Noix de Jambon

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After working with Dominique and the Chapolards on the farm for a few weeks, I finally got their system down. On Monday, we would receive nine or ten pig carcasses, fresh from the abattoir. Each day of the week, we would break a couple carcasses and slowly deplete the pork supply hanging in the walk-in refrigerator.  In their place, were our conversions of traditional French charcuterie offerings such as pâtés, blood puddings, paupiettes, graton, and fricandeaux. All of these products, along with fresh cuts like chops and roasts, would be sold at one of the four weekly markets the Chapolard family attends. By the end of each week, the walk-in refrigerator would set empty and delicious charcuterie would be on French tables all across the South of France.

That’s what I call nose-to-tail!

The Chapolards offerings can be sorted into four categories:

• Dried Products:Noix de Jambon, Coppa, and Filet sec

a ham hanging in Kate's closet.

• Fermented Sausages:Saucisson, Saucisse seche, and Chorizo

French Salami before hitting the fermentation cabinet.

• Cooked Products:Pâtes, head cheese, roasts, Graton, and blood pudding

Cooked blood pudding.

• Fresh Products: various fresh sausages, roasts, ventreche roulee, and kabobs

• and of course, the breadwinner of any charcutier,  the Jambon de Bayonne.

Here’s the problem – Jambon Bayonne is incredibly hard to produce on a large scale. The hams take up a lot of space and they occupy that space for a year or more. In addition,  it's an absolute crapshoot every time you open one up. If any of the meat inside the ham, specifically next to the thighbone, is traumatized before or during slaughter, you have essentially created an 18-month-old stink bomb full of deadly bacteria. Any excess blood left in the ham can also lead to rotted flesh.

Being a charcuterie-making French family,  the Chapolards naturally made Jambon Bayonne. Dominique estimated 20% of the Jambon Bayonne his family produced was inedible by the end of the 18-month drying period. He decided this spoilage had to end. After some research and experimentation, he discovered the family should cease making Jambon Bayonne and instead use those hams to make Noix de Jambon.

Noix de Jambon before the tying and smoking stages.

To create Noix de Jambon, Dominique isolates whole muscles from the ham and dries them individually.  This reduces the hang time from 18-months to just six weeks.  It also allows him to pick out traumatized protein and other unwanteds that could potentially be hazardous to preservation.

Noix de Jambon is one of Dominique’s best selling items at the farmer's markets. Sliced thin, it is perfect for aperitifs or as a substitute for ham in your favorite recipe.

The Chapolard Family of Gascony

Dominique Chapolard working his stand at one of the various farmers' markets in Gascony.

Round Two in Gascony was meant to give me a thorough knowledge of traditional French charcuterie and luckily I scored a two-month apprenticeship with one of the best charcutiers in the country - Dominique Chapolard.

The drive into the Chapolard's farm.

Dominique’s family owns a 50-hectare farm just between Nerac and Mézin.  His grandfather originally purchased the farm from a dying winemaker after the Great War. He and his wife began raising dairy cows on the property and added apple, peach, and prune orchards until a large storm in 1968 destroyed much of the fruit trees. By this time, Dominique’s father and uncle had taken on the bulk of the responsibility of the farm. The second generation decided to try their hand growing melons, cucumbers, and tomatoes.

Eventually, Dominique's father gave up on the fruit and vegetables and invested in Blonde Aquitaine cattle known for their delicious beef. Like most French families, he always bought two piglets every year for his family’s personal consumption. When the region’s pig farmer passed away, Dominique’s father seized the chance to move into pork – he bought two sows, built a small farm laboratory and became a pig farmer and charcutier.

As a child, Dominique worked on the farm and watched as his family labored over fruits and vegetables for such a meager living.  So when the time came, Dominique chose to pursue a life in academia instead of agriculture. He didn't stray far from the farm, though.  After he married his wife Christiane, he took a position teaching Forestry at the Université Toulouse. From there he accepted a position as headmaster at another agricultural school before finally returning to the family farm to help his three brothers, Mark, Bruno, and Jacque, with the pork operation.

Today, each brother pitches in around the farm, but each has his own specific role to play. Dominique concentrates on the walk-in cooler and turning half carcasses into various forms of charcuterie. He also mans the family stand at the Lavardac and Nérac farmer’s markets.

Jacque raises the pigs and looks after the crops. Bruno and Mark help with the crops, the butchery, and additional farmer's markets.  And then there is a wide assortment of spouses and children that fill in to help the farm turn a profit. As if grain crops, pigs, and charcuterie weren't enough, two of Jacque’s sons have started a dairy operation.

Flots Blancs is hands down the best milk and yogurt I’ve ever tasted.

The best milk I've ever had.

The Chapolard family was gracious enough to take me in and teach me their family recipes and way of life.  Under Dominique’s careful watch, I have gained a firmer grasp on this component of craft butchery. Hopefully, by the time I leave, I will be able to call myself a charcutier.

The Kitchen at Camont and the Art of Charcuterie

Leg 2 of my Culinary Journey is down and it was a crazy, busy week. I am still on the road, but I wanted to give everyone a short recap of the week. Don't worry, I will revisit this subject in depth when I have a bit more free time.

Renzo Girabaldi, one of my butchering idols, was quoted saying,

"If you want to learn to surf, you go to California. If you want to learn charcuterie, you go to France."

Thus, I made the journey to France for a week long advanced charcuterie class with the culinary master, Kate Hill. Kate is an expat, who has called the Southern French countryside her home for the past thirty years. In the culinary world, she has done it all - a professional cook, a published author, a teacher and a consultant. At one point, Kate even bought a French barge where she hosted magnificent dinner parties abundant with fabulous foods and the best of wines.

Kate Hill working on a pâté en croute.

For this particular charcuterie class, Kate teamed up the Chapolard family and long-time friend, Dominic Chapolard, who runs a local organic pork and charcuterie farm. To further enhance the educational value of the course, Kate enlisted the help of Dr. Michele Pfannenstiel, the guru of food safety and HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points).

Ok, I realize I probably lost you there.

Essentially, HACCP is a systematic preventative approach to ensure your food is contamination free of physical, chemical, or microbiological hazards. And in the charcuterie game, where you dry and cure meat anywhere from a month to a couple of years, HACCP procedures are pretty important. If you don't follow every step with extreme caution and care, you might end up with a ham full of harmful pathogens instead of a scrumptious Noix de Jambon.

The class was small and exclusive with only two fellow students, Ben and Tyllan. Ben is a good ol' mate and third generation butcher from Australia.  He recently took over his father's butcher shop, The Beef Joint. Ben signed up for the class so he could incorporate a charcuterie program into his offerings and market delicious cured meats to the people Down Under.

Tyllan is on the other side of the business, selling acorn-fed pork.  His company, Walden Hill, is feeding New England top-notch pork infused with incredibly flavorful fat that comes from hand-picked acorns. The three of us made for one hell-of-a butchering trio and I was extremely blessed to be among this group.

My charcuterie class with master butcher, Dominique Chapolard.

Our accommodations and classrooms were stuff dreams are made of. Most of the work took place on the Chapolard's farm or at Kate's residence, The Kitchen-at-Camont. In our downtime, Ben,Tyllan, and I were housed at the Château de Mazelières a French castle built in the 17th century. It boasted a Lebanese Cyprus tree, brought back by Crusaders from their travels in the Middle East. We chided Kate we would have learned charcuterie in half the allotted time if our accommodations hadn't been so nice!

Grape vines at the Château Mazelières.

Château Mazelières

To start the course out, we began with an introduction to HACCP.  Luckily, this wasn't my first go-around with the tricky food safety beast -I actually became HACCP certified last summer down in Aggieland (College Station, Texas). At times, all this information is a tad overwhelming and confusing, but if you want to make great, and more importantly SAFE charcuterie, you need to know this stuff. Luckily, Dr. Pfannenstiel is the best in the HACCP business, and by the end of the week, I had a much better grasp on food safety.

HACCP class is in session!

On the second day,  we set out to visit the Chapolard farm.  Dominic, the eldest of the four Chapolard brothers, is a former headmaster turned head butcher.  He prides himself in growing organic non-GMO grains to exclusively feed his entire pork operation.

Pigs at the Chapolard farm.

Dominic gave us a short tour of their charcuterie production facility and when the truck with the freshly slaughtered pork carcasses arrived, Dominic showed us how he broke down the pork side best suited for his charcuterie needs.  He ended the day by teaching us how to make blood sausage.

Charcuterie aging in the attic of the Chapolard home.

Saucisson curing in the Chapolard facilites.

Over the next few days, each piece of our Chapolard pig was slowly transformed into some form of traditional French charcuterie:

• Saucisson (sausage)
• Saucisse séche (dry sausage)
• Noix de Jambon (small, boneless cold-smoked hams)
• Ventrèche (rolled pork belly)
• and Coppa (neck muscle from the Boston Butt)

Dominique showing us caul fat.

A Fricandeaux - a ball of pate meat wrapped in caul fat.

After the larger pieces had been made and laid to cure, we took the remaining odds and ends and turn them into pâté and rillettes.

I made one amazing Texas pâté, if I might say so myself!

It took me a little bit longer to complete my pate, but I'm sure you can see why.

Final product turned out pretty decent - I recognize that shape!

We even went as far as to render down pork lard. That's what I like about charcuterie - it puts the entire animal to use.

Later in the week, we visited the Laverdac Market where the Chapolard family sells all their production. Their pork and by-products are highly regarded and sought after in the area so they sold out quickly.

Fresh Mushrooms at the market.

Some sort of delicious egg and ham mixture set in jelly that we procured at the Laverdac Market.

My week with Kate Hill and her French Charcuterie class was an incredible week that I wish didn't have to end. I made some incredible new friends, learned to make incredible cured meats, and packed an incredible amount of HACCP knowledge into my brain! We ended the week with a typical champagne toast and requisite group pictures.

Dining al fresco

Getting my pictures in

So with my second goal accomplished and to officially close this chapter of my culinary adventure, I got Kate to autograph my topper.

God is good.

Next stop, Panzano Italy!