The Butcher's Blog
The Butcher's Blog by Adam Sappington
August 18, 2010
It been a fast and furious summer! The International Pinot Noir Celebration has come and gone and what an amazing one it was! The Country Cat was fortunate enough to represent the American Lamb Board and so we produce a selection of lamb delecacies- lamb Breseola, braised and BBQ lamb, and whole spit roasted lamb! It was a great event!
Daniel Miller, one of our bartenders at The Cat, filmed me breaking down a side of beef not too long ago. He is developer of www.duckspoon.com which is a recipe encylopedia site. Well, we entered the video into the "Who's Your Butcher Contest" on the www.proteinU.com website. I MADE THE TOP 20! Sooo, what I am asking of you all out there is to vote for my video. This ia a great site that is helping to promote whole animal utilization, which, is what we are all about here at The Cat. Voting ends SAturday, August 22. 2010, SO please cast your vote. It's a great shout out to Oregon too!
June 14, 2010
I love computers and passwords! Especially when I forget them. Remembered my password again so I'm back to blogging.
Several weeks have transpired since my last entry. A lot has happened. May 16th, I was a judge at Cochon 555 and prepared the post-function whole hog. The event was a blast! What a great party to promote Heritage pigs-locally and nationally!
On May 22nd, The Children's Relief Nursery had their annual gala fundraisng event where The Portland Iron Chef Competition is the entertainment for the evening. I was back to defend my title! Woohoo! My wife and I won again! It's such an amazing event for such a great cause! All for the kids. That evening, they raised around $250,000. Wow!
We are 'rounding the corner of the end of another school year and ramping up for a gaggle of summer events. Portland Meat Collective is gaining momentum. Check out www.pdxmeat.com for more info.
May 7,2010
It's been a crazy week around here! After an amazing IACP Conference it has been nonstop. Firstly, let me expound upon the conference. It was life changing on so many levels. The highlight was meeting Michael Ruhlman, Kate Hill, and Dominique Chaparlaud. It was a great experience standing side-by-side with a Master French butcher watching how he best utilizes the different parts of a pig for his market, juxtaposed to how I break down a pig for our market. More on that later.
Indie Food & Wine Festival is this weekend so we are off to do that on Saturday at the Bison Building in North Portland. Duck Confit Sandwiches for the masses.
Camas Davis, Tray, and myself are doing another Portland Meat Collective Session on Satruday the 15th. It's a great way to learn about whole animal butchery and take home some great pork meat too. Check out the website www.pdxmeat.com.
IACP Week April 21, 2010
What an exciting week for the Portland food scene! The International Association of Culinary Professionals annual conference is such a great opportunity for the culinary community to showcase it's wares to an enthused audience. We were lucky enough tho have the board members dine at The Cat on Monday. We fed them a menu inspired by my Granny Cris. That means sauasages, "Judy," and fried chicken and biscuits.
My staff and I prepped 1000 pieces of candied bacon yesterday for the Host City Reception at the Nines Hotel. It is truly meat candy. What a great event to see the influx of those visiting our amazing city.
Here at The Cat, it's a week to show visitors what we do. I am part of the Culinary Trust Dinner that is on April 23rd at the Left Bank Annex. We have cured several country hams for the dinner. They've been "cookin'" for about 6 weeks now in brown sugar, salt, and spices and we just finished smoking all of them. They are beautiful amber hams. Makes my mouth water!
Just got a whole lamb in from Cattail Creek Farms for the restaurant. We will get that broken down this week and highlight the varying cuts on our lamb dish.