Upon your arrival at the Alicante–Elche Miguel Hernández Airport, IATA: ALC, or Alicante Terminal (Alacant Terminal or RENFE train station), you will be greeted by one of our drivers, who will promptly take you to school by private shuttle. After checking in at the hotel, you can enjoy the local amenities until 19:00 h, when we will all meet for a quick 30 minutes orientation session, after which we will share a welcome dinner prepared by our chefs.

On the morning of Introduction day, we will start with a theory lesson that goes deep into the necessary conditions a pig carcass must be to be able to make charcuterie with it. The instructor will demonstrate how to butcher the first half carcass, and then we will go hands-on and work together on the rest of the other half. We will then stop for a quick lunch, during which we will conduct a professional tasting of three charcuterie products. After the lunch break, we will resume activities, finishing the butchering and making our first whole-muscle charcuterie. After the lesson ends, we will have a short break, followed by dinner prepared by our chefs.

On the morning of our second hands-on day, we will start the day by performing maintenance to our whole muscle charcuterie that was salted the day before. Followed by meat selection for the different kinds of saucisson we will be making and starting the saucisson meat mixtures. We will pause for lunch, after which we will resume activities by making fresh French sausages. After the lesson ends, we will have a short break, followed by dinner prepared by our chefs.

We start the morning of our third hands-on day performing maintenance to our whole muscle charcuterie, initially salted two days ago. Then we will make our pâté, terrine, mousse, and rillette mixtures. We follow by stuffing the saucisson meat mixes into casings. We will pause for lunch, after which we will resume activities by mixing and casing our fresh sausage mixtures. After the lesson ends, we will have a short break, followed by dinner prepared by our chefs.

On the morning of our fifth day, we perform maintenance to our whole muscle charcuterie; some pieces will be put into casings, tied, and hung to dry. We follow by processing all meats destined for cooking. We will pause for lunch, after which we will resume activities by finishing the remaining products. After the lesson ends, we will have a short break, followed by dinner prepared by our chefs.

On our last day at the lab, we will finish processing any whole muscle charcuterie that hasn’t been hung to dry yet. We will do a thorough review of all equipment necessary for charcuterie production and talk about HACCP planning for an artisan charcuterie producing facility. After lunch we will go through everything related to aging cellar setup and maintenance. We will also go through how planning should be set for a healthy business. We will also have our last Q&A session. At night we all go out to dinner at a local venue where we will celebrate the closure of a fantastic week we’ve spent learning together. Just before dinner, we will honor our students with the ACS course awards, after which we will give out the course certificates.

After having breakfast at the hotel, you can relax and enjoy the local amenities until our transport takes you to the Alicante–Elche Miguel Hernández Airport, IATA: ALC or Alicante Terminal (Alacant Terminal or RENFE train station). For those with late departures, we offer a complimentary light lunch.