I only bought 8 litres of cream, it's gone up from 1.99 to 2.59 per litre in my nearest Costco - a huge percentage hike.
I did two batches in the butter churn, and it was very easy. Less mess than BBC (before butter churn) and, because I can do 4l at a time, fewer receptacles dirtied holding butter. The clean up was faster too, and I think I'd be happy to do 12l another time.
Today was pig butchery. Shirley raised Gloucester Old Spot x Wild Boar this time, although I doubt we'll be able to tell the difference. She got us to consider making bacon again, we haven't done this for a long time. She uses a wet cure (we've previously only done a dry cure) and she suggested trying Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's ham cure. That's what we're doing - or we will be tomorrow afternoon. A small ham, lots of loin bacon, and some lardons.
DH also wanted to make portk pie again, so we've put aside a kilo of shoulder for that. He bought some cure that has Nitrite in, which will make the meat pink instead of grey. It will be interesting to see how it works.
We're making a lot of sausages too, and have bought a couple of new seasonings to try. The sausage stuff is all minced up and chilling in the fridge. Tomorrow afternoon.
We've also got a couple of small belly joints, some pieces to bash for Schnitzel, a tenderloin, and lots of diced pork and minced pork. And the trotters. And stock, which is pressure cooking as I type. And lots of lard.
DH made trotter stock the other day from all the trotters we had piled up in the freezer, ready for his pork pie.
Apart from the inevitable disagreements, it's been a good day.
