I’ve decided to expand my livestock to rabbits. I have been slowly gearing up for this and finally completed the housing this weekend. I still had some remaining old deck pieces and other random wood from the current remodel. I used the back of a rotting park bench as the doors. I’m a little concerned as I also used hardware cloth which many sources said to use. However, I just read in my Country Wisdom book not to use it. Apparently it does not hold up over time. I’m not sure what that will look like but the structure was made with lots of reclaimed old wood so I suspect it won’t last 100 years anyway.

With housing complete I turned to acquiring the animals. I think this is the first time I did things in order- housing and then animals. I realized that though there are sources for rabbits all over the place, I’d like to be particular about the breed I acquire. So I started my search at the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy website which lists livestock breeds that are threatened to be lost. I’ve chosen to go with American Rabbits. Recognized in 1918, they were developed for their meat and fur. They are hardy, docile, and the does are good mothers. They are also easily kept on wire bottom hutches. Sounds like a good breed for my set up.

In searching for local sources of a doe and buck, I also happened to find it listed in Slow Foods Ark of Taste. Luckily, I found a yahoo group specific for American Rabbits and found local people but it will apparently take a couple of weeks to get the rabbits as breeders are busy preparing for an upcoming national exodus to the American Rabbit Breeder Convention in San Diego. In the mean time I will continue to read about rabbit health, feeding, breeding, and of course cooking (Marcel, please teach me the culinary way of the rabbit).

I think by now I have harvested close to 40 lbs of fresh ripe tomatoes. I mostly have Bradywine and Myonas, a medium sized round red tomato a friend gave me, looks like  Carmellos and also Black Zebras from the same friend. Most of the poundage came from the Brandywines. They were huge. Though I have been lax about weighing harvest this season (way too busy), I feel certain each main harvest was at least 10 lbs. The cost of organic heirloom varieties is about $6/lb. So I think we’ve saved about $240 on tomatoes and enjoyed more than we’d ever be willing to pay for.

I planted as large an area I could negotiate given the massive home construction. I had dreams of using grandma Lupe’s pressure cooker to can tomatoes for the first time. Pressure cookers have scared me (the whole lid-blowing-off thing) but after gaining inspiration from Novella’s recent post, I went for it. My nephew, William, and I picked tomatoes and did some fava planting. Well, I did. He more like bored a hole in my lower back while enjoying the view.

I baked loads of tomatoes with a touch of olive oil and scooped them into hot sterilized canning jars. The jars got placed in the hot water awaiting them in the pressure cooker. I actually submerged these to about 1/2 inch from the top (are they supposed to be submerged entirely? Do the seals hold up to that?). I added one tablespoon of concentrated organic lemon juice to all the jars for extra measure.

Dipak had to rely on distant memories of his mother using a pressure cooker to help me out. Wait until the weighted top is making noise, time from there. When done, turn off heat and remove weight. Let steam out and then remove lid. I used a 10lb weight and cooked quart containers for 20 minutes; pint size for 15 min. For kicks I did a batch in a hot water bath as well. Those I boiled for 1 hour.

I truly hope I did this correctly and will find out soon enough.

Also this weekend, I really missed my turkeys from last year, mostly Nash and Fern. I really liked those kids but good lord they were good eats. I spontaneously decided to acquire another Narragansett. I think it is a hen and I could not help naming her. But I’ve decided to stick to food related names. So her name is Anise. I am also near completion of my rabbit hutch but have to return to school focus until Thursday. So be it.

Once again I had the great fortune of learning about charcuterie from butcher Morgan Maki. As a continuation from last week’s pig butchery, Morgan demonstrated how to cure pork for prosciutto, tasso, pancetta and guanciale.

We were welcome by warm sandwiches of house cured pastrami (why beef guys?) with sauerkraut and bottles of beer. The table had a whole shoulder on it, glistening knives were laid out and a tidy row of spices and herbs lined one side of the table. My own kitchen has an arsenal of spices we use in Indian food but this spread had a couple I’ve never learned to use- filè and juniper berries. Filè is ground sassafras leaves that would be used to impart “a grassy flavor.” Apparently filè it is more commonly used as a thickener in gumbo. The juniper berries provide a sharp clean flavor.

Morgan referred to a small black book that had formulas on protein to salt ratios. I loved the book, it had the mystique of a book of spells.

He followed his formulas with a robust scientific explanation on the curing process, the action of salts and nitrates on protein and bacteria. One great nugget of poetic knowledge he shared was that the long chains of amino acids that compose proteins get broken down with the curing process which makes more complex layers of flavor available to our tongues.

Morgan is fun to watch. He moves smoothly between meat science nerd to brutal M-A-N ripping bones out of meat with a sound I find hard to describe, a low tone ripping that perhaps only less fortunate athletes are familiar with.

He broke the shoulder down similar fashion to last week’s lesson. At one point the lively and curious group attending all gasped and chattered when they recognized the bacon cut.

They also all crowded in with their cameras and iphones (self included) when the pig head came out. One attendee called it the “money shot.” Morgan demonstrated how to cut out the jowl for guanciale, an unsmoked Italian bacon made specifically from the jowl.

Once he had his parts for the three curing processes, he began. Weighing protein, referring to the book of spells and sprinkling spices on the meat. It really just looked like Morgan massaging big hunks of flesh with salt and spices. Not much technique seemingly needed for that. The prosciutto preparation ended up looking like a mere pile of salt at the end.

It was the information along the way that was magic. Some helpful bits of knowledge I could write down fast enough included:

- Nitrates in meat are not inherently bad for you

- There are natural sources of nitrates such as celery juice and other leafy greens like collards and spinach. From my gardening perspective, this is making sense now because we use leafy green material as a nitrogen source to balance carbonaceous material in compost

- Kosher salt is used in curing because it has no anticaking agents or iodine and has consistently sized granules so its measurement is more exact. A very important detail if using salt to inhibit bacteria growth

- When “overhauling” the curing meats (changing out moisture; adding more salt; rotating meat in salt, etc.) the prosciutto is overhauled about every four days, the tasso every day and the other cured bacon style meats (belly and jowl).

Though I now feel confident enough to try this at home, I will need to look up formulas for correct amounts of salt to use. That said, Morgan’s basic preparations were:

Prosciutto: sprigs of rosemary and thyme and lightly crushed cloves of garlic nestled in the meat. About two boxes of kosher salt poured over the top. We were told that the action of the salt on the protein will move the herb flavors around in the meat. He explained how but this is for another post.

Tasso (a Cajun style ham): ample amounts of paprika, cayenne, red pepper flakes, file, brown sugar, black pepper, and garlic.

Pancetta and Guanciale: juniper berries; rosemary, bay leaves; black pepper; brown sugar; and coriander seeds.

Apparently the tasso could be ready to cook in a couple of days. At which point it can be cooked at 200F for 2 hours. The guancia or jowl could be hung and dried for 45 days, then sliced. Though Morgan made a point to say that Bi-Rite cures their meats in refrigeration to avoid any possible spoilage. For hanging you just need a cool dry place that will keep at a consistent 50-60 degrees Fahrenheit, like a cave. Once again my thoughts drift to defunct city drainage tunnels. But alas, that is going too far.

OK. Wow. Its been a really busy week and its only Wednesday morning. I submitted my thesis to the university for review; worked on a business plan; celebrated a much loved friend’s birthday; caught up with the overflow of fruit attracting fruit flies, including making membrillo (quince paste) which goes insanely well with Manchego cheese; caught up with at least the assessment of what needs to happen next in the garden for winter food; AND last night I attended the first of a two part series of a pig butchery class offered at 18 Reasons in San Francisco.

The class was an up close demonstration of how to break down a half pig, done by Bi-Rite butcher and charcutier Morgan Maki.

Morgan started with “primal breaks” on the 14 or 16 month old pig carcass (well, the pig was that old, not the carcass). The whole process was wrought with detail and I was pretty saturated by the end. I’ve tried to recapture important details in the slideshow below. You may have to click on the enlarge feature (arrows in all directions) and then “show info” to see the detailed captions.

Along the way Morgan shared some great information such as- in order to check the health of a pig you can request the heart and kidneys be included. You slice into them and check for signs of illness. Also, you remove lymph nodes and do not eat them. Lymphs are where toxins are sequestered from the body. They don’t taste good and they are not good for you.

I learned that “Boston Butt” comes from the shoulder as does a “Picnic Ham.” Another incredibly cool conversation was around the diet of the animal and its flavor. Morgan explained that different grains get metabolized differently by the animal resulting in changes in the fat structure, flavor and behavior of the meat when cooked. Some resulting fats have a lower melting point requires lower heat to cook. This is something I’ll have to research because I could not hold all the details in my head…he did mention acorns and Iberian wild pigs.

The class included samples of mortadello, and what looked like capicola, that had been made at Bi-Rite- very good. Next week we complete the second part which is will cover curing pork in preparation for smoking and hanging, with an emphasis on tasso, prosciutto, bacon and country ham. Sounds good to me.

I recently found a fun toy online called Wordle. The New York Times uses it often to provide a unique visual of words. I think it is interesting as a sort of content analysis display. It displays frequently used words from a provided text. I decided to check out a visual comparison of presentations by some of the significant names in the today’s food movement: Alice Waters, Michael Pollan, Wendell Berry, and Vandana Shiva. It actually does provide a snapshot of their priorities. Enjoy.

Reconnecting: A Culinary Revolution (Alice Waters 2009)

We Are Headed Toward a Breakdown in Our Food System (Michael Pollan 2009)

The Pleasure of Eating (Wendell Berry)

Monocultures, Monopolies, Myths And The Masculinisation Of Agriculture (Vandana Shiva 1998)