This was the weekend my darling daughter and I decided to do something with the liver, kidneys and heart of our pig Thumbelina.
As a child in Germany I grew up with a reasonably revolting bland version of Kalbsleberwurst, liverwurst made with veal and as an adult had tasted the most divine foie-gras. So I was intrigued to find out what it takes to make Liverwurst, a "peasant" style pate, and whether my family would eat it.
But first, I had to mince the meat! Since my last endeavours, involving a mains powered GRUNTY drill of my husband attached to a manual mincer, we had bought a proper electric meat mincer. And did it work a treat! I won't go into the details here, that'll be on the food blog!
Just trying to generate a bit more traffic over there. ;-)
Interestingly, for the first time ever I did feel a bit squeamish handling these amounts of raw meat. I suppose because liver does have quiet a distinct strong smell.
Anyway, nearly 4 kg's of processed and seasoned meat later, I can say the family is not against eating pig liver! And they did not eat that all in one go, I've made some into pate and the rest into meat patties, which will be frozen and served as my homemade fast food! But, we had the patties for dinner and my carniverous bunch devoured a huge load of them.
And as for me, I think I'm actually all meated out! But I've still got to finish frying the rest of the patties. I'm really looking forward to my shower tonight!!!
Our way of paying respect to a lovely animal is making every bit count beautifully.
Not quite sure if I will ever get to do something with the head though: the kids and I were perusing an old cook book and it had a recipe for a pig's head! They were not impressed, no cries" We've got to try this one" either. Let's wait and see.
TTFN
and the food stuff should go up, with a few pics too, in a couple of days.
Friday, October 5, 2012
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Zippity doo dah yay wayho
Spring caught up with me and as per usual I'm having a hard time keeping up!
Just a quick update, with some pics:
First up in the spring bonanza we had four white baby bunnies on the 2nd of September. There had been two more, but they had been too big and were born dead. Not too sure if my "breeding scheme" is working.
Next, four chickies: I had gotten Light Sussex eggs to add a different colour to my flock. Of 11 eggs four hatched live on the 14th of September.
And a fortnight ago (16.9) Poppy gave birth to two boys ( two days early), with serious help for the first one. I assume due to the stressful birth she developed mastitis and I ultimately had to give her a dose of Penicillin. It was all touch and go with her last Friday, but she's come right since then and is feeding her two boys well. And Tui, not to be outdone, gave birth on Saturday (29.9) to two boys. Three days early. And she did it all by herself, but was still grateful for the fortified cuppa tea I gave her afterwards.
Here are Poppy, Kara and Thing 1 and 2
And here Thing 3 and 4.
And our duck has been laying again, I've got now 9 eggs and I need to find a broody hen to hatch them now.
In the beginning of September we were dog sitting a friend's puppy and that added a whole new layer of organizing. She's a lovely Lab cross and at seven months was a lot more lively than our seven year old dog and 18 year old cat.
And last, but not least our fourth attempt at setting up a vege and herb garden that doesn't get used as a cat's litter box. We've had fences that were too high for the cats or chickens AND me! We absolutely adore the flexi tubs and decided to try these instead of planters. So, here is this year's colour scheme: red for tomatoes and green for salads, herbs and other veges. Surrounded by a mesh fence, the bottom 2 1/3 squares folded over to create a smaller sized gap along the bottom part of it, as the 10cm hole seemed big enough for our old puddy cat to get her head through! Now it's wait and see. And lightly water: I'm always very disheartened at the sight of freshly planted seedlings. Despite being watered, they always look soo bedraggled in the first weeks.
TTFN
Just a quick update, with some pics:
First up in the spring bonanza we had four white baby bunnies on the 2nd of September. There had been two more, but they had been too big and were born dead. Not too sure if my "breeding scheme" is working.
Next, four chickies: I had gotten Light Sussex eggs to add a different colour to my flock. Of 11 eggs four hatched live on the 14th of September.
And a fortnight ago (16.9) Poppy gave birth to two boys ( two days early), with serious help for the first one. I assume due to the stressful birth she developed mastitis and I ultimately had to give her a dose of Penicillin. It was all touch and go with her last Friday, but she's come right since then and is feeding her two boys well. And Tui, not to be outdone, gave birth on Saturday (29.9) to two boys. Three days early. And she did it all by herself, but was still grateful for the fortified cuppa tea I gave her afterwards.
Here are Poppy, Kara and Thing 1 and 2
And here Thing 3 and 4.
And our duck has been laying again, I've got now 9 eggs and I need to find a broody hen to hatch them now.
In the beginning of September we were dog sitting a friend's puppy and that added a whole new layer of organizing. She's a lovely Lab cross and at seven months was a lot more lively than our seven year old dog and 18 year old cat.
And last, but not least our fourth attempt at setting up a vege and herb garden that doesn't get used as a cat's litter box. We've had fences that were too high for the cats or chickens AND me! We absolutely adore the flexi tubs and decided to try these instead of planters. So, here is this year's colour scheme: red for tomatoes and green for salads, herbs and other veges. Surrounded by a mesh fence, the bottom 2 1/3 squares folded over to create a smaller sized gap along the bottom part of it, as the 10cm hole seemed big enough for our old puddy cat to get her head through! Now it's wait and see. And lightly water: I'm always very disheartened at the sight of freshly planted seedlings. Despite being watered, they always look soo bedraggled in the first weeks.
TTFN
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)