Update Dec 14th 2008

Things are going just dandy at the Black Hoof. Business is good and were gearing up for a nice two week holiday come the 23rd right through to the 8th of January. I have a lot of stuff on the go right now hanging in the fridges. The Tamworth prosciutto made it through a month of curing without going rotten so thats good news. I have beautiful pancetta and thick slabs of lardo hanging that should be ready shortly. I harvested the first batch of Wild boar with cardamom and orange rind the other day and its fantastic! Just enough of both flavors to taste it but not so much that it overwhelms. I also am really happy with this batch of wild boar and fennel. Version 2.1 is perfect. The bear salami is drying nicely, i'm hanging the bearsoala today. The ostrich salami should be done when i get back from new york and i'm excited about the first batch of pork liver salami i made this past week. Today i'm making Cotecchino, and i will be drying it out over the holidays before i poach it. I will also we doing batches of mole inspired lonzino that is currently curing in chocolate and salt and will eventually be stuffed with a farce of almonds, citrus and other exciting spices usually found in mole.  Hmmm... wait a second.... i actually was trying to phrase that last sentence to explain how i was going to put the farce on the outside, but after re-reading it, i realize that it sounds like i'm actually going to stuff the pork loin, which come to think about it, is a brilliant idea. We used to take a metal rod and push it through a pork loin to remove the center piece and stuff it with prunes at a restaurant i worked at. What if i did that but stuffed it with a farce??  Have i mentioned how much i love charcuterie? till next time.