Yesterday we mentioned that Mike and Gord had been south of the border, in New York, taking a course (Charcuterie, Smokehouse, and Condiment Workshop).

We asked Gord to tell us a bit about it, and here’s what he had to say:

It was a great experience even for a neophyte cook like me, albeit a little intimidating at times …

The school itself is amazing (The Culinary Institute of America). Located on the banks of the Hudson River, the main campus building reminded everyone of Harry Potter’s Hogwarts Hall with its high ceilings and dark rich wood paneling. The region boasts some notable estates: the Roosevelt estate and Presidential Library and the Vanderbilt estate both are within a few miles for the campus.

From a workshop perspective … the first hour or so was spent in a class room environment to understand the science of smoking, curing and sausage making, then the balance of the day (about 6 hours) was spent in the kitchen.

There were five  teams of three. We were given a progressive menu to work on through the week. Some of the items were:

• barbequed beef brisket
• pork loin kassler
• carolina bbq pork
• gravlax
• pastrami
• confit of duck
• duck breast bacon
• kansas city spareribs
• tete pressee (prepared pig’s head)
• beef jerky
• tasso
• pate campagne
• smoke chorizo
• kielbasa rings and links
• garlic sausage creole beef and veal daube
• smoked pheasant sausage
• leberkase
• kassler liverwurst
• pate grand-mere

Believe it or not, that’s just a partial list. There were others on it, plus a number of condiments, marinades and rubs.

As a result of the course, we’ll likely be refining a few of the menu items plus looking at adding a few others once the recipes have been perfected in house. Yes, we had a fabulous time!