Join Podchef, Neal Foley, at Claddagh Farms on March 18th in welcoming Kate Hill and French Farmer/Butcher/Charcutier Dominique Chapolard from Gascony for a full day, intense, butchery & charcuterie workshop. Kate, an American living in Gascony for the last 20+ years, teaches cooking classes from her home at Camont. Dominique and his butcher brothers raise and process 8-10 pigs a week, 52 weeks a year, and sell the meat & farm-produced Charcuterie at numerous markets.

"In Gascony where Chapolard farms and Hill teaches at her 18th century Kitchen-at-Camont, good pork, duck, lamb and beef provide the backbone of classic charcuterie. Kate and Dominique are bringing their savoir-faire and love for this good Gascon food on tour to America with Cochon & Charcuterie: a workshop from Gascony to demonstrate the intricate art of butchering traditional French pork cuts for the preparation of authentic charcuterie. Professionals, cooks, food lovers and Charcutepalooza’ers will learn the basics of traditional French seam butchery and authentic charcuterie from these two passionate teachers and their welcoming hosts".

This fabulous experience is not to be missed. Kate & Dominique will be bringing French tradition and practical experience to our farm here in the US.

In the morning, Dominique will demonstrate seam-butchery--cutting meat along the natural muscle seams, rather than across them with a band-saw--as he shows us how to make premium French cuts of porc. He will be breaking down one of my mature, year old, pasture raised, milk & barley fed pigs. Then, after a short, informal & informational lunch, Kate, Dominique and I will help you learn about traditional French charcuterie using whole muscle cuts, salt and pepper. We will be sharing techniques and recipes with you for terrines, patés, ventrèche, poitrine salée, coppa, jambon and filet sec, etc. In the time allowed we will try to touch on the four corners of charcuterie: the cooked, the salted, the cured and the dried. At the end of our busy day, we will sample some of what we created and there will be a brief question answer period about the cycle of life--Seed to Sausage. For those of you staying in the area--I suggest The Belfast Harbor Inn--we can continue the conversation over dinner in Belfast.

Additionally, for those of you interested, there are a limited number of spaces available for the 17th of March to participate in a traditional on-farm slaughter. We will kill, scald and scrap a pig in the morning, and after a quick lunch Podchef will lead you through processing the offal into paté, traditional Gascon Boudin Noir, & Gascon Offal Brochettes. Your hard work and efforts will form the basis of the following day's tasting lunch.

(For official Charcutepalooza participants there will be a discount code for a 10% discount--ask for verification & code immediately!)

PS due to the nature of this workshop--a pig has to die & two people have to travel across the Atlantic and the States--the fee for the classes is NON-REFUNDABLE.