Visit www.coolplaces.co.uk and enter to be in with a chance of winning this great prize, a days butchery course for two here on the farm in The Yorkshire Dales, learn knife skills, traditional Pork Butchery, curing and basic charcuterie.  You will also enjoy lunch with us at Town End Farm Shop in Airton near Malham/Skipton.  www.townendfarmshop.co.uk 

The founders of Rough Guides and Cool Camping have joined forces to create a brand new website www.coolplaces.co.uk “Our focus is on the authentic, independent and quirky, with each area explored personally by a local author”

Cool Places celebrates the glorious diversity of Great Britain, promoting the very best places to sleep, eat, drink, see, and shop. We particularly love the independent businesses that make the UK unique, from artisan bakers to farm shops, canoe trips to gastronomic tours, cool cafés to high-end restaurants and the tiniest B&B to the grandest boutique hotel.

After talking about Pigs & Farming in general over coffee and croissants a whole discussion evolved around rare breeds and outdoor reared British Pork.   Once I dismounted my “high horse” we started the course by looking at the anatomy of a side of pork followed by some knife skills including the different methods of using a steel and keeping those knifes sharp.

Once we had removed the shoulder and boned out, it was onto the sausage making part of the day, everyone diced and minced there shoulder and prepared to invent their very own unique sausage recipe.

The vast selection of ingredients to choose from included 6 different styles of beer, a mixture of freshly prepared breadcrumbs, spices including cumin, ground white pepper, black pepper, cayenne & paprika, herbs from coriander, parsley, chive & sage and different sugars and honey.  Finely chopped leeks or shallots and a selection of fruit from apple, cranberries, dried apricot and even Yorkshire Rhubarb to name a few.

Finally everyone had a go at filling sausages using traditional casings (sausage skins) and a lesson in sausage linking with some fantastic results.

Some of the sausage creations on the day :-

• Meantime Pilsner, sage & onion
• Meantime Pilsner, Henderson Relish, onion & chive
• Beer, leek, cranberry & coriander
• Leek & apricot
• Herby Pils, onion, leek, sage & thyme
• Yorkshire pork & rhubarb
• and a few more weird & wonderful concoctions

Lunch was of course some Malhamdale Pork Sausages and mash with a gorgeous gravy, all expertly prepared by resident chef’s Simon & Russ.  If your interested in this Butchery & Sausage Making course the next one will be in early 2012.