Charcuterie 101: Before sausage

A participant in a charcuterie class organized by Wild Turkey Farms learns how to make sausage. Submitted photo.

Chef Charles, a charcuterie master, demonstrates how to cut up a pig at a charcuterie workshop organized by Wild Turkey Farms. Submitted photo.

Charcuterie workshop participants went home with pork products, including pork and pistachio sausage. Submitted photo.

Chef Charles' charcuterie tools include a saw and a cleaver, as well as various knives. . Submitted photo.

Chef Charles Semain shows carcuterie workshop participants how to cut up a pig. Submitted photo.

By Sara Pitzer

For The Salisbury Post

This little piggy went to market. This little piggy . . . wait! This little piggy never made it to market. At 180 pounds, he wasn't all that little, either.

Seven enthusiastic home cooks, including me, gathered in the Charlotte kitchen of Chef Charles Semail for instruction and experience in pork outside the Styrofoam pack. The workshop was a joint venture of Chef Charles and Wild Turkey Farms.

Chef Charles, originally from France, learned the butchers' art working as an apprentice for two years, and later came to America as a restaurateur. In Charlotte, he has a gourmet catering business that focuses on top quality ingredients. He's vocal in his preference for the Berkshire heritage pastured pigs like those Lee Menius and his wife, Domisty, raise at Wild Turkey Farms in China Grove.

"He's been a fan for some time," Lee explains. "Even when compared against other heritage breeds of pigs, the Berkshire excels in being the other red meat with excellent marbling and great taste. The fact that it is certified Animal Welfare Approved to be raised locally on pasture, without antibiotics. at Wild Turkey Farms is just the icing on the cake — or sauce on the pig, if you will."

Chef Charles makes an assortment of dried sausages, such as salami and chorizo, as well as pate, pancetta and prosciutto using Wild Turkey Farms pigs.

Lee Menius says he wishes Chef Charles could make all his sausages and butcher all his pigs, but that's not practical on the larger market scale if anybody is going to be able to afford the stuff. These days, a processor is an integral part of getting pigs from the farm to the freezer, and some of the subtleties of hand cutting as it was practiced in the old days are not possible except in places like Chef Charles' kitchen.

For the charcuterie workshop, Chef Charles demonstrated every step of preparing the pork to cook, beginning with skinning the pig and scraping the fat from the skin. He said in his apprenticeship he spent a year doing just that before he was allowed to move on to actually cutting meat.

Lee Menius says in processing pigs, they "keep everything but the squeal," which means if you want something not hugely popular commercially, such as pigs' feet, you can usually get them from Lee and Domisty.

In his kitchen, Chef Charles demonstrates the chef's version of the same frugality. "We use everything," he says, tossing pieces of pork and fat into piles to become sausages and pate.

After the serious cutting was done, the seven class participants chopped, ground, measured, mixed and stuffed casings to make several kinds of sausage, including chorizo and linguica. Pork and pistachio sausage is intended for frying or grilling, and pork and apple sausage with leeks and fresh rosemary, seasoned with a bit of reduced apple cider, practically demands to be served with sauerkraut. The class also made a pate de campagne that must be baked in a mold and weighted before it's ready to serve.

Once our production, at least any using knives, was nearly done, the class, with the chef, Lee and Domisty, gathered around a casually set table to sample some sausages and pate, sip wine and then tuck into white beans that had been simmering with pork all morning as we worked.

At the end of the day, we took home not only the products of our labor, but also recipes for repeating the process. Although making sausage is not difficult, it does require a grinder and because it takes some time it isn't something we're likely to do every week or so. And a well- butchered pig yields beautiful chops and ham steak as well as sausages.

With that in mind, Chef Charles also offers some less labor intensive suggestions for enjoying pastured, Berkshire pork.

- Regarding cooking on the grill, use only black or white pepper, NO SALT to start. Just add salt after grilling — I prefer sea salt like Fleure de sel from Ile de Re France. Lightly brush pork with olive oil, fresh or dried herbs (sage, rosemary, thyme) before grilling. Cook the meat up to 150 degrees and rest the meat at least 10 minutes before slicing or serving.

- For roasting in oven, sear the meat first with seasoning or dried rub. I like to place the meat on a bed of thinly sliced potatoes and onion with white wine and salted butter. Roast at 325 degrees.

(Sara's note: I did this in a Dutch oven with the lid on. A friend who tried it is planning to repeat the process using lots more potato and onion. He called the recipe "a keeper.")

- For stew, I love stew made with fresh ham, in a big pot with winter vegetables like carrots, turnips, leeks and potatoes, covered with white wine and some strong Dijon mustard, slow cooked on a stovetop three hours and finished with cream fraiche. - - -Wild Turkey farms and Chef Charles are planning another charcuterie workshop soon, which already has a waiting list. For more information, go to www. wildturkeyfarms.com or e-mail wildturkey_farms.@yahoo.com.

For more information about Chef Charles, go to www. chefcharlescatering.com.