some pics

View from our room in the bahamas.



I wish it would of been warmer but the water was still pretty cold when we were there so no diving this time around.



nice sunset at the wedding we attended, The Cove Atlantis is a sick hotel.



Have to eat from a food truck, 4 bucks for conch fritters, can't beat that.



can't go wrong with some chefs garden ramps. Tonight we used them on our first course of the tasting menu which was mero seabass from honolulu fish co., celery root puree, and then the prestine ramps from our friends at chefs garden. By the way, thanks to chefs garden for the nod in the "visit these chefs blogs" section of their spring menu planner.



We just put a new round of bacon in the cure, this time we are going with Kutas' dry box cure ratio of 1c powdered dextrose, 1c salt and 1/4c cure 1 for every 25lbs. it will be intersting to see the difference from our previous cures.



our little mangalitsa friends are coming in on the regular.



Guanciale is curing, we cured and smoked the rest of the head and have been cooking our sea island red peas with generous chunks of smoked face, manga fat back and Col. Bill Newsome ham bones.



Baxter is dreaming of some 18 month country ham here. He's staging at McCrady's right now with Sean. hopefully he had a chance to pick Travis' brain for future charcuterie projects.



The manga belly is ridiculous. So much flavorful fat. It's almost too much to use as fresh belly so we have moved on to curing and smoking our own bacon. I had the best blt of my life with some comte, truffle aioli, manga bacon, tomato, arugula, and some super crusty sourdough.



After curing I smoked it at 130F for 12 hours. It's awesome.



Here is the first manga loin we recieved, you have to cook it with the fat. For an animal with so much fat on it the loin is not very well marbled so it must be treated with care. We do a honey based brine that really helps. The flavor of the meat itself is really earthy. Sous vide works well on tough cuts but a trial run on a loin wrapped in fat back was a failure. Good old high heat and served medium is the way to go for the loin and tenders.



Here is the cooked loin. The fat is super flavorful and very light. It makes me sad when I see plates come back with luscious fat left carved away from the meat. EMBRACE THE FAT PEOPLE! It does take some education in terms of our guests, we let them know what to expect but we have been so conditioned to believe that fat is bad that it's a slow process. Mass consumption pork in America has had the fat bred out of it for the last 40 years and now we are throwing fat in their face so yes it may take a while.



our poussin from palmetto farms in S.C., a great product, 28 days old. we bone the whole bird and stuff a nice chunk of comte in the center. I activa the edges so there is no cheese blowout and we keep a nice creamy center after then are seared between two cast iron pans. We have added leek to our macaire potatoes which has become a staple starch for our chicken dishes and then finish with whatever veg is on hand from chefs garden to hammock hollows. A little english pea puree and jus finish the dish.