisterly support - I just hit the twelve week mark, so now I'm allowed to tell you all, we're having a baby, too!!

And now, we'll see how long you keep reading this blog.  I'm fresh out of big news!  I promise I'll keep it interesting, but don't expect any more whammies like these!!!