Making Ciccioli

When a Facebook friend asked a few weeks back if anyone would like to try making the Ciccioli recipe in the new Fatted Calf Cookbook, "In the Charcuterie," I signed up right away. Ciccioli is best described as a spicy, spreadable Italian pork terrine, and the ingredients are very simple: pork shoulder, lots of lard, garlic and herbs and spices. Since there were seven of us working on the project that meant starting with seven pounds of pork and a rather startling 24 cups of lard.
Note: walking around with that much lard in your bag may make you feel like you are in a liposuction commercial.

The recipe can be found here and we followed it pretty closely, though we added thyme and rosemary to one batch and marash pepper to both, rather than chile flakes. The recipe allows for a lot of down time, so although it is a many hour project, the active work time is minimal. We snacked, drank wine, chatted and shelled beans and peas. We ended up with approximately 1 pound of ciccioli each, with lots of leftover lard for future projects. Maybe time to fry some chicken?

A look at the project:

The pork, seasoned over night and cut into cubes

Lots and lots of lard

Pot #1

Pot #2

Testing the meat, several hours later

The meat, after cooking for 3 hours

Lard, with gelee at the very bottom

Ready for shredding

Shredded, with marash

Shredded with thyme and rosemary