Culinary Communion: Charcuterie Class
22-Apr-2007
I just spent the better part of today wallowing in pork. And beef and lamb and chicken. But mostly pork. And I loved every minute of it! This is my third class at Culinary Communion, the school run by Chef Gabriel Claycamp and his supporting crew – of which there are many!
You may remember that I first took a bread class, Enriched Doughs to be specific, back in September. As a side note I am still using the recipes and techniques from that class. Then, a couple months ago, I took a sinfully indulgent class all about Fois Gras – I have yet to write that up but I learned a ton! And then today, I was back again to learn the art of charcuterie – or basically all about salami, salumi, sausages, curing, aging, smoking, etc.
As has been the case with past classes Chef Gabe doesn’t just give you some recipes and send you on your way. There is background information – both provided as a handout and as a little lecture/presentation at the start of the class. Then the class splits up to begin work on the recipes, stopping every now and then to watch the presentation of a technique that we may need. Today’s class was five hours and I left with my head bursting from all the info presented! Luckily I have that handy packet of background information to jog my memory in the future.
We made 11 types of charcuterie – although I may have lost one recipe, as I thought there were 12 – plus spaetzle and cabbage to have along with lunch. As with all classes here the beginning instruction covers all recipes but then you break into small groups and only do hands-on for some of the recipes.
And, as with all the classes I’ve been part of, all the other students are a lot of fun. There are always a range of ages, people from all walks of life and many interesting stories to hear. The one thing that struck me today was that this class was all men. The only other woman besides me was married to one of the other students – although it seemed she was the one who had scheduled the class. Who knew you could get so many men to spend a Sunday at a cooking class?
Anyway, I’m not sure that I can really give you specific information about making these recipes – you really need to take the class to understand all the ins and outs and potential challenges you might come up against. But I will leave you with a few photos and highly encourage you to sign up for this (or any other class) at Culinary Communion. You’ll be glad you did!
Culinary Communion Schedule of Classes and Travel Events.
2 Comments
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Culinary Fool 
This class was a lot of fun. Great meeting you and good job with the pics!
Hi Daryn!
Thanks for stopping by. It was great to meet you, too. I\’m glad you enjoyed the photos. With these sorts of events I try to capture a bit of what it was like to be there as opposed to being technically perfect – not that I\’m that technically perfect anyway…. :-)
~ B