About this episode
Slovak food is comfort food. It’s not light, it’s not summery, but in the winter – it’s peasant food. Food that sticks to your bones and gives you a lot of energy to work in the fields. It’s simple; there’s a limited repertoire of spices. A lot of them involve just very ordinary ingredients. – Naomi Get your marjoram and paprika ready, because the long-anticipated pig butchery interview is here! In this episode, Alison sits down with Naomi, a Canadian-born photographer and home cook who has lived in, immersed in and documented Slovakia for the past 17 years. Naomi shares about the experience of traditional Slovakian pig butchery including unique recipes, the secret to non-liver-tasting-paté (!!!) and more. To indulge in Naomi's incredible food photography and to find the recipes she mentions, check out the links in Resources! Soup is a staple here. Traditionally, they had it every day for lunch. Naomi Love what we're doing? Our podcast is sponsored by our patrons and listeners! We'd love you to be part of our Patreon community! For $9 a month (or equivalent in your currency) you'll be helping us with the costs of recording, editing and putting this work into the world. And you'll get to be part of our world on a deeper level - we've got a monthly intimate patron-exclusive podcast called Kitchen Table Chats and we're also going to share cooking classes, extra interviews and much more. Check out www.patreon.com/ancestralkitchenpodcast for all the details! Going and living in a place is really the only way you get to learn that every place has it's bonuses, but also every place has its frustrations as well. Alison Time Stamps You don’t actually need a lot of fancy equipment – a table, lots of knives, big things for mixing in. Naomi 01:17 What Naomi Ate 13:18 What Alison Ate 17:11 Introducing Naomi 17:25 How Alison met Naomi 18:43 Growing up in Canada 22:06 Life in Slovakia 23:50 Food in Slovakia and how it has changed 29:00 Do you miss Canada? 31:18 Let’s talk about Slovakian pig butchering! 34:04 The season for pig butchering A fair amount of fruit schnapps is also consumed during this process, it’s an integral part of it! Naomi 36:25 Starting the pig butchering 39:40 The cutting 41:45 Lunch on butchering day 41:59 The organs: creating a traditional sausage 44:40 The underchin! I absolutely heartily recommend having a go at those lard biscuit things! Alison 46:38 The lard and pagac (cracklin biscuits) It’s a great winter food – it’s really full of energy and will keep you full for a long time. Naomi 53:25 The pig’s blood: black pudding and blood sausages 55:30 The taste of blood This is something that doesn’t keep very well and it doesn’t freeze very well; so, they put it into bowls and share it with the neighbors. Naomi, sharing about black pudding 47:35 Headcheese 01:00:20 Nightfall 01:01:40 Dinner 01:02:50 The muscle meat 01:03:30 The secret to non-liver-tasting pate 01:04:30 Canned meat 01:04:44 The skin 01:07:00 Naomi’s favorite dish from the butchering 01:09:05 Cleaning up 01:10:41 Memories and looking to the future 01:21:00 If we want to make these recipes … where do we look? 01:22:25 An eBook on traditional Slovakian soups 01:22:55 A version of strapacki on the blog 01:25:30 Naomi’s favorite blog posts [under Slovakia or Recipes] 01:28:00 Naomi’s blog & Instagram Resources Mentioned Pretty much the toenails, and if we haven’t cleaned out the intestines then those too, get thrown away . Naomi Naomi on Instagram Anyone who gets excited by traditional recipes and beautiful photography, will want to have a look at your site. Alison Potatoes, Bacon and Sauerkraut: Traditional Slovakian Dumplings (Strapačky) If someone wants to start eating sauerkraut and it’s too strong for them, it’s a really good way to work into it. Naomi, talking about Katie Bowman, movement specialist Naomi’s Blog, Almost Bananas A Slovak Pig Butchering Part I Rice and Offal Sausages: Slovak Jaterničky Mäkké Oškvarkové Pagáče: soft lard crackling biscuits Best Beef Liver Pâté ... "This beef liver pâté recipe is delicious, thanks to an unexpected spice that magically does away with the liver taste. Even beef liver, which has a stronger taste, can be enjoyed by liver haters." How to Cook Brains: Slovak Mozgy Offal Recipes on Naomi's Blog If you like us and use Apple Podcasts, we'd love it if you left a review! Here's how: Open the Apple Podcast app Find Ancestral Kitchen Podcast in your library (you can search for it) Scroll down to 'ratings and reviews' Click on 'write a review', choose how many wonderful stars you would like to give us (!), title your review and then, in the lower box type a review of up to 300 words. Thank you. We really appreciate you taking the time to support us! Thank you for listening - we'd love to continue the conversation. Come find us on Instagram: Andrea is at Farm and Hearth Alison is at Ancestral Kitchen The podcast is at Ancestral Kitchen Podcast Original Music, Episode Mixing and Post-Production by Robert Michael Kay