BovineSeaweedPork

Hello I am hoping to start selling Charcuterie and smoked products (fish,meat,cheese) at local farmers markets that I have made myself using local produce. I will be doing this at weekends to start with as I am not quite confident enough to give up the day job and pursue my dream just yet, but at least I'm working towards it! There are a lot of Scottish recipes that I love, but none more so than Ayrshire homemade soup that my grandfather used to make or Ayrshire tatties with green tails! Soup 1 litre Chicken stock 1 small Grated Turnip 4 Grated Carrots 1 Finely chopped leek 3 Finely cubed Ayrshire potatoes added after 1 hour 1 table spoon of sugar Salt and pepper to taste This is so straight forward to make, but when given time to gently simmer away for a couple of hours, left overnight then re heated it is one of the most delicious foods I have ever eaten. We used to slurp it by the bowl full accompanied by Mothers Pride loaves (White bread with extraordinarily high salt content and a burnt black crust) and local Ayrshire butter spread so thick it resembled cheese on a sandwich. The Ayrshire tatties with green tails were usually served as an accompaniment, but I have been known to eat a few bowls on their own for dinner. 1kg Ayrshire Potatoes (Ayrshire tatties are fertilised with seaweed from the Ayrshire coast) peeled, quartered and gently boiled for 15 minutes 1 cup of oatmeal 25g butter Salt Green tails (spring onions/scallions) The hard part is not overcooking the potatoes and making sure they are not too dry so even a splash of milk could be added. Once they are cooked all the ingredients are thrown in and gently stirred. The green tails should be chopped finely and only the green part used. The oatmeal sticks to the tatties and the tang of the green tails is a wonderful combination. My tastes are varied though and I like most Scottish fare which tends to be hearty and some would say unhealthy. Some other regional favourites include; Clyde Tunnel Lorne Sausage which is a standard Lorne with a black pudding through the middle then rolled in onion powder and sliced into half an inch thick pieces. Pie roll with Cheddar, an Ayrshire school boy staple. 1 Scotch Pie (Killie Pie) served on a well fired roll with grated Ayrshire cheese that is quite strong. These were consumed by the hundred every day at my school back in the 90s. I don't think they are allowed to sell them any more Healthier favourites include; Salad made from wild Garlic shoots picked in March and April mixed with wild Watercress Langoustines (giant prawns) and West Coast Mussels served with lemon juice Queenies (Scallops) served with Black Pudding Nick

Hi everyone, I live in Scotland, but have spent a lot of time in Spain and Italy eating Charcuterie. I am very interested in home curing and I decided some time ago to try it out using good local meat. My nearest butcher gets his meat from Northumberland which seems ridiculous to me as Scotland has plenty of good producers so I now travel 20 miles to get my pork from a butcher who gets his animals from 50 miles down the road in Dumfries and Galloway. I built my own curing shed using a large cage, gardening mesh and fleece, and I chose a traditional salami recipe using pork shoulder, fennel seed, garlic, red wine, back fat and fine cooking salt (25g per 1kg meat) in hog runners. This was my first attempt so I was quite excited about it, but not confident that I would be able to pull it off given what I had read about perfect conditions etc. I spent a day sealing the unit and fixing it to the side of my garden shed 3 feet from the ground and covering it with a wooden roof. I started this project at the end of February when temperatures can range from -3 to +15 degrees c on the west coast of Scotland. I hung 5 kg of Salami inside the cage which was now impregnable due to some diligent prep work and I couldn't help but check on my creations evry day for the first week. After a fortnight of damp weather ranging between 5 and 12 degrees not much was happening, but then it got drier and the wind picked up. On week 3 the salami started to firm up after the second wipe down with rice vinegar and a fine, almost seductive white velvety mould started to appear. Weeks 3 - 6 saw the temperature reach 15 degrees through the day and -3 at night with high humidity for the most part with plenty of wind. After 6 weeks I removed the salami and hung them in my kitchen and that earthy, saliva producing odour started to waft through the house, my dog was uneasy!! The finished product was slighly tougher than I would have liked, but when sliced paper thin it was not noticed. I think the firmness was due more to the lack of back fat (1.5 cups finely chopped) in the mixture rather than the environment in which the curing took place. The flavour was exquisite. My workmates asked to purchase it after trying samples in the office and the creamy texture of the product was almost as good as some of the artisanal products I have tried in the Mediterranean. I wanted to share my experience with you guys to perhaps show others at hobby or food lover level as opposed to professional, that it is possible to make a fantastic product without spending a lot of money and time building curing rooms and using chemicals. Nick

Hi everyone, I'm about to enter the food industry in Scotland, something I have been considering for a long time, so I'm here to pick up some tips and share my experiences with all foods Scottish (and a bit more exotic!) as part of my preperations for the challenge ahead! Nick