It is only a few days now until we (hopefully) move into our new apartment here in Berlin, which will mean new recipes and posts coming - finally! I miss cooking and baking on my own so much, my creative side is craving for some adventure :-)
Anyway, for now I recommend a video to you all. THIS video presents the way a pig is processed by professional Italian butchers, resulting in the various separate pork-parts we can buy in the supermarkets or at the butchers'. I find it fascinating to see where our food really comes from!
In Hungary we have an old wintertime tradition (now only to be found in the smaller villages) which includes the slaughtering of a pig called "disznótor" - of course, not in any kind of religious sacrifice-way :-) It originates from the times when almost every household in small towns, villages used to keep animals around the house. The people slaughtered their pigs usually during wintertime (because it was cold) and made various meat products of them that would then last for a longer period of time, to be used for different traditional Hungarian dishes. These meat products were all kinds of sausages ("kolbász") (with or without paprika), bacons (like pancetta, called "szalonna") usually conserved by smoking. People would use the fresh blood of the pig to make almost black, liver sausages ("hurka") and they would also use the ears and even the legs of the pork to make a salty, "meat-jelly" ("kocsonya"). This tradition and the dishes might sound a bit "frightening" for some but once you experience or taste these fresh, delicious and spicy dishes, you will probably like them a lot! :-)
Do you have any similar tradition in your countries? I would love to know :-)
