[Sca-cooks] Ham, Cold cuts, and Charcuterie

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Patrick Levesque:
>Now, in a Rabelaisian-inspired fit of culinary madness, I've a sudden desire
>to explore the making of different kinds of cold cuts (dry-cured hams,
>sausages, pâtés and other stuff for which I don't know the English
>equivalent word... Rillettes, Andouilles, etc...)

Look for a copy of Jane Grigson's "The Art of Making Sausages, Pates, 
And Other Charcuterie". It's about as comprehensive as a book on 
French charcuterie written by an Englishwoman can get ;-).

>While I have recipes (period or otherwise) for a bunch of sausages and
>terrines, I'm still looking for instruction on how to make, say, dry-cured,
>or smoked ham from scratch.

Cato, Apicius, Columella (I think) and Le Menagier (although that 
last may be for bacon) contain period instructions for same. I doubt 
the process changed a lot between the Roman and medieval sources, 
since it hasn't changed much between the Roman and modern methods. 
But perhaps I'm making an unwarranted assumption. ;-)

>As well, 'Rillettes' comes up as a kind of cold cut in period; however, it
>seems to designate a slightly different thing than what we call 'rillettes'
>nowadays (according to the Centre d'Information sur la Charcuterie,

Would that be kinda like The Education Council for the American Pork 
Packers Association? I ask only because trade associations aren't 
always too great in their grasp of history, and you sometimes run 
across things like date-century equivocation ('the 1500's is the 15th 
century, right??? No? What-evuh... what's the difference?")

>  it is
>found in period as early as 1480. However, it would designate a larger pork
>tidbit, not the slow-cooked mash we're more familiar with).
>
>Suggestions, anyone?

CAVEAT: I AM WORKING ENTIRELY FROM A RATHER FALLIBLE MEMORY!!!

We need a manuscript geek (possibly from the Midrealm? ;-)  ) to 
verify this, but I have a vague memory of hearing somewhere, being 
told, or having a note slipped under my door at midnight, about 
rillettes in period France. Possibly in Le Menagier, the English 
translation of which I have on hand (Powers -- but don't, in fact, 
which is why I'm working from memory) makes references to cracklings.

My theory/impression, based, again, on incomplete memories of having 
read this years ago, is that rillettes, as well as the general 
concept of potting things in fat, are probably either very late or 
post-period. However, I think perhaps le Menagier in the original 
French may hold a clue, in its pig processing section, and I would 
not be at all surprised if Powers has translated as cracklings 
something very much like rillons, which are rillettes' big brother.

For those watching out there in Television Land and playing the home 
version of our game, rillettes are a semi-cured, fatty pork 
(something like salt pork belly), cooked slowly until the fat is 
pretty well rendered and the meat semi-disintegrated. The meat is 
then strained out of the fat, mashed into a pot with a smallish 
amount of fat, maybe 40% of the total, then sealed under an 
additional thin layer of fat. This preserves it for quite a while, in 
a manner similar to methods used to confit duck or goose, but unlike 
confits du canard or d'oie, rillettes are eaten cold, generally, as a 
pate, canape topping, etc. Meat (i.e. pork) in larger chunks, not 
mashed, but otherwise treated similarly, are called rillons.

I think perhaps what might have been done in period France, at least, 
is that rillons were made in this way, but strained from the fat to 
be eaten separately. Maybe more like Latino chicharrones than like 
modern rillons or rillettes.

Maybe someone with more time (at the moment) and access to the 
appropriate sources can verify, debunk, or otherwise add to our 
information.

Adamantius
-- 
  "Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
	-- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry 
Holt, 07/29/04