I found mine went off quickly, I don't think I got all the butter milk out of it.

Don't forget to render the fat down, that stuff is like gold

First one out of the cure is the belly, rinsed it and hung it in the garage in muslin last night. Reckon it will be good to go on Sunday. Back should be ready for hanging Sunday.



How do you render fat and what do you use it for? Got a huge jug full of jelly and fat from the shoulder joint that I am going to probably use for stock and maybe make some mucky fat and give the rest to the dog.



Got some trotters that I dont really know what to do with too.

Put the fat and skin on a tray in the oven on a medium heat, the fat will render out. Bacon fat can be used for cooking, if I've got any it makes a great replacement for butter in a risotto , ordinary pork fat can be used to roast veggies or anywhere you would use lard. This may be good reading www.homegrown.org/forum/topics/b ... le-pig-101

Put the fat and skin on a tray in the oven on a medium heat, the fat will render out. Bacon fat can be used for cooking, if I've got any it makes a great replacement for butter in a risotto , ordinary pork fat can be used to roast veggies or anywhere you would use lard. This may be good reading www.homegrown.org/forum/topics/b ... le-pig-101

It's the buttermilk that turns the butter rancid mate.



I thought "washing" the butter was taking the pi[is[/is but no, once you've got the butter and buttermilk separated, get the lump of butter in a large bowl under a running cold tap and start squeezing and kneading the butter to get the buttermilk out. I was suprised at how long it took before the water was running clear. I might invest in some butter paddles (or patts) because they help to squeeze the buttermilk out too.

Yeah, I thought I'd got it all out, the buttermilk did make nice pancakes and soda bread though.

It's also a good low-fat treat to pour around my morning porridge

Went boat fising on Saturday for the first time since November and managed to bag some nice, prime Summer cod (63 between us).







If only cod fishing was like this all the time, we were a lot closer to the French coast than the English coast:







I've got four fillets currently at the smokers (cost 40p per lb), two are in the fridge salting down for carpaccio of salt cod with capers, chillies and preserved lemon. This is what they look like now:







The rest of them have all been vacuum sealed and frozen down.



I roasted four of the heads this morning in shallots, garlic and chillies



Before:







After:







What was left:







Last weekend I had Aliccia over to stay and she loves her fish, so I cooked a couple of turbot fillets (each weighing over 450g and I've still got another two just like 'em off the same fish), steamed in white wine with spring onions, cherry plum tomatoes, lime zest and dill and served them with pan-seared Manx Bay king scallops:

Hang on, it was you who said they wouldn't eat cod not that long ago...

I won't eat cod bought from anywhere, I only eat cod I've caught myself. That way I know it is in prime condition and isn't full of nematodes.



I'm not interested in big (over 20lb) cod either 6-15lb is the prime size for eating. The ones we caught the other day were stuffed full of brittle starfish. I prefer haddock to cod but I've only ever caught one down this way in the last 10 years. I needed to replenish the freezers and would rather have been fishing for flatties or bream but the turbot and brill are hard to find at the moment

Good old Morrisons





8 x 600ml tubs of cream - 19p each, currently being processed into butter and buttermilk



2 x barramundi - 49p each, in the freezer



5 x packs of mature sliced cheddar 19p each but because there is an offer of 2 for £3 the computer cannot handle discounted items, so I got the lot for 19p. If I had one more I'd have got all six for nowt.



2 x packs of hot & spicy chicken wings 75p instead of £2.50 each. Again, the 'puter can't handle the discount so I got both for 50p total



1 x Chinese chicken noodles + 1 x Prawn linguine @ 49p each instead of £3 or 2 for £5. Once more, the computer comes into play - both came free, gratis and for nothing.



I do usually hate supermarkets but I do enjoy legging them up.



I paid full price for me dog's treats and me Becks Blue Label though



The butter:







Managed nearly 3 kilos of the stuff

Your cream into butter reminds me of when as a young pastry chef many moons ago I 'forgot' about 20 pints of cream I was whipping up ready to finish off the desserts for a function..sous chef comes along and says "I'll have that unsalted butter off you when you finished seperating it from the buttermilk, but don't do that again"..lolz

I always try to pick some fish up from the inddor market in Hull when I'm visiting, the lemon sole is always pretty good value.

Haven't been boat fishing since I can't remember, probs the mid 90s