Perhaps I am being a bit selfish and only thinking of myself and if so I do want to beg for forgiveness. I would venture to say that the majority of the members are not sausage makers and the Charcuterie & Cold-Smoking section on the forum is something that they never open to read. Here is the selfish and self centered part......
When I log on the first thing I do is to scroll way way way down to is the Charcuterie & Cold-Smoking section, then I scroll way way way back up to the General topics section. Then I meander down the board and read the other sections that have new postings. It is not such a big problem when I am on my iMac and I can wind up my hand and give the touch pad a good swipe and the screen blasts down to the bottom of the board so I can read about who is making what sausage and how they are doing it. Then I can do a reverse wind up and hit the touch pad and zoom back up to the top of the board. However, when using my iPhone my fingers get phone cramps scrolling and scrolling and scrolling to get to the bottom and then back up. Yes, I know I am only thinking of myself
Now to a technical point. I am just a poor old country boy that don't know how to act in a big city. Yes that is a original quote from Sailor
At any rate I was brought up that things in hog casings was "sausage". Patties that were ground up from hogs was also called "sausage". If is looks like sausage and feels like sausage and taste like sausage ..... Hog Dang .....It's just got to be sausage. What the heck is this Charcuterie stuff anyway? Up till a few years ago I never heard of the word let alone knowing what it means. Then I get to reading forums and folks tossing out the term Charcuterie this and Charcuterie that and I figure they were talking about some sort of fancy smancy French sausage. I shrug my shoulders and figure that I have been living a pretty sheltered life and I need to find some Charcuterie to taste it to see what the heck all the fuss is about. I go digging thru the computer dictionary today to find out what Charcuterie really is. char·cu·ter·ie (noun) noun, plural char·cu·te·ries [shahr-koo-tuh-reez, shahr-koo-tuh-reez; French shar-kytuh-ree] Show IPA (in France)
1. a store where pork products, as hams, sausages, and pâtés are sold.
2. the items sold in such a store.
Well paint me red and call me a barn! Charcuterie is a place where they sell them sausages. Hog Dang how bout that? So then I go to that there wikipedia site and they say this about that:
Charcuterie (/ʃɑrˌkuːtəˈriː/ or /ʃɑrˈkuːtəri/; northern French: [ʃaʁkytˈʁi] or southern French: [ʃaʁkytəˈʁi], from chair 'flesh' and cuit 'cooked') is the branch of cooking devoted to prepared meat products, such as bacon, ham, sausage, terrines, galantines, pâtés, and confit, primarily from pork.[1] Charcuterie is part of the garde manger chef's repertoire. Originally intended as a way to preserve meat before the advent of refrigeration, they are prepared today for their flavors derived from the preservation processes.[2]
I don't think I can pronounce Charcuterie correctly even with all that dictionary stuff. And what in good green earth is terrines, galantines, pâtés, and confit? Recon that is some fancy summer sausage stuff?
Don't ya all think that is a pretty fancy smanchy talk for "sausage"? How many folks out there ever heard that fancy talk about sausage and want to even open up the topic to read about it let alone even find the topic way way way down at the bottom like we are even afraid to bring up sausage making and stick it in the basement hoping the neighbors don't find out what we are a doin.
At any rate I am wondering if the powers that be would consider moving the Charcuterie & Cold-Smoking section up toward the top? Maybe even considering dropping that fancy smancy word and just talk plain old country and call it Sausage Making and Meat Curing. Maybe this would get some more members interested in sausage making as they would be able to find the section.
As Forest Gump would say. "That's all I got to say about that"
What do ya all think?
