Jasper is back and he’s on the warpath. That evil institution known as the EU is proposing to ban the use of saltpetre in the preparation of organic cured products, thus ending 3,000 years of traditional food preparation. Jasper is campaigning to stop the ban taking place and has come armed with letters to Catherine Gazzoli, the head of Slow Food, and HRH The Prince of Wales. Jasper came to see us at the Damson Dene Hotel where, at a Slow Food dinner, we tasted the cured meats which he had prepared using one our our Saddleback pigs three weeks before. All the preparations used saltpetre, which is an essential part of the curing process of meats. If saltpetre is banned in the curing of organic meat, that will be the end of organic bacon- which will leave us with products such as “Danepack”, which aren’t really bacon at all.
Jasper has been an inspiration to us all and has our full support in his campaign.
The picture below is of an apple and blackberry pie, which Margaret prepared for our dinner, with a pastry “snail”, made by our daughter Joanna.
Posts Tagged ‘jasper ackroyd’
Wednesday, September 8th, 2010
Jasper Aykroyd
Thursday, August 12th, 2010
Jasper Ackroyd part 2- Making Bacon
In all the time I’ve been raising pigs I’ve never had any great success with bacon. So when Jasper Ackroyd, who makes a living from curing bacon, offered to come to the Damson Dene Hotel to give a master class to my chefs, I couldn’t have been more chuffed. I provided him with the carcase of a Saddleback pig, split into two, including the head and the tail. Jasper asked for some kit, including “drug dealer’s” scales, to weigh the ingredients to the nearest gramme. I had brought in some Victoria plums from the garden, which Jasper seized upon to make a plum cure, which he devised on the spot. When I met with the chefs later I’ve never seen them so enthused. It was an inspiring day and Jasper will be back in a few weeks to taste what he conjured up today.
Wednesday, August 11th, 2010
Jasper Ackroyd- Living the Dream Part 1
Jasper Ackroyd doesn’t just dream of the Slow Life- he lives it. His home is a Yurt on an organic farm in Wiltshire. He lives “off the grid”, relying on a gas-fired generator and solar panels for electricity, but the generator will soon be replaced by a wind turbine. He eats vegetables grown on the farm and drinks unpasteurised milk straight from the cow. He rises with the birds and goes to sleep with the birds, so that in winter he lives in what he calls a state of semi-hibernation.
Jasper makes his living from curing meat. All is explained in his website- http://www.baconwizard.co.uk/, which also contains his fascinating biography. I met Jasper at a Slow Food meeting at Prue Leith’s house in the Cotswolds (see entry for July 17th) after which he kindly agreed to abandon the comfort of his Yurt to spend a few days in the Lake District teaching my chefs the art of curing pork, for which we have today supplied a whole saddle-back pig, cut neatly in two. About which, more later….