Duncan/Stockbridge, MA

My favorite new place in the Berkshires of western MA is called The Meat Market. Now there's a catchy brand name, right! But inside this unpretentious shop across from the Price Chopper in Great Barrington you'll find the real McCoy: An old fashioned, honest-to-goodness butcher shop where the owners bring whole animals or huge hunks of meat from the locker and carve it into choice, made-to-order morsels for the dinner table. What's best, all the meat is organically raised on farms within 30 miles or so of The Meat Market so when you buy you're also supporting the local farm community. I wandered into the shop Good Friday hoping to find a ham for the Easter table. Just so happens they were smoking a batch of King Scotch hams in the back, so I returned the next day to pick up my 6-pounder. I scored the smoked skin, glazed it with two spicy mustards, brown sugar and local apple cider, and thrust the ham into the oven for an hour and a half. We had kids from 9 to 69 at the Easter table and the King Scotch ham was a grand slam for everyone. Afterward, I re-purposed the King Scotch for a couple of great ham & cheese sandwiches, a smoky ham and split pea soup, and linguine with a ragu of ham, mushrooms and cream. I'll be taking a break from ham for awhile, but I'm going to stop by The Meat Market this weekend. Duncan