HOLIDAY ORDERS AND SEASON’S MEATINGS FROM TCB!

Planning what will stock your larder for the holidays? Still have a Secret Santa to sort? Look no further than this year’s seasonal order menu. We’ve got a great selection of beautiful British cured meats for every occasion, and a number of ways to get it to you. Behold:

Moons Green continues to bring some of the loveliest ham to the party. If you’ve got a lot of people to feed, then a whole ham is the way to go. If merely modest gluttony is your goal, then a half ham should suffice.

Adrienne from Crown & Queue is the latest addition to the fold at The Charcuterie Board; her sausages are simply to die for. She takes her inspiration from historical recipes, and indigenous ingredients, and everything is made by her, by hand, in Bermondsey in London. A brief rundown of the selection:

LINCOLN IMP: dark and savoury – featuring garlic, sage, dried fruit and Kernel Brewery’s Export Stout

MOTHER’S RUIN: inspired by gin cocktails of the 1900s – featuring juniper, fennel, and London Cru’s chardonnay

ANSWELL: clean and classic – featuring blackcurrant, black pepper and The Five Points Brewing Company’s London Smoke Porter

SNAPDRAGON: spicy and bright – featuring cinnamon, cayenne, dried currants and Somerset Apple Brandy

PIGTAILS / BIGTAILS: two sizes of snacking stick that feature a rotating cast of beers

Perfect Pork Pies to munch on the whole holiday weekend. The Hartlands make the best in the land. Offered in our two favourite recipes, authentic Melton Mowbray – it’s protected, you know – and our guilty Christmas pleasure, the Pork & Stilton pie. 

The two larger sizes make the nicest gifts for your party host too.

We’ve also decided that The Charcuterie Board should embrace the second Golden age of the Scotch Egg; so we knocked on all the doors between here and Bolton until we found Brendan at Happy Belly. Three varieties stand out (including the vegetarian option), and they make this year’s list too.

Tapas for the afternoon table. Ham for your indulgent Eggs Benedict on Christmas morning. We’re slicing our most popular products to have at the ready in your fridge.

If you simply can’t choose, that’s OK, we’ve curated our own selections; Larder Boxes to fill your Christmas kitchen, and Gift Hampers to ingratiate yourself with friends and relatives.

GO TO ORDER FORM

It’s Matt here, and it’s autumn!

September feels like Back To School time no matter how old I get. I think I’ll be hard wired for it until the end. Everybody’s back in town and getting to the grind. The air of change prevails: the streets are busier, the restaurants louder, and it never hurts that the volume of our orders usually swings up.

Historically, September was also when smallholders started fattening and finishing their pigs, and getting ready to transform them into the brined, salted, cooked, fermented, dried charcuterie that would help keep them and their families in food for the winter. It’s not quite Back To School, but it’s a busy and expectant time which fits perfectly into my sense of the season.

Four years ago, I got to have both Septembers at once. I began my butchery and charcuterie training at The School of Artisan Food on the Welbeck estate, where I would be for the next nine months. It was a Back To School September like I hadn’t had in 15 years, and it was awesome. Dreaming of a future in handmade cured meats, and brimming with the excitement and potential that the whole class of butchers, bakers, and cheese makers was feeling, I got busy learning and making everything I could.

Behold my first rolled pancetta, c. autumn 2010:

The class watched the formidable Ray Smith whip one out in moments, and then each of us had a go ourselves. It was straightforward and difficult all at once – perfect! And so satisfying to be learning about butcher’s knots, bacon and 3D geometry all at once. The Steiner student in me had all the cross-dicsipline he could get. And I’d like to say that pork belly kept me in food all winter, but we ate it pretty quickly while I got practicing on more.

I’ve had plenty more practice since then. We’ve been rolling mountains of them in chilli this year at Native Breeds for Coppa’s second summer-long rooftop picnic (they’re only open for one more weekend this year, so hurry up and go get some).

By the way, any month can be your Back To School Pork month these days too. Among the offerings:

•The School of Artisan Food currently runs short courses in charcuterie and all things handmade food, in addition to its year long diploma course in baking.

•Our Graham Waddington of Native Breeds teaches courses in charcuterie production at Humble by Nature.

In the September spirit, I wish you good learning this autumn!