Category Archives: Pork

The Great Home Bake Off

Home baking steps up to the plate

Like a large number of the British viewing public we were enthralled by The Great British Bake Off.  Those mouthwatering creations kept us glued to the TV set, drooling, only guessing at the pressure the contestants must have felt, turning out those intricate dishes in front of Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood let alone the millions watching from the safety and comfort of their sofas.

Although I bake regularly both bread and cakes, I rarely do anything out of the ordinary but this programme left me inspired to try some new recipes.  Now whilst they had all the latest gadgets and ovens, we have to contend with an ancient old Rayburn which runs on solid fuel and is susceptible to weather conditions.  When it’s windy outside it’s smokey inside and we have to be careful the chimney doesn’t catch alight.  And as for an even bake, not a hope in hell.  When I’m baking a cake, the side next to the firebox always rises more than the other and there is no viewing window to see what’s going on.

Despite all the pitfalls, as the weeks went by, I decided to have a go at the iced fingers, the millefeuilles, Sachertorte, a baked cheesecake and my favourite, a pork pie.  The meat came from our own home reared pig and was seriously good, although next time I bake one, I shall omit the jelly as neither of us are very fond of it.

Of course it wouldn’t be any fun without the judging.  After hours slaving in a steamy kitchen, each concoction was scrutinized, tasted and awarded points for presentation, flavour and “the bake”.  The iced fingers were yummy if a bit on the large size, the millefeuilles pastry was slightly raw on the bottom and the filling grainy, the Sachertorte was not as chocolatey as it looked.  The cheesecake with our own Scotch Dumpling apples and goats milk was delicious and so was the pork pie once we had scraped off the jelly.

I have yet to have a go at the battenburg, macaroons and éclairs but I’ve no intention of trying the croquembouche.

Pigs away

We get out of pigs

After much deliberation, and prompted by a hospital appointment, we finally decided to dispose of our last couple of pigs.

The sow was bred by us 18 months ago and was originally to be our breeding sow, and the boar was bought in for the purpose. Unfortunately, by the time we had decided not to breed them we weren’t in a position to take them to the abattoir, and have been rather coy about the decision since!

We did manage to sell the boar, but had the sow converted to bacon and mince (in the most part) which should see us through for quite a while. We haven’t gone off pigs completely, so no doubt we will have weaners at some point in future.

Gammon steaks

We lose our internet and Blitz’s allergy returns

More damp weather this month, but work goes on. As we prepare for more piglets in August, we’ve been moving the remaining few pigs around.

So far, we have separated the two weaner boars from the sow and remaining gilt (so as to avoid any unnecessary accidents), but the next step is slightly more difficult.

We will need to separate the gilt and sow so that the sow can farrow in peace, however, to do this we will need to put up a new fence around an unused ark (the last fence has seen better days).

Let’s hope for better weather next month.

On the plus side, Blitz has started to recover from whichever allergy he was suffering from, and the gammon (pictured) from our boar is proving to be fantastic!