Offal Good™

Going Whole Hog-Salumi Italy’s Preserved Meat

A couple months back The San Francisco Chronicle’s Carol Ness came knocking and wanted to talk about cured meats for a story. She wanted to know everything the how’s, why’s, what and where. I opened the door to my kitchen and curing fridges for her to see all, as well as taste everything I had ready to serve. She also visited other chefs in the SF bay area who all gave her there info and opinions like I did.

So you are saying how the fuck does this relate to offal, well all the casing for these meats are intestines of some size, beef bung (yes like beavis and butthead bung hole), middles, bladders. As well as sausage casings in many sizes, Pork, lamb, and beef all sold by the hank. Look at alot of these cured meats they use blood like sanguinaccio, or coppa di testa which uses pigs head and feet, then there is pate campagne which has pork liver, kidneys with belly and shoulder with herbs and spices. These are all historical ways of preserving and using everything of the animal, that goes back to the days when animals were slaughtered on the farm and it was all processed and put up that day to be preserved for the rest of the year.