SUMMER PMC CLASS SCHEDULE

In April, my French butchery mentor Dominique Chapolard arrived in Portland, armed with a lifetime of butchery and charcuterie knowledge to share. I’d convinced him to come during the International Association of Culinary Professionals so that he could bring French seam butchery to an American crowd. On April 24 Dominique, Adam Sappington (chef and owner of Country
Cat, and PMC instructor), Kate Hill (owner of the Gascon Kitchen who originally introduced me to Dominique), Michael Ruhlman (co -author of Charcuterie ) and I put on a three hour butchery and charcuterie demonstration for a crowd of 40 IACP attendees.

Here’s what Michael Ruhlman had to say about it on his blog: “Three hours of intense interaction with people who truly care about this world, the earth and the animals, who care about cooking, about serving people, who do it the hard way, the long way, these grounded, wonderful, big, big souls. When I walked out of there, I felt as if I’d come out of a world that was impossibly good, could-never-happen good, and yet there they had
been, cutting up that miracle creature raised by a farmer who sat three chairs in. . . I swear to god, I wanted to collapse right there at NW 8th and Burnside and weep.”

Scott Givot, immediate past president of the IACP later wrote to my PMC associate Tray Satterfield, who had helped us organize a French and American charcuterie tasting at the end of the workshop: “The experience literally brought tears to my eyes. I never wanted it to end.”

One woman in the audience even told us that the workshop was the best Saturday of her life, aside from the Saturday she gave birth to her first child.

Really? I thought. Really? After all, butchery is butchery, right? What’s the big deal? Are Americans really that sentimental and nostalgic? Are we really that hungry for the raw and the real? But I’m learning that there is something to this butchery thing, at least in this particular moment, and in this particular place, with the particular people who choose to take part in it. And it’s definitely not all just about the bacon.

A lot of our students tell us that they haven’t stopped talking about the class they took. There’s something they’ve just taken part in that seems intrinsically worth describing to someone else. And so what is that something? I think it’s a couple of things.

It’s the fact that they just attempted to cut apart a whole pig, not alone, but with their friends and neighbors, with farmers and chefs, and single moms, and bike messengers, and lawyers, and politicians, and students—a true community experience that’s quite rare these days.

It’s also that, for most people taking our classes, this is the very first time they’ve done this. The experience runs extraordinary to their daily lives. And while none of us become masters overnight, there’s a process of “demystification,” as one of my students recently said, that transforms this normally opaque, mysterious, and utterly removed portion of our food system, into something utterly accessible. I’m reminded of a phrase that Joel Salatin, the American farmer, lecturer, and author who is so vocal in Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma. Salatin calls what he’s trying to create a “relational economy.” I like to think that it’s that very relationality both with our food and our community that makes the PMC classes worth it for all of us involved.

Which is why I’m excited to announce the PMC’s summer class schedule and to give you some hints about what’s in store later this fall. We’re continuing our basic pig butchery courses this summer, and we’ll also be offering a couple of chicken slaughtering and butchering courses, in addition to a sausage-making course. While Adam Sappington, Tray Satterfield, Levi Cole and I will continue to organize and teach most of the
classes, we’ll also have a couple of special guest teachers: Bob Dickson, who headed up the Clark Meat Science Center at Oregon State University for 25 years before taking over day-to-day operations at Dayton Natural Meats, which, so far, has served as the main slaughterhouse for the pigs we use in our classes; and
Gabriel Claycamp, owner of Swinery Meats, a truly sustainablewhole animal butchery shop in Seattle. We’re very excited for both of them to bring their set of skills to the table.

We’ve been lucky enough to sell out just about all of our classes, which means sign up sooner rather than later if you want to avoid the waiting list game!

As for things we’ll be announcing down the road: think communal pig kills on the farm, think a class series in which you can focus on learning all the ways to cut up, cook and cure just one portion of the animal, think lamb, beef, and goat. We’ll keep you all posted!

-Camas Davis, Portland Meat Collective

UPCOMING PMC CLASSES

June 12, July 10, or August 21, 2010
Basic Pig Butchery
TIME: 1pm-5pm
LOCATION: TBA
Learn the lost art of home butchery from Adam Sappington, owner of
Country Cat Dinnerhouse and Bar, Portland Meat Collective’s
Camas Davis and Pastaworks butcher Tray Satterfield. Learn how
to split two sides of pork into primals, and how to cut those
primals into cookable cuts like ribs, tenderloins, ham roasts
and shoulder roasts. The class will also include tips on how to
cook various cuts, and everyone will go home with their share of
meat.
COST: $225
CLASS SIZE: Limited to 10 people
REGISTRATION: info@pdxmeat.com

June 26, 2010
Basic Pig Butchery with Bob Dickson
TIME: 1pm-5pm
LOCATION: TBA
Bob Dickson is a seasoned animal scientist and meat expert who
taught at the Clark Meat Science Center at Oregon State University
for 25 years before taking over day-to-day operations at Dayton Natural
Meats, the PMC’s favored slaughterhouse and processing facility in Dayton,
Oregon. He’s also been a great mentor to PMC instructor and
Pastaworks butcher Tray Satterfield as well as a helpful advisor
to Camas Davis. Bob brings detailed retail, industrial, and home
butchery expertise to the table and teaches students how to
think about an animal from multiple perspectives. Not only will
students learn how to split two sides of pork into primals, and
how to cut those primals into cookable cuts like ribs,
tenderloins, ham roasts and shoulder roasts, they’ll learn
unique techniques and industry secrets, and they’ll be able to
discuss the current system of meat production and processing in
America with someone who is still shaping that system today.
Students will go home with their share of meat at the end of the
class.
COST: $225
CLASS SIZE: Limited to 10 people
REGISTRATION: info@pdxmeat.com

August 28, 2010
Basic Pig Butchering for Home Charcuterie
TIME: 1am-5pm
LOCATION: TBA
When PMC instructor and Pastaworks butcher Tray Satterfield met
Gabriel Claycamp, owner of Swinery Meats in Seattle this May, she
was just a tad excited. Previous owner of the renegade Culinary
Communion cooking school in Seattle, Claycamp is dedicated to solely
practicing whole animal butchery in his butcher shop–a rarity
in America. Not to mention he makes a mean prosciutto, among
other fleshy delicacies. When Tray told him about our classes,
explaining that we provided both a restaurant and a retail
perspective when it came to butchery, he reminded her there was
a third way to butcher a pig: the charcuterie method. We were
exhilerated when he agreed to teach a class incorporating that
method this August. For those of you who are interested in
making your own pancetta and coppa, salami and prosciutto, this
is the class for you. Gabriel will teach you how to cut up a pig
so that you can utilize all the muscle groups to produce just
about any cured pork specialty you can imagine. Students will go
home with their share of meat and lots of salting and brining
recipes to help them along their way.
COST: $225
CLASS SIZE: Limited to 10 people
REGISTRATION: info@pdxmeat.com

June 24 or July 8, 2010
Real Coq au Vin
TIME: 5pm-9pm
LOCATION: TBA
In this course, each student will learn how
to kill their own rooster, and how to butcher it in preparation
for making coq au vin. Once they have acquired these skills,
they’ll learn how to cook coq au vin using this kind of rooster
versus the more conventional organic chickens that are sold at
retail butchers around town. At end of the course, the class
will sit down to a meal of good red wine, coq au vin, and other
homemade French treats. *Portland Meat Collective Instructors:
Levi Cole and Camas Davis*
COST: $75
CLASS SIZE: Limited to 10 people
REGISTRATION: info@pdxmeat.com

August 5, 2010
Sausage Making
TIME: 5pm-9pm
LOCATION: TBA
Learn the art of preparing merguez and chorizo,
florentines and weisswurst. Pastaworks butcher Tray Satterfield
and self-taught butcher and charcuterie master Levi Cole teach
students how to make their own sausage: from selecting the right
meat and trimming the appropriate muscle groups, to grinding,
flavoring, and stuffing their sausage of choice. Students will
go home with more than enough links for their end-of-summer
barbecues.
COST: $100
CLASS SIZE: Limited to 10 people
REGISTRATION: info@pdxmeat.com