Organic Pork

organic and free range pork

Pork is a another wonderful animal that fascinates me as much as any other. You can make loads of great interesting things with it: sausages, bacon, ham, pancetta, pata negra serrano, trotters, drisheen, and the list goes on...

The French and Italian traditions particularily attract my interest but there are many great innovative producers elsewhere. I'm lucky to have Joseph who is a master Polish butcher as part of my team in Brussels and i'm still learning all the things he knows about the animal.He makes great Kielbasa and smoked pork and bacon products. His Kielbasa Bialya is awesome, as is his interpretation of Irish corned beef and boiling ham.

With a couple of notable exceptions, most cultures have their own pork traditions.

I really learned great pork butchery in Brussels. The Belgians are master butchers and they have lots of great preparations, being great gourmets and at a crossroads between the Germans and the French. Sadly i didn't experience great pork until i tried the Ardennes organic or the Dorset variety. It is a totally different animal than the poor intensively reared one. Its all in the feed. The meat has a far richer colour and should be hung for at least a week but can go to two with spectacular results. It has, by this stage, a beautiful firm flesh, sweet fat and crispy, crispy crackling. I can't understand anyone who removes the crackling before the joint is roasted. My sister Grainne does the most amazing roast with crackling, apple sauce and Jerusalem artichokes. It can be served medium/well, when of such an extremely high quality.

I remember selling the most wonderful "hard-salt" bacon at home in Dad's shop in Tipperary. The farmer who cured it basically covered it in salt in a wooden box for several weeks, then hung it up in the farmhouse chimney in Drombane to smoke for a while. It must be steeped in several baths of cold water to dissolve the salt content, then it is usually simmered with cabbage and eaten with boiled and buttered potatoes and a mustard or bread sauce. It is unbeatable!

We all think we invented the wheel but its amazing when you realise how many similarities we have in preparing this noble beast. I never thought i would have black pudding in Cartegena! ..and you must try chinese pork sausages."Sweet as a nut !" they say.

What cut to ask for?

roast loin

Our most popular cut of pork. This is one of the best roasts you can do. It's easy, you don't have to be too exact about the timing. in that it's very forgiving and you always end up saying "why don't we do this more often?"

it can also be cut into chops and be griddled, roasted or best: barbequed.

spiringue - butt end

In beef terms its a ribeye. I learned this one in Belgium. Its juicier than a loin chop and is superb on the barbeque, due to its fat content and ability to be crispy and juicy at the same time. Dice it up and stick it on skewers with veg and griddle it if you don't have an outdoor grill. You'll be eating pork more often.

My friend Chris in Seattle brines and slow roasts a whole one on the bone to produce the most wonderful pulled pork you will ever imagine. In America its called the "boston butt".

hams and bacon

We dry cure and wet cure all our own hams and bacon. In Brussels we smoke them also but we don't yet have the facility in London. The ham is great and is not salty to taste as we are very precise with the measurements. It is salted consistently every time and we serve it cooked in the deli. In Belgium we shape the ham in a mould before we place both in the simmering water to be cooked. It also works great in the big steam oven and is very popular, glazed with honey and brown sugar and spiked with cloves.

The dry-cured bacon is made, using the same blend of salts and sugar but at a different percentage due to its lesser density.

You can have them both sliced to your own preferred thickness.

We sometimes smoke hams for people that don't require further cooking and these hams are delicious thinly sliced and eaten like prosciutto.

The Scandinavians share the same love of Christmas hams as we do in Britain and Ireland and are more or less prepared in the same way.

other pork cuts...

We buy in the whole organic sides so we can do all cuts and speciality cuts to order. We have made Boudin Blanc and Salsicce sausages to order and will always make your favorite types on request. i've a vast collection of customers sausage recipes from around the world.