two-day course

the whole hog: butchery & charcuterie

location: Templecombe, Somerset

The starting point for this course is two halves of pig and over the duration of the course your tutor, either Marc or Dan, will show you how this meat can be turned into a wonderful selection of pork products such as bacon, ham, coppa, sausage, chorizo, pate and pies.

Day 1 starts with pork butchery, an essential part of charcuterie as you need to know about the different cuts and how they can be used. You will be shown how to bone joints and prepare some of the more unusual cuts. The rest of the day focuses on curing pork using both dry and wet cures to make a range of cured products such as bacon, pancetta, coppa, guanciale, and gammon.

Day 2 starts with sausage-making which makes good use of the offcuts from the butchery, the shoulder and belly. Your tutor will also show you how to make chorizo. Nothing goes to waste, so the bones and head are boiled down to make stock and the meat used in rillettes. Next, attention turns to the pluck - the liver, heart and lungs which can be added to pork to make haslet, faggots and pates. And last on the agenda - the pork pie.

Although the content of the course covers two days, there are a limited number of places to attend on just one or other of the days. The cost to attend both days is £220, single days cost £120. Included in the price is refreshments, lunch, course notes and you get to take home some samples of the products made during the course.

This course is great for pig keepers who want to learn what they can do with their pork, for owners of farm shops who want to add value to their meat and to foodies who want to learn to make some great tasting British charcuterie.

more on butchery & sausage making

tying up a shoulder of pork

Dan demonstrating the various cuts of meat on a pig carcass

 

 

 

 

 

 

the venue is a 100-acre organic farm on the edge of the Blackmore Vale in Somerset