17th November - Ceps

Cep

Due to limited time and most of the pork being earmarked for the spit, pig killing hasn't been what it is normally. Every other time slaughtering the animals has marked the beginning of an intense 2 - 3 day period processing the blood, fat and meat into a huge variety of products. Inside Em makes black pudding, faggots, lard and brawn whilst outside C and I butcher, scrape intestines, make salami, salt down hams and bacon, make sausages and even produce the odd pâté. The old saying, use ' everything but the oink ' rings very true in this household and on reflection even that can be imitated to entertain the baby - so efficiency is improving! Naturally C and I couldn't entirely resist the temptation to turn Ginger pig (Bulgy Eyes is destined for the spit) into something other than just pork, so whilst I butchered, he knocked up a slatted wooden box to house a pair of air dried hams for salting. We have no experience of making ‘Parma’ style ham, having always been unwilling in the past to sacrifice our beautiful smoked English hams but Ginger pig presented the perfect opportunity to experiment -  a little too small and lean for traditional curing, completely free (see 19th of October) and frankly un-needed in the freezer. Having rubbed a dry cure of salt, sugar, black pepper and salt-petre into the belly to start the streaky bacon process (I couldn't resist making that either) we turned our attention to the hindquarters. Making air dried ham uses a phenomenal amount of salt and around 10 kg was needed to line the box then completely cover the meat. The only other ingredients were ground coriander and black pepper and as the follower and weights went in to begin pressing the hams the aroma was tantalising. Only fifteen days salting and eight months of drying left and we can have a taste!

All work and no play makes C a grumpy boy (I am in the habit of blaming him for things I want to do myself) so after a substantial lunch at Mum's we returned to the cottage for some pigeon shooting. Yesterday while we were busy scraping and gutting, woodies by the hundred came swirling into the oaks and scots pines around us.  Predictably we saw hardly any this afternoon. Walking down to my position though, I did find a few ceps growing under the majestic beach which dominates the ride and those fungi alone, with their curiously bulbous stems, were ample reward our efforts. The two-hour wait wasn’t without excitement and after C had taken his first shot further up the bank, a brushing and snapping of twigs which abruptly stopped  caught my attention. Peering round a clump of rhododendron I find myself eye to eye with a fallow pricket (young buck) some 15 yards away.  After standing motionless for several moments holding my gaze he turned, showing his black lined rump, and was off. After that a few wayward shots at corvoids left me frustrated and the dog confused, so as twilight turned to darkness we trailed back up the hill to add a single magpie to C’s bag of one pigeon.

Dinner

Pasta with bacon and ceps. Superb ingredients allow for simple cooking and whilst I finished clearing up and sorting meat Em fried onions and bacon, added sliced ceps and a little tomato purée to create one of the best pasta dishes I have ever had.