Oyama Sausage Charcuterie Course

[barolo]

Oyama is offering a one-day charcuterie course on Saturday, October 21st; I think the price is $350. This would be a great gift for someone.

[eatrustic]

I noticed it as well and I was sorely tempted but that's a pretty steep price for a one day class that would probably not be much more than an overview.

Apparently they'll take half a pig and cut it into all the different components, ham, proscuitto, sausage etc. At first I thought $350 to get half a pigs worth of meat and some technique isn't bad but found out that it's a half for the whole group (number as yet to be determined) with "some" items to be given to take home.

Not sure if there is any hands on or just demo.

If it was a hands on for people with knife skills I'd be interested.

Maybe HSG could do a one day "deconstructing Ginger Bread Pudding" for say $200. per head!

[SBonner]

sounds interesting but the Borough Market offers a course with Iberian willbur's for 50 pounds... if you are in the U.K. of course.

Cheers,

Stephen

Edited September 24, 2006 by SBonner (log)

[Ling]

$350? I don't know what the difference is between Oyama classes and Porcella (in Bellevue) charcuterie classes, but the Porcella classes are usually $55 and include a bunch of products for you to take home.

[scarlett]

Porcella (in Bellevue) charcuterie classes, but the Porcella classes are usually $55 and include a bunch of products for you to take home.

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In my opinion, the best deal I've found is the Charcuterie classes at Culinary Communion in Seattle. The lecture portion is expansive and I found it very informative. The classes are set up as a hands on class. In reality, it's likely you may only work on making one item or two (out of the 7 or more items prepared in the class), but you get to pick which item you work on and they send you home with goodies. The opening lecture is comprehensive enough that even if you don't work on a particular item, you have a good idea what's going on and how it's approached.

What CC teaches for their Charcuterie class varies somewhat each time it's offered (if you've got a desire to learn something specific, let them know in advance and they'll try to work it in...). When I took my class, we did several different kinds of sausage, bacon, and at my request...smoked salmon.

While I enjoyed the Porcella class, I found it was light on content and in no way made me feel like I had enough knowlege to approach sausage on my own. The Culinary Communion class, on the otherhand, was really full of content...so much so that I think it would be worth a trip down from Vancouver.

Edited September 24, 2006 by scarlett (log)

[HKDave]

$350 sounds very steep for one day, especially if it's just a demo class... most charcuterie takes time, so it would be hard to see how you could taste the results of your labour in a one-day class. And things like making ham and prosciutto, while interesting, are not very practical for many urban-dwellers.

An alternative might be NWCAV's 'Serious Foodie Advanced' class, which is $550 for 8x3.5 hour evening classes, and includes lots of practical 'home charcuterie'. Students usually make rillettes, confit, duck prosciutto, gravlax and sausage, and it's fully hands-on; you work on every item. The class includes cooking full meals with the ingredients, and eating the results with a few glasses of wine. They also cover butchering duck, quail, fish and a side of pig.

Details: http://www.nwcav.com/ncav_programs_events.php, click on 'Serious Foodie Advanced'. I've been a student and an assistant instructor at NWCAV in the past, but I'm not involved at the moment.

Thread on the class from past eG participants:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=74479

The 'Advanced' class is discussed later in the thread.

[Mellich]

Edited October 5, 2006 by Mellich (log)

[eatrustic]

So the first Oyama course has come and gone with apparently 10 "graduates". Another one is planned for the new year. Did anyone attend this one? I'd love to hear what was offered for the bucks.