Charcuterie

Charcuterie (from either the French chair cuite, cooked meat, or the French cuiseur de chair, cooker of meat) is the branch of cooking devoted to prepared meat products such as sausage and confit, primarily from pork. The practice goes back to ancient times and can involve the chemical preservation, or curing, of meats.

excerpt from Wikipedia

We recently had a charcuterie session. Unfortunately it happened pre-blog else it would have made one helluva post.

We do it at least once a year. X's father would buy a whole pig & we would spend the weekend making sausages, caillettes, hams, pates, rillettes, boudin, the works. For a city girl from Singapore who only buys these from the supermarkets, it was a real eye opening experience. I will blog about it when we next make charcuterie.

Right after, X's father gave me this book which he has had for years. It's everything you need to know about charcuterie. Recipes, techniques, cuts of meat, storage etc. I've only had a chance to flip through the book & it's chokeful of information. I guess once I start making charcuterie on my own, this will be a good reference book. Until then, I'm just going to enjoy looking at the pictures.