Using it up

Our last pair of porkers went off to the abattoir not long before R died.
We had the usual sausage-making fest, but on a smaller scale than in previous years. We also sold a lot of the meat to family, friends and R's work colleagues, but for one reason or another a lot more ended up in our freezers than had in the past, and most of this was in the form of large joints.

My eating habits have changed so much since I have been alone. There is precious little chance of me actually turning totally vegetarian, but I would say that probably over 50% of my meals now contain no meat.

Which hasn't helped very much with consuming the stockpile of pork in the freezer.

As I would like to get another pair of weaners this Summer, it really does seem incumbent upon me to eat what I already have - that and the fact that it really does need to be used up very soon or it will only be fit for Moose to have.

So I need to find ways to use it up that do not simply involve me gnawing my way through a 6lb slab of roast pork!

This is what I did with a piece of belly pork.

The weight was in the region of 5 lb. There is a very small patch of freezer burn on the rind, but otherwise it is fine.

When our porkers came back from the butcher, I had asked for each belly half to be cut into three halves, but for the bones to be left on, for reasons that will become apparent.
The first step, though, is to remove the bones using my best filleting knife.

I then cut the meat into three equal portions.
The first was just crying out to be slow-roasted.
Now this is possibly not a meal for someone on a calorie-controlled diet, but it makes a splendid feast for someone who has been digging the garden all afternoon!

My feeling when it comes to roasting home-reared meat is that the less you do to it the better, so I simply scored the rind and placed it on a bed of chopped onions and a couple of large sprigs of thyme from the garden.

This went into a very hot oven for 20 minutes to flash roast and get the fat running, then I turned down the heat to about 160 C and largely forgot about it for a couple of hours, other than to pour off the fat every 40 minutes or so.

Meanwhile I turned my attentions to the remainder of the belly, which on this occasion I decided to turn into bacon.
The first step is to make up the curing mix. There are many recipes available in books and on the Internet - some use nitrites, some don't. I prefer to use them as I like my bacon to look pink, rather than grey, but it isn't essential if you are going to use it up quickly or store it in the freezer.

On this occasion I went for a simple mix of salt, demerara sugar and curing salt, which I rubbed thoroughly into the remaining two pieces of pork.

And then did the same with the sheet of bones that were removed from the belly.

The whole lot went into a plastic bag and then into the fridge for 3 days. And that folks, really is all there is to making bacon!

Recipes using the bacon will follow, but in the meantime I shall devote my attentions to the slow-roast belly pork...

Pork mince. Boring? Never.

Originally posted 01.06.09


This will be the first year since we moved to Wales that we haven't had a couple of weaners to fatten.
With the exception of their final road trip, every aspect of keeping pigs is an absolute joy. Their infectious enthusiasm, playfulness and appetite for eating the most unlikely-looking food combinations are so endearing. I love how they throw their empty food bowls in the air for the sheer fun of doing it, the way they fall over in a heap of quivering ecstasy when you scratch behind their ears or rootle in their bowls looking for the best bits to eat first. I am sure the world would be a better place if everyone who fancied keeping pigs were able to do so.

I can't have any more yet because it takes one person with not much appetite a long, long time to eat half a pig. I have also lost my pork pusher - R used to sell it to his colleagues at work. I'm hoping they will still be interested if I go it alone next year.

In the past, when the pigs came back from the butcher as pork we always invited a few friends and made a weekend of it, making bacon, brawn (not for the faint-hearted!), pâté and sausages. Kilos and kilos of sausages.

The first day largely involved deboning, chopping and mincing. Then came the fun part, when each participant would run riot in my spice drawers. The mixes would be made up, a couple of small patties fried, solemnly tasted and critiqued. A little more chilli needed here, too much allspice there. Perhaps polenta would be a better filler, rather than breadcrumbs.

Only after the recipe had been tweaked to perfection would the sausages be made and the ingredients written down in our Book of All Things for the smallholding. We each had our favourites, but I have to say with all due modesty that my lemon, fennel and black pepper sausage is a culinary masterpiece!

Inevitably at the end of the day there would be a small amount of minced pork left over that was not enough to put into casings. By that time, the last thing that anyone wanted to eat was another sausage. Mr M, one of our regulars at the sausage weekend, devised a Chinese-inspired mix that we put into some bread dough and baked, and so was born the Welsh pork bun.

Today it was far too hot for bread, and I needed something a little healthier than the crisps and black coffee that had been sustaining me for most of the weekend. I found a small amount of minced pork in the freezer, and decided to make Mr M's recipe and serve it with lettuce wraps, which seemed a lot more summery:

Finely chop a clove of garlic, a few slices of ginger and a couple of spring onions. Fry quickly for about 30 seconds, then add the pork mince and brown over a high heat. Add 2 or 3 finely chopped mushrooms, followed by 1/2 tsp chilli bean sauce, about 3 Tbs Chinese rice wine and a good splosh of soy sauce. Turn the heat down and cook gently for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add a little stock or water if it sticks. When cooked, stir in a small amount of sesame oil, then spoon onto large lettuce leaves and sprinkle with a little chopped spring onion and a few sesame seeds. Wrap up tightly and enjoy.