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TAKES ONE (SLOW) STEP BEYOND
BY SUZANNE WELANDER
Pork is no stranger to the slow-cooking methods that yield tender and juicy results—think barbecue. Yet a recent influx of creativity is pushing Southern slow-cooked pork to new culinary conclusions as Atlanta’s chefs celebrate nose-to-tail cuisine, putting cuts formerly shunned by diners in the center of the plate and creating painterly charcuteries that enhance pork’s flavor with nuances of truffle, pistachio and orange.
Whole-animal utilization is hot—and is the logical next step in the resurgence of a food culture that reconnects us not only with the local farms that produce the food but with the methods, history, traditions and lore of a time when, out of necessity, no piece of the animal went to waste.
Everything But the Oink
Not native to this continent, domesticated pigs accompanied the earliest explorations of both the English colonists and Spanish conquistadors. The pigs thrived, and soon became the major source of protein in the colonists’ diets as the availability of wild game waned.With their ability to economically translate food scraps into weight gain, pigs provided the meat of choice throughout the country, nowhere more so than in the South, which was extraordinarily dependent on pork.
In the time before streetlights, free-range pigs roamed the countryside in and around cities, their ears notched in a manner distinctive to their owner. Domestic pigs were efficient recyclers, foraging on food wastes that would otherwise fester. Food writer Jim Armuchy evokes the urban streetscape of that pre–CivilWar time: “It was nothing to see pigs roaming around. Most cities of any size were surrounded by trails carved by people driving their pigs to market.”
As if to underscore the difficulty authorities encountered in changing this culture, pigs are the only animals explicitly prohibited by Atlanta’s municipal code—with steep penalty. (Urban agronomists interested in replicating Oakland author Novella Carpenter’s recent dumpster-fed Duroc feat, take note.)
The culinary resurgence of off-cuts and offal finds firm footing in the hog killing day traditions where the community gathered to process the entire animal into edible components. Nothing would go to waste. Hams and middlings—the future bacon—would be set to cure, skins fried, lard rendered from fat, cooked sausage patties preserved with grease in jars. The choice pieces that didn’t lend themselves to longerterm preservation were eaten fresh, and relished: liver, brains, marrowfilled backbone and ribs.
This same ancient breakdown process is a scene now recreated in the kitchens of Atlanta’s finest restaurants. Butcher Todd Immel of Star Provisions describes the gathering of chefs when a whole pig is delivered: “It’s a fight for all,” he says, as chefs from different parts of the group’s operation negotiate over which parts they’ll get to work with.
Whole-animal sourcing has obvious implications for minimizing waste back on the farm, where small-scale producers can never produce more than two loins per animal. The team at 5 Seasons Westside has long made it a policy to source in way that’s considerate to the farmers’ production and inventory; Chef Philip Rainwater breaks down a whole animal religiously, every week.
Whole-animal sourcing embodies a spiritual and ethical commitment for Chef Linton Hopkins of Restaurant Eugene: “If we’re going to kill and harvest an animal for food, we owe a lot to that animal—there should be no waste. The greatest crime we can commit is throwing out a part because it makes us squeamish.”
Indeed, Linton summons what he calls a “medieval” sense of his craft by sourcing as whole as possible. He notes, “It’s critical to break down every animal—to know where that ribeye comes from, where that tenderloin comes from.” Relying upon layers of culinary techniques and an arsenal of cooking tools, maximum flavor is teased from every
portion. “We can use everything.We’re not going to favor one muscle group over another. It’s beef, it’s lamb… what’s the difference?”
Home Economics
Diners have exhibited extraordinary enthusiasm for menus celebrating whole-animal sourcing, making sensations out of Holeman and Finch—Restaurant Eugene’s next-door sister—and theWestside’s Abattoir, the latest restaurant from celebrated Atlanta chefs Anne Quatrano and Clifford Harrison. Sure, there’s a cool quotient in play, complete with tattoos of pig parts, but there’s also a mastery in the culinary skill required to work with cuts that are more challenging that the high-on-the-hog chops and filets. The weak economy provides further motivation to stray from premium cuts; why order an expensive filet that’s simple to cook at home when you could experience a less expensive dish with hours of preparation behind it?
Patience is the biggest asset of Abattoir executive chef Joshua Hopkins (no relation to Linton) when working with these cuts. “The biggest thing I’ve learned, especially with Annie [Quatrano] as a mentor, is patience.With the tougher cuts, it pays to wait on your food.With more patience, it’ll be better.”
Abattoir’s tripe stew is one reward. Braising the tripe in white wine, vegetable stock, sherry vinegar and lots of herbs for a very long time at a very low temperature produces a deeply satisfying broth that demands to be sopped up. Joshua sums up his philosophy simply: “To use everything I possibly can, and to have fun in the kitchen as much as possible.”
Joshua’s philosophy is catching on with home cooks who are trying new and different meat cuts. It’s a trend that hasn’t gone unnoticed at the farmers market.
“The interest in cooking has expanded—shoppers want to move beyond the pork chop and do some fun things,” says farmer Charlotte Swancy of Riverview Farms. “They’re making their own bacon, and sausages using home meat grinders.”
Curing is perhaps the ultimate frontier in slow cooking.With a turnaround time of months, it can take the better part of a year to perfect a new recipe. Still, sausage-maker Immel of Star Provisions is encouraging. “Making charcuterie is not hard to do. It’s all about weights and measures, a lot of trial and error, and taking good notes.” In addition to “the cure”—salt and sugar—Immel recommends including whatever spices interest you. Of late, for him that includes orange, anise, chipotle.
Rusty Bowers, who opened the charcuterie Pine Street Market earlier this year, elaborates on the benefits of using pork: “It takes on other flavors well, has a firm fat that works well in salamis, and pairs well with everything.” Pine Street ages their cased meats at their shop in Avondale Estates. “We even constructed the cure room ourselves, which has paid off in a greater knowledge of its workings.”
As cooks grow more adventurous, their desire to know where their meat comes from means more than “which farm?” Cooks and diners alike want to know the location of different muscle cuts within the animal. Buckhead Beef ’s master butcher Manny Vizcaino has seen the change, quietly noting “the knowledge, it is coming back.” Public events such as the butchering class held periodically by Whole Foods Market and Taste Network’s PRIMAL event raise awareness of the need for the butchering skills that are critical to a self-sustaining local food system, while giving participants a sense for the complete animal.
Atlantans, both in home kitchens and at restaurants, are reveling in the creative possibilities. In the end, it’s all about stretching and challenging yourself as a cook. Adds Chef Linton: “It’s not difficult, and can be a real home hobby. It’s a lot of fun.”
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Elevating the Art
A generation raised on supermarket sourcing has lost the knowledge of where chops—and any other cut, for that matter—are found on the animal. The butchers and meat shops that educated previous generations are nearly extinct, replaced with shelf-stockers. Slaughterhouses are closing, leaving farmers struggling to forge the local relationships that they need to keep their animals on the farm and out of the industrial meat stream. The consequences of conventional meat production are far-reaching, and once the infrastructure that supports local production fades, it’s not a simple matter to replace it.
Kick-starting public appreciation for the art of the butchering is the goal of Taste Network founder Brady Lowe. Through a series of public butchering demos and events, Lowe is eager for you to see exactly where your meat comes from. A posse of chefs, butchers, ranchers and farmers back him up, embodying the farm-to-table connection required to move an animal from pasture to plate.
Dispensing instruction interspersed with recipes, Chef Todd Mussman of Muss & Turners worked the crowd at Cut 3, a recent Taste Network event. Participants eagerly learned about the sections of the pig, the aging process and curing cabinets while Mussman proceeded to break down a side of pork supplied by farmer Tommy Searcy of Gum Creek Farm. The event was a lead-in to November 22’s PRIMAL, a large celebration of sustainably raised meats, butchering skills and wood-fire cooking techniques. In acknowledgement of the importance of whole-animal utilization as the foundation of a sustainable local food system, the 13 chefs collaborating on PRIMAL created dishes that emphasized out-of-the-ordinary meat cuts—goat tongue, pates, sausages and more.
Lowe’s next act comes early in 2010, with a revival of Cochon 555, the tour that combines live butcher demos with locally sourced meats. For more information, visit amusecochon.com.
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Why start with anything other than the most flavorful meats possible? Both chefs and diners in Atlanta realize that means local and humanely raised heritage breeds, sustainably husbanded in environments that allow the animals to exhibit their natural behaviors. Pigs, they like to root. Chickens scratch and peck. Cows graze on pastures, cherry-picking the tender greens they like the best until it’s time to go home. Allow them to do what they’d do naturally and the animal is healthier—and, not surprising, tastier. Chefs have always known this. Consumers are coming to appreciate it too.
Witness Whole Foods Market. Their five-step animal welfare rating system sets high standards for animal treatment, rewards farms for continuing to improve animal welfare practices— and weeds out interested producers that fall short. The resulting meat that finds its way to the stores is being snapped up by consumers: Before the end of the year, Whole Foods’ Southern Region will break the 1 million pound mark for sales of grass-fed beef sourced from Will Harris’ and Mac Baldwin’s Southern farms.
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Types of Charcuterie
Charcuterie, as a category of foods, includes sausages, hams, pates and other cooked or processed meat foods. Some of the particular forms are:
Rillette: Meat slowly cooked in a seasoned fat and then pounded or pulverized into a paste. Finished mixture is
packed in small pots and covered with a thin layer of fat.
Pate: Generally refers to various elegant, well-seasoned ground meat preparations. They may be cooked in a pork fat– lined container called a terrine, in which case they’re called pate en terrine.
Terrines: Generally interchangeable term with pate, originally referred to when served in the container it was cooked in.
* Definitions reprinted from the Food Lover’s Companion.
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One damn Yankee who enjoys getting as far out as possible, Suzanne Welander writes about nature, food and farming in Georgia. She is co-author of A Canoeing & Kayaking Guide to Georgia and provides support to farmers, businesses and community groups with sustainable food projects.
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