SxSW decompression

Finally back in gear after SxSW. As much fun as we had, it was a tiresome affair. Fighting with tow truck drivers and late night drunkards. Got to meet one of my favorite local punk rock bands, The Hex Dispensers. A friend Mark Maddy,  turned me on to this band years ago. Glad he did, I listen to them all the time. One thing I like is lots of music play while I work. Either to drown out the drone of the refrigeration fans or just to keep your sanity during the day. When I saw your own music, I don't mean the freaking radio or the bastard muzak. I mean your personal stuff. Which for some people is a hard task to spend, oh say... the better part of eight hours of the day playing your Ipod or whatever. If I didn't have a good music collection to start with I'd be on repeat a long time ago. I'm lucky though, I have had access to some great digital music collections over the years. I have complete discographies of artists to work though. Did you know Miles Davis has at least 51 albums? He does, can't say I've heard them all... yet. I proud to have every thing Jimi Hendrix put out. Also a complete collection of the Minutemen. All 4 hours of it. Lot's of good stuff, gleamed from great libraries from lot's of genres. It has kept me going.

 I managed to smash up my truck during the week. Stupid lane change dance drivers do. You know, when a entrance and exit ramps are close and you want to switch lanes but there Isn't enough room. And neither of you wanna give an inch. Yea got caught in that switcheroo. Turned my head to quickly check my blind spot, and duder pumped his brakes. Crunch. It was slow speeds, so didn't do too much damage. All cosmetic for the most part, but damn it still pissed me off. The other driver was in a f3500 ford truck with a HUGE chromed drop bump. Not a scratch on it.


 In the shop we've pretty much just been making sausages for a couple of weeks. To get though all the SxSW crowds. It's all over now and Salt and time is back to regular production. Which right now is a half pig a week +2 heads. With just two people its hard to do much more. Trying to fill out inventory with dry-cured salami and cured whole muscles. Did bring in a nice Red Wattle breed pig in from Revival Farms in Yolkum Texas. We made a Proscuttio from the ham. Another ham from the shoulder (more common in Spain) and Coppa from the neck roll. I've gotten pretty good at the removal of the neck cut thanks to the Wiesner's seam butchery class.

 We still find time to try experiments, which last week, was monumental. We made a Porchetta de testa. We have been considering making a headcheese, but find that it's pretty common. Everyone does at least one type, if not several. Although, if we had a ready supply of fresh blood we'd be making Redhead cheese. Alas, it's pretty hard to come by on a regular basis. The head turned out very tasty. I was a bit more concerned about the technical aspect of the stuff and rolling, than i was with the flavor profile. I know we will be making this again. It will probably replace any headcheese we can think of cause it's different but still a headcheese.

The heads we bought are not solely for making headcheese. It's been for practice. Just before SxSW I got accepted to compete in Cochon 555. If you've not heard about  Cochon555.com , look it up. Created by Brady Lowe it a touring meat carnival that puts 5 chefs against each other to complete over 5 pigs different heritage breed pigs. This alone is amazing. This year however they have butchery competition. It's head-to-head competition, butcher vs. butcher. It's judged but speed is part of it. Going to have to practice to get faster, only get 40 minutes. YIKES. I'm hoping I can use the seam butchery techniques, cause i know I'll be the only guy doing it that way. It's going to be a good way to get "out there" publicly.