Charcutepalooza!

Remember when I made pancetta awhile back? You’re going to be seeing a lot more posts like that this year.

A little while after I made that post, I heard about Charcutepalooza. Mrs. Wheelbarrow’s Kitchen, a DC food blog, issued a challenge: Let’s cook our way through Michael Ruhlman’s Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing. Each month, there’ll be a new meat-preserving challenge. (And there are plenty to choose from; the book includes recipes for everything from hot dogs to classical French galantine.)

The challenge started getting some wider media pick-up (I heard about it in the Washington Post), and now there’s an awesome prize: a weeklong trip to France to eat delicious cured meat.

Point is, I’m in, along with a couple hundred other intrepid bloggers. I’ve got a jump on the competition, as my February pancetta post is already done, but I will have to catch up with January. Keep your eyes peeled for a duck prosciutto post in a week or two.

I think this one’s right up my alley. Here’s how I feel about charcuterie: