"Acorns were good until bread was found." -Francis Bacon

The secret to good bread - like so many other things - is listening.  

Acorns are alright for foraging pigs, but with an oven, or hearth, or access to fire in general, we must heed our obligation to bake our ground flours.

Lucy and Ethel, or Guanciale, Tesa, Salame, and Proscuitto

 

I've mentioned that we are raising pigs, but have not prior to now written about them exclusively.  Well, meet Lucy and Ethel - they're cute, but a little on the rude side so beware if you decide to pay them a visit. 

Traditionally pigs are raised through the spring and summer and butchered and preserved in the fall.  This makes sense for two principle reasons: First, pigs are cheaper to feed during the growing season due to the abundance of garden scraps, and secondly, the colder months provide ideal conditions for preserving their meat.  With the modern convenience of refrigeration, the latter is more or less a non-problem.  The first problem is simple to eradicate as well if you can cut a deal with a local restaurant.  

Working at a restaurant affords us the ability to keep pigs through the winter.  While we still have to purchase some pig feed for Lucy and Ethel, we are able to supplement that grainy diet with a diverse blend of pasta, bread, vegetables, and so on.  If I were a little more pursuant, and I intend on being just that, we could easily feed them on kitchen scraps from restaurants around town.  For the time being however, the pigs are still on a grain subsidized diet.  But, Lucy and Ethel know when its time for the good stuff  - just look at them beaming with appreciation. 

In the spring, I will be the ecstatic one.  Just as the girls snort and hop around in anticipation of their daily slop, I will jump around like a kiddie on Christmas as I turn their bellies into an unfurled pancetta known as Tesa, their cheeks and jowls into Guanciale, and, if our pigs get large enough and our butcher is capable and willing to remove those large legs properly, the granddaddy of cured meats, Proscuitto.  Needing nearly 400 days to mature and skills I don't yet possess to do so without welcoming unwanted bacteria, the Proscuitto will certainly test my patience and culinary aptitude.  Fortunately, we will have plenty to enjoy while we wait.

Until that fateful day, I will haul water and food scraps the hundred yards through knee deep snow to make sure our girls are as happy as pigs in shit - which of course, they are!  Stay tuned for more porcine news and eventually tales of my experiments in charcuterie. 

Ethel digs pasta, old spinach and pizza dough!

Introducing, Bill McKerchie: Freelance Baker

I have officially joined the fringe economy!  You know, bottle collectors, scrap metal collectors, ebay sellers, donors of sperm, freelance bakers – contemporary members of that strange informal economy, descendants of night soil men and rag collectors, surviving on the periphery of society somewhere between legitimate and its antonym?

I've been selling pies and baked goods out of my kitchen for a couple of years while baking for a coffee shop, but now I'm straight out on my own.  Thanks to Tamara's brother, Eli, I'm doing it with a brand new, super-radical business card.  Check out his design manufactory.

Armed with my new card and some new tartlet pans, I baked up some goodies for my first gig this weekend.  It is a poor substitute for tasting them, but eyeball these pictures to get an idea.  And, if you have any bread, pie, cookie, pastry - or any other baking needs (and are local to Skaneateles/Syracuse) - shoot me an email.  Otherwise, feast your eyes.

Skaneateles' finest eggs

Homemade fig and whiskey jam ready to be rolled into my Rustic Fig Bars

Chocolate Hazelnut Tart Dough, Sweet Tart Dough, and Chocolate and Vanilla Shortbread Doughs

Chocolate Hazelnut Ganache Tartlets topped with sea salt

Rustic Fig Bars

Pumpkin-Buttermilk Tartlets (made with our own Pumpkin)

Chocolate Tartlets with Chocolate Nut Dough and Chocolate topped Shortbreads with a cookie crumble

Shortbreads: Chocolate and Vanilla Chessboards and Vanilla just

Wrapped up and ready to go