Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez when “This Little Piggie Goes to the Social: A Boucherie” on March 11 at Portsmouth Brewery!

“What is a boucherie?” Directly translated from French, a boucherie is a butcher shop; but, there is a Cajun meaning of the word. Every year the people of the Bayou get together and have a boucherie, a communal butchering of hogs. A community comes together to help butcher the pigs and then each person takes a part of the pig and creates a special dish with it to share with the other participants. These farm-to-table pig pickings take place before Mardi Gras and often run heavy on beer-drinking.

When sitting down with Head Brewer Matt and the other chefs to create this year’s Social Calendar, I brought the boucherie to the table. It’s such an interesting Bayou tradition, my team loves cooking pigs and nothing pairs better with pork than some fresh brews. The choice to include it was automatic!

We will be getting a whole hog in the week leading up to the event, so that we can butcher it and begin our fresh hams and bacons for the event. Follow us on Instagram (@portsmouthbrewery) to see the hog and us butchering it! I will make sure to post plenty of pictures and maybe a video or two.

In honor of the boucherie tradition, we will use the entire pig throughout the menu. That means you’ll get to enjoy a variety of items, including headcheese, ham, bacon, seared loin and even some chicharrónes for dessert! We may even sneak a few extra surprises courses in that night, once the inspiration begins to flow. Chef Dez, Chef Steve and I are like little kids counting down for Christmas and we’re very excited to use all the parts of the pig for this event.

This is a seated beer dinner, unlike most of our socials. That also means that tickets are even more limited than usual. You can buy your tickets in our e-store.

Also, the nature of this event, precludes a vegetarian option. We’ll take care of you at the next social!

Look forward to seeing you at the boucherie!

-Chef Jon