This Little Piggy Went to Market

This little piggy really DID go to market … then this little piggy came home to the farm…Max and Vicki Lass’s Church Hill Farm, near Stratford, Ontario.   They raise heritage breeds including Large English Black pigs, which are known for their talent as mothers. WIth origins in the 16th and 17th century England, they were used to clean upthe windfalls in the apple orchards which flourished across the countryside.

Every year the Lass family celebrates winter with a by-invitation-only pork dinner.  Chefs and friends congregate from the region and from ‘away’ to share in a feast that ranks right up there with the best of my life.   Chef Jordan Lassaline, one of the most talented and fastidiously creative chefs of his generation of Stratford Chefs School graduates, oversaw and executed the menu.

The farmhouse sits in tucked in a spruce grove at the end of a snowy lane.  One side is well sheltered by an enormous wood pile that’s used for heating and for their wood fired stove/pizza oven, one of the neatest I’ve ever seen and certainly the most efficient.  Max has built his own climate-controlled curing room which, on the night of the party, served as a beer cellar.  A spigot protruded from  one side with a large keg of beer tucked safely in the coolness. They ham was slow smoked, there were all sorts of sausages including mortadella which is one of my favorites.  He poached and lightly pickled the tongue in apple cider vinegar the sliced it, wrapped it in the meat from the cheeks/jowls etc, and shaped it into large patties that were rolled in panko (I think) and deep fried.   There was choucroute garni to die for…with small boiled potatoes.  Jordan has suppled a large bowl of precious pickled wild leeks (aka ramps) and made an array of condiments including a mouth tingling cherry mustard.  Bread that Owen Lass had made was piled on a long table ready to be sliced.

The best dish of all was a bowl of warm rillettes de Tours.  OMG…. !!  Jordan had made them from a recipe he’d watched James MacGuire put together for The Art of Eating. The meat is slowly simmered with a layer of bones and a bit of water and seasoned only with salt.   The goal is to have a bit of browning take place to sweeten the meat.  Then it’s mashed and stirred  with the fat that’s collected in the heavy pot.   I’d arrived early and claimed a high stool where I could watch the action.  And, as it turned out, the rillettes were well within my arms long reach, ready to smear thickly on chunks of Owen’s crusty bread and best washed down with copious amounts of light red wine.   Some guests, particularly those who fully understood the inport of these porcine delights, swooned…then headed for more mortadella.

It was one of those special winter evenings that will remain in my memory for years.

Church Hill Farm

Winter Pork Party 2011

Charcuterie Plate

Smoked Garlic Sausage

Jagerwurst / Pork Rinds with Mustard and Thyme Salt

Warm Pork Rillette

Apple Chutney, Cornichons, Mustards

Onion Tart

Flammkuchen

Fried Pigs Head and Apple Cider Pickled Tongue

Choucroute Garni

Smoked Ham

Pork Loin with Cracklings

Braised Bacon

Sausages

Boiled Potatoes

Apple, Rhubarb, and Almond Kuchen

Maple and Pork Schneken