Jambon de Porcelet en Aspic, Carrots “WASA”
Suckling Ham in Aspic, Carrots “WASA”
Ham from a 16lb Pennsylvania raised suckling pig. Brined in a salt/sugar/#1 solution for 5 days and poached in water of the same salinity with aromatics. Once cooled, the skin and fat below the hock is removed to reveal the meat. Leek tops were blanched and cut into even strips which were woven over the ham. The remaining space is decorated with orange circles cut from strips of blanched carrots and smaller black circles cut from a port-preserved truffle. The entirety is coated with clear aspic made from lightly seasoned water and gelatin.
The carrots
“WASA” garnish are carrots and leeks cooked in the traditional “Carottes Vichy” manner but with Washington DC Water And Sewer Authority water rather than that of the famed French hot mineral sping.
Think about it and perhaps you’ll change the emphasis of your menu soon:
“…but for the sake of some little mouthful of flesh, we deprive a soul of the sun and light, and of that portion of life and time it had been born into the world to enjoy.”
Plutarch
Vegan food is wonderful. Open your mind and heart.
Your readership is appreciated and as a tolerant gesture of goodwill, a vegan barley and cauliflower stew from the repertoire will be posted. However, nowhere in this modest showcase is there an attempt to proselytize consumers, or suggest the consumption of meat and you must reciprocate the same courtesy.
Outside of the fabrications documented for guests, festive occasions, and educational trial & error, I routinely eat vegetarian at home; generally rice and vegetables cooked in olive oil by virtue of an austere lifestyle, save for the liquor and bicycle part expenditures, though when olive oil supplies are low, or to preserve the continuity of the rare protein, appropriate animal fats are used (duck fat for poultry, pork for pork and veal or beef fat for bovine).
Any proteins prepared at home for personal sustenance are scraps from work or thrifty cuts (beef neck, chicken legs) or less desirable whole fish purchased from the neighborhood Spanish market, which may not be “green” in terms of local agriculture and energy resources used in transportation, but support the local community.
Veganism is a modern luxury and monument to the picky palate. It does little more than highlight the disconnect between selfish idealism which trumps the natural cycle of life and those who farm the land. It eschews the natural process of animal domestication which has allowed the human race to exists and proliferate over the past 20,000 years, in particular the versatile pig whose husbandry is ideal due to its indiscriminate diet and physical properties that allow its protein to be preserved throughout the year before the age of refrigeration.
The suckling pig in question was conscientiously raised in Pennsylvania by Amish farmers and such farmed animals (rabbits, poultry, lamb) are vital to their lively hood. Veganism is a personal choice that is not sustainable on a large scale. It is severely limited by geography, forcing those living beyond a perennial growing season to rely on imported produce and supplements which arrive at the expense of resources whose environmental consequences are merely redistributed.
but nature is carnivorous! do we ask lions to consider saving a zebra soul? an eagle to spare a fish? people can change their trophic level if they so please, but they should let the rest of us indulge in our natural instincts once in a while! (we are talking about organic, locally raised meats here and clearly these are not DAILY meals). vegan food doesn’t satisfy me in the long term.
didnt plutarch believe in reincarnation? if so, what’s the harm in eating animals? and how about fungi? do they have souls? I mean they are an entire kingdom unto themselves!