Team Ham

I don’t know much about art, but I know what I like…

Link: Etsy :: MEAT-LARGE ARCHIVAL PRINT - reproduction of 6 original oil paintings

Funny and delicious both–can’t ask for much more than that:

Undeterred by inexperience, Mr. Henry bought five pounds of blade roast, slapped it on the kitchen counter, and massaged it with his own concoction of dry spices: brown sugar (lots and lots), cumin (a good heaping), cayenne (a smidge), paprika, (a smidge more), a big pinch of herbs de provence (why not?), ground black pepper, mixed whole peppercorns, whole cloves, and kosher salt (has nice granulation). No time for marinating or resting.  After searing the meat in canola oil, he covered it in two coarsely chopped onions, two whole cloves of garlic, and two cups of water. With the lid on, the dutch oven went into the stove at 350 for seven hours, all the time there was.

Manolo Food on Glam.com

It’s a grand phenomenon: the sight of an entire beast, the glistening pile or pork, the intensity of the flavor. There’s a salty tang, with soft, suffusing black pepper, generous rosemary and garlic that has worked its way into every fiber of the meat.

Rick Nichols, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Mike Sula over at Chicago Reader has a must-read series on Blanchardville, WI farmers Linda Derrickson and MarkKessenich and their efforts to save the dwindling population of mulefoot pigs by raising them for food on their 154-acre Hillspring Farm. Says Derrickson:

“If you treat them just like precious zoo animals that’s how they get extinct….That does not create enough farmers raising them. Farmers have to see some kind of monetary incentive to really do it on a scale that preserves these breeds.”

According to Sula’s report, there are fewer than 300 registered purebred mulefoots alive today. But, just as consumer demand for specialty produce has helped to save heirloom varieties of corn and tomatoes, so too can rare domestic swine breeds be saved–if pork lovers demonstrate there’s a market for them.

Belgian conceptual artist Wim Delvoye tattooed and stuffed pigs as part of a project on the Art Farm in China.  While Team Ham doesn’t advocate animal cruelty, we do think Louise’s tats look great.

via Brand Spanking New

The art’s all well and good, but we think the best part of artist Cosimo Cavallaro’s 2004 ‘bed of ham’ installation is this comment in a BBC article on the 140kg piece:

He said he had decided to use processed ham because it was “a pure form of America: all kinds of parts, boiled and pressed together”.

Link: Cheese artist creates bed of ham

Forget discus and luge–here comes “Olympig Racing.”

The Ham Bone Express outfit, operated by the Boger family out of Fayatteville, Arkansas, will provide a fleet of 16 vet-certified racing piglets for your next event. And that’s not all:

Bright colors and professional sound tell your audience they are in for a first-class pig-racing experience. Each show has four races with four pigs in each race. The swinemaster assigns cheering sections with one special cheerleader each. Then he introduces the celebrity contestants before the first pigs explode through the gates. The excitement builds as the pigs race to the finish line, delighting the crowd (and the winning pig, which gets an Oreo). The swinemaster introduces the special cheerleader for the winning pig and awards the cheerleader a prize.

These 16 little piglets will end up hogging the limelight at your event.

Remember…the louder you scream, the faster they run!!

Link: Pig Racing, Ham Bone Express, The Swiftest Swine Off the Line

Chow Times: Pork Floss

* 3 lbs pork shoulder
* 1.5 cups water
* 1.5 tablespoons dark soy sauce
* 6 tablespoons light soy sauce
* 2 teaspoons white pepper powder
* 1.5 teaspoons salt
* 250g sugar

Making pork floss at home falls under the way-more-trouble-than-it’s-actually-worth category, but it could make the centerpiece of an all-floss meal, rounded out with some halvah floss for dessert.

Link: Full recipe from Chow Times.

Link: Halvah floss from Yiyelim.com.

If you like your pigs high-concept rather than represenational, Williams Sonoma is flogging this thing as a “porcelain salt pig.” Apparently the large opening is supposed to be the snout. We think it could benefit from some hocks and a curly tail, but at $17 one can’t have everything.

And though Team Ham is no great fan of Seattle’s Pigs on Parade, we are fans of World Spice Merchants and recommend their alderwood smoked sea salt to go in yer new white snout.

Link: Williams Sonoma Salt Pig

Link: World Spice Merchants

Hells yeah. For $19.99 plus shipping, you can get a pig pinata big enough for 8 kids or one Team. Pork not included, but I’m thinking this would go great with a picnic shoulder.

via Pinatas.com