Holiday Gatherings

The Smokehaus loves a good party. As long as there is a fire and a beasty to throw on it, we will be there.

Warmth and pork - with the occasional vegetable thrown in - November (and December, and January) seems built for celebrating. The abbreviation of daylight seems to hasten midnight behavior: gluttony, affection, caterwalling, wrestling, and dreaming of strawberries.

It is perhaps this season, when summer is abruptly yanked off the stage by winter's frosty cane, that we begin to fully grasp the importance of friends, a fire, a meal, and once again utilize the mysteries of a long darkness.

Happy November, dear readers. It's gonna be a great winter. 

Brussels Sprouts with Chorizo

This recipe has been known to convert the pickiest of vegetable-phobes; as usual, the incorporation of meat is just the thing to do the trick. Adapted from Saveur, our Chorizo really makes it sing. 

Smokehaus Brussels Sprouts

2 lbs fresh Brussels sprouts

1/4 lb Chorizo, small-diced

2 Tbsp olive oil

Kosher salt, to taste

3-4 shallots, small-diced

3 cloves of garlic, minced

Fresh-ground black pepper, to taste 

Directions:

Put a large pot of salted water on to boil. Trim and halve the sprouts. When the water comes to a boil, drop in the sprouts and cook until just tender, 7-10 minutes. Drain and let cool. Heat 1 Tbsp of the oil in a large, heavy skillet on medium-high. Add the chorizo and brown. Add the shallots and cook until soft, then add the garlic and cook until soft; about 2 more minutes. Remove this mixture to a bowl. Turn up the heat on the skillet and add remaining 1 Tbsp of oil. Add the Brussels sprouts and cook until browned and tender. Incorporate the Chorizo mixture and add salt and pepper to taste.

Butcher Day

Today was a great day for the Smokehaus. We received two local hogs and were able to butcher them ourselves: this means we could perform special cuts in order to create special meats, such as the Austrian Speck and Germanic head cheese.

Eric's brand-new soul brother Mike Phillips was on hand, teaching us technique and getting a pig of his own. Mike comes from Minneapolis by way of Iowa, in a town a stone's throw away from Eric's hometown. Amid fascinated stares from the Smokehaus crew and more bone-saws than a splatter-porn, the first hog was beheaded, de-jowled, and made into a facsimile of "meat" before most butchers could have their cleavers sharpened. Mike sure does know his way around a carcass.

Although this task was (ahem) a little graphic, this blogger believes that it is the duty of any chaircutier to understand the animal, in all its stages - guts and all. In the abstract, the flesh is profoundly beautiful - with elegant pink muscle stretched against the skeletal architecture, filigreed with snowy white fat - the animal on the butcher's table is the proverbial sculptor's granite, just waiting for the craftsman to reveal the hidden, intrinsic masterpiece.

We plan on doing this a lot more in the future, but for now we plan on smoking, curing, rolling, tying, braising, and savoring every part of this glorious animal. And that is sublime.

Photoshoots and Meatmodels

October is mildly slow at the Smokehaus, so we spend time regrouping, re-organizing, and creatively spazzing-out like only we Smokehaus lifers know how. Any lack of customer activity will be amply compensated with an unaltered productive pace - demand be damned. Last week, we took some photos on the eighth floor of the Dewitt Seitz building, where the light is always good, even on grey Autumn afternoons.

Our Berkshire Ham was the supermodel of the afternoon, showing off its jewel-tone pinks and snowy-white fat like Harry Winston diamonds. We shot dozens of pictures before we realized that they ALL were gorgeous (and therefore website appropriate), and forced ourselves to move on to smoked pork loin.

 This week, we plan on giving equal affection to our in-development catering menu, so get ready for some sexy shots of antipasti, cheeseboards, and salumi ...

xoxo, 

Mary & April