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Chashu braised pork belly

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Chashu is Japanese braised pork belly. It is not cha shao (or “char siu”), which is a Chinese version of barbecue.

For our braising liquid we used garlic, ginger, onion, a few whole black peppercorns, several large spoonfuls of sugar, a splash of vinegar, 1/2 a cup of soy sauce, and 2 parts apple juice to 1 part water (how much braising liquid you need depends on how big your pork belly is.)

Get some pork belly

Pork belly is the same cut that bacon is made from. We encourage people who buy half hogs from us to get uncured pork belly and buy bacon from us separately. Yes, the bacon is a bit more expensive this way, but you know exactly how much bacon you are getting. (The size of a pig’s belly varies, of course, so some pigs make more bacon than others.) We would love to sell pork belly on its own, but because bacon is so popular we would have to put quite a high price on the pork belly to justify not making bacon out of it.

Roll it up

The goal is to cook this low and slow so that it braises and stays juicy and delicious. We set the oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit but a pork belly is a relatively thin slab which will still cook quickly and dry out. If you roll it up tight and tie it with kitchen twine, this decreases the surface:mass ratio, which helps the pork belly retain moisture while cooking longer. It needs around 5 hours to cook properly but the longer it goes the better it is going to taste.

It might be even better the next day

Boil the braising liquid before using it so that the sugar dissolves and the flavors mix together. Braise the pork belly in a sturdy pot in the oven and turn it every hour so that all sides of the roll get to cook in the braising liquid. When it is finished slice off rounds. This is normally a main addition to tonkotsu ramen (made with pork bone broth). However…if you keep it in the braising liquid after cooking marinate the cooked chashu pork belly overnight in the refrigerator, you may find that it is even better the next day. It’s especially good if you pan-fry slices over high heat, as if cooking bacon, as the edges will get brown and crispy but the middle will remain soft and juicy.

Mobile chicken fertilizer machines

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We have another Youtube video up. Now that the fall rains have come, the cool season grasses are doing great in the wake of our mobile chicken coops. Just enough chicken manure plus scratching has resulted in visibly better growth compared with grass nearby where we did not run chickens.

Check out the video:

Our half hog cut list 2018

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No matter how you slice it

The time has come and the pigs are soon heading to the butcher.  If you're wondering how to order a half hog custom butchered for your family, here's what we're doing this year.  Maybe you'll get some ideas!  

From the front of the pig to the back:

Shoulder: 5 pound roasts, leave a very generous fat cap of at least an inch.

Picnic Shoulder: 5 pound roasts, leave plenty of fat.  

Tenderloin:  Pull off and cut in half.

Bone-in pork loin chops, double-thick (1 1/2 inches thick), 3 per package, leave a generous amount of fat on the chops.

Country ribs (these are "button ribs").  3 per package.

Cut fresh pork belly into 3 pound roasts.  (Bacon is good too, but we get plenty of bacon.)

Spareribs: half racks.

Ham: cure.  Cut 1 inch thick center-cut ham steaks, one per package.  

Ham hock: smoke.

Sausage:  Half breakfast sausage, half plain ground pork.

Keep the extra trimmed fat (we'll make lard.)

Keep the offal (liver, kidneys, heart)

Keep soup bones

Keep the head to make head cheese

 

July Chickens Sold Out!

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One more chance to get chickens this year

Thanks to all of you who ordered, we are sold out of pasture-raised chickens for July.  We will be doing one more batch of chickens available for pickup in early October.  We encourage you to place an order as soon as possible, as these will be the last chickens we have available before next year.

Chicken subscriptions

Would you like to get one, two, or more pasture-raised chickens every month or two during the summer of 2019, delivered to a pickup location near you, so that you can have healthy, tasty, natural chicken all summer, at our bulk order price, without having to fill up your freezer?  Please let us know if this interests you and make sure you sign up for our newsletter.

We are ascertaining interest only; you need not make any commitment at this time.  Over the winter we will contact those interested with potential pickup dates and locations, and you can place a subscription order at that time if you would like to do so.  Please note that while we hope to be in more farm markets next year and you can of course buy from us there (details to be announced), we will only be offering our bulk order pricing to pre-order customers.