Joe Cicala's meat is ahead of schedule. But that doesn't mean it'll be eaten anytime soon.

"This is perfect," says the chef, grinning as he gently thumbs a butcher-twined hunk of pork the size and shape of a beehive. We're standing close in a stuffy, funky-smelling curing room, an industrial walk-in where a few dozen culatellos, cut from the rear leg of the pig, dangle on metal S-hooks.

Cicala pulls out a leather sheath housing his ago di osso di cavallo, a bone chisel carved from the femur of a horse that could pass for a weapon on Game of Thrones. Drawing the insanely sharp tool and wielding it like a dagger, he plunges the business end into the flesh of a few hanging specimens, sniffing it on the way out. 

Read more

Source: http://articles.philly.com/