Oink

[Daniel]

The order for this weekends festivities has been filled. Having a few friends over for a going away party.. The pathword ith oink..

Edited November 19, 2005 by Daniel (log)

[Toliver]

Please post porcine pictures promptly!

[Megan Blocker]

Yes, yes, yes!!!! I cannot wait to see the delights that come out of that kitchen o' yours, Daniel. Will you be washing all the pork down with your keg of Bud, or is that for a different gathering?

[Grub]

Oooooh man... Now, THIS I wanna see!

[handmc]

Yo killen me Man! Wilbur screams Oh NOOOOOOOOOOOO!

The rest of use drool in anticipation

[I_call_the_duck]

Are you telling me that you're getting 10 pounds of BACON?! Oh man, I'll just follow the aroma of bacon to your place and crash this party of yours. OINK!

[Daniel]

Are you telling me that you're getting 10 pounds of BACON?! Oh man, I'll just follow the aroma of bacon to your place and crash this party of yours.  OINK!

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Yah.. In my fridge I have about 40 pounds of various pork products.. Its almost overwhelming.

Edited November 19, 2005 by Daniel (log)

[*Deborah*]

Daniel, you are just astonishing.

I mean that in a good way!

[Theven]

I just confirmed my appointment at Dr. Daniels house tomorrow!!!

I cant wait =)

[BryanZ]

Are you telling me that you're getting 10 pounds of BACON?! Oh man, I'll just follow the aroma of bacon to your place and crash this party of yours.  OINK!

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Yah.. In my fridge I have about 40 pounds of various pork products.. Its almost overwhelming.

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I love how it's sitting on a washing machine. It's like when Varmint's Pig Pickin' goat was sitting in his bathtub.

[I_call_the_duck]

Are you telling me that you're getting 10 pounds of BACON?! Oh man, I'll just follow the aroma of bacon to your place and crash this party of yours.  OINK!

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Yah.. In my fridge I have about 40 pounds of various pork products.. Its almost overwhelming.

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Not as bad as having a pig head stare at you when you're reaching for a beer.

Mmmm...pork.

[rjwong]

So, this little piggy eats its own, ehh? If it weren't for the cardiologist, I'd ...

BTW, is any of your pork products peppered? And how do you like your non-Ronco knives?

[Daniel]

The Non-Co's are doing ok.. I had to go out at one point yesterday and get a straight razor for scoring the skin on the shoulder.. But after that, everything was irie.. While butchering the pig's head I could have used more powerful knife.. But I went the gentle approach and used a hammer to break the cheek... But everything is comming together really well.. Hors Devours are almost done, have two desserts left, and the other dishes just need to go into the oven...

Edited November 21, 2005 by Daniel (log)

[Jake]

I cannot wait to see the results, Daniel. Drooling already!

[Daniel]

Tonight went great... The best part was seeing all my friends.. I will post the pictures and do the write up soon..The meal was a little over the top with all the courses.. But it was the first time cooking any of these dishes and most of the cuts of meat.. What a great time..

Here is cool shot of boiled bacon..

[I_call_the_duck]

Tonight went great... The best part was seeing all my friends.. I will post the pictures and do the write up soon..The meal was a little over the top with all the courses.. But it was the first time cooking any of these dishes and most of the cuts of meat.. What a great time..

Here is cool shot of boiled bacon..

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Oooh...We are not worthy. (salaaming)

Can't wait to see the rest of it. Hail to the pig!

[handmc]

you tease!!! Stop the torture.

[Daniel]

So the Porkfest was a huge success...The biggest thanks and praise goes to my girlfriend.. She really worked so hard and let me hang out and drink beer with my friends.. She did such a great job.

We had hors devours waiting for people when they arrived.. The first dish was pork tenderloin brined for two days served on crostini, with a puree of sweet potatoes and bacon.. This dish is fantastic. The tenderloin really absorbs the brine, which consists of star anise, all spice, equal parts sugar and salt.. Great dish

We also had mini pork burgers.. This was a little bit of an after thought. I basically took spicy Italian Sausage out of the casings and made into burger.. I wasn't going to make this until I found the mini potato rolls.. I was going to do this with country ham, but went this route..

Next, I took 10 pounds of smoked ham hocks.. Boiled with carrots,celery,onion,leek, a bouquet garni.. Then I shredded the meat added some of the reserved stock... To that I added Cornichons, onions, capers, then added some gelatin and put in Terrine..

Served with toast

So these were the starters.. I had waited to long to order a keg of beer.. But in all reality, with the deposit, the delivery, the returning of the tap and everything else, the convenience of a keg was taken away.. So a cheap plastic mini garbage can, filled with bottles of beer, was the best choice...

It was difficult to really plan the menu out because I didn't know what time everyone was coming.. Some people were coming at 1pm others a 4pm.. Everyone showed up at 2 pm.. I only have one oven and all of the meats cooked for long amounts of time at different temperatures.. For example, I had a crown roast that needs at least 4 hours at 300 degrees.. Not to mention it took up all the space in the oven.. We worked it out and dishes came out at a perfect pace... People were served or came to get to get there own food.. There was no formal place settings and the football game was on.. So some ate in the dining room, others the kitchen or the living room..

First Course.. Boiled Bacon

7lbs of Bacon Boiled

Boiled first with leeks,carrots and onion for 2.5 hours.. Put in the fridge overnight..

Then the skin layer is peeled leaving the this gorgeous pink meat.. A rub of star anise,coriander,cinnamon, is placed on it.. Then a glaze of port,rice wine vinegar and honey is brushed on.. It gets to room temperature and you serve.. It was phenomenal.. It was a few peoples favorite dish..

Second Course: Pork Belly

We bought the Belly 6 1/2 pound pork belly with the skin off, but the butcher packed the skin.. We First tied the belly..

Cut the skin into pieces.. And browned..

Some things dont make it out of the kitchen

Then we browned the belly.. The we placed the belly on top of the pieces of skin added vegetables and covered with chicken stock and soy sauce.. Braised for 3 hours..

Sliced it

Fried the slices in foaming butter and then placed it in the reduced braising liquid..

Oh gosh, if this was served on a plate it would be the base for an amazing meal..It was very good as it was though served to 10 people on a platter.. This was one of a few platters of the meat yielded.

Third Course:

Next was the Pigs Head Dish.. PIgs headI described this dish in detail on another thread..This dish dried out a little.. Unfortunately, I made it too early or had the party too late.. It was still really good.. Everyone really like this dish until I told them what it was.. But people took it well and still thought it was good.. I was aware of the company and dont make a practice of sneaking people pig ears and tongues..

Fried this in butter..It was really creamy. .The sweetbreads,tongue and ear all melded together..

Fourth Course: We took 4lb Pork Loin Roast.. Hollowed a hold in the center running through.. Stuffed with bread cubes, bacon,garlic,rosemary and parsley..

Stuffed..

Cooked..

Fith Course:

16 Chop Crown Roast.. This thing was beautiful.. I guess now is the time to praise Espositos Pork Store.. They had all the meat and filled the order the same day. They were really helpful, helping me to my car and just overall really professional.. 16 chops stuffed with pork stuffing.. It was delicious.. Was moist and juicy as was all the pork.. Not one thing was dry..

Here is a double chop plate for someone..

Fith Course:

A 7.5 pound shoulder..The night before we scored the skin with a razor and salted it.. The day of we roasted in the oven..

Edited November 22, 2005 by Daniel (log)

[Daniel]

Cut the skin off and cut into small pieces..

Dessert

This was IMO the most creative and interesting part.. It really was based around tofee covered bacon.. Or Bacon Brittle or whatever you want to call it.. We basically cubed bacon, fried it and covered in tofee.. It really is amazing.. Covers the bacon in a protective sweet shell forever keeping it crisp..

Beautiful

Cake.. We made a Pierre Hermes Suzy's Cake.. Put the Toffee Bacon and a Caramel Ganache in between the layers.. Covered with the glaze from the Pave cake.. Giving the cake a hard shell.. It was delicious, rich, and the bacon went really well...

Served with a 10 egg yolk vanilla custard with toffee bacon..

Thanks to Ling for the suggestion.. We made a Bacon Brioche Pudding with a sugar bourbon glaze.. This was awesome.. It really was delicious..

Amazing..

I am very thankful for what a great job my girlfriend did and what a great time I had with my friends.

Edited November 22, 2005 by Daniel (log)

[BryanZ]

Wow! How many people were you serving? That was a ridiculous amount of food. And I LOVE how you used pork in your dessert. A fantastic job.

[mochihead]

Yum! You make me want to start eating land meat again.... almost! *sniffle tear* I miss pig's ear and the crispy skin! The toffee bacon looks amazing and reminds me of sweet suckling piglet... mmmm...

And I second BryanZ's question: how many people were you feeding?!

[ChefCrash]

How tall are you and how much do you weigh?

[Ling]

best . thread . EVER.

So inspiring to see all the hours and hours of prep work, and the delicious results! (That crispy skin on the pig shoulder...man, I wish I could've snagged an invite! ) So happy that the bacon brioche pudding turned out well! Which was your favourite dish of the night?

Edited November 22, 2005 by Ling (log)

[handmc]

Truly amazing. I see a grant from the pork insititue coming your way!

Bacon for dessert. Angels are singing your name in praise.

Have you checked your blood values lately? If I sat down for a meal like that I would need the crash cart half way through, not like its a bad thing, I just would have to interrupt my chewing.

[Daniel]

Thanks everyone for your comments.. It was a lot of fun to do.. I am considering a Lamboree and a Duckstock.. But these are just far away thoughts..

In total there were 10 guests.. Not including doormen and we had someone helping us who took home some food.. She is from Ecuador and actually took a lot of parts home.. The skin from the ham hocks, the skin from the 7 lb bacon to make a bacon potato soup.. It was interesting to see her reaction.. She actually loved a lot of the dishes and wants us to email her recipes..

Despite the huge amount of food, there were very few left overs.. I have about 6 chops left on the crown roast.. Two slices of cake and a bowl of ice cream left..

Last night I used the rest of the shoulder making a Cuban Sandwich.. The best thing I do have is huge amounts of Stock left over from boiling 10 pounds of ham hocks.. Oh the collard greens I will make..

Edited November 22, 2005 by Daniel (log)