Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking and Curing

Ever dream of making your own bacon, cured salmon, beef jerky or duck confit yet felt daunted by the process? Charcuterie is your trusty guide. The book was published in 2005, but thanks to increasing interest in the topic, an updated version came out in 2013 and remains a strong seller.

Michael Ruhlman believes in the home cook. Like the best teachers, he doesn’t talk down to his students; rather, he uses language that inspires us to get over our fears and reach for the next level. He shares techniques we can master and uses readily available ingredients and equipment. And that’s the beauty of this craft: time-honored methods that elevate humble cuts into the rustic sublime.

Look around your kitchen. Got a stand mixer perhaps with a grinder attachment, a food processor and an instant read thermometer? Throw in a box of kosher salt, sugar, pepper, garlic and herbs, and you’re ready to roll. Whether you aspire to make your own charcuterie, sausages, terrines and pâtés, or just want to learn the process, this book demystifies the art of curing meat, fish and vegetables.

Flip through the book and you’ll quickly realize you can do this. Fresh bacon (hit up your butcher or favorite pig farmer for some pork belly, dry cure it in a salt-sugar blend, and oven roast/slow grill /smoke at 150 degrees). Duck prosciutto (salt-cured, air-dried duck breast). Beef jerky (seasoned eye of round dried low and slow in an oven). Fennel-cured salmon (to the fridge for this one). Then you’ll advance to smoked spicy pork loin. Shrimp and salmon terrine with spinach and mushrooms. Venison terrine with dried cherries.

As Ruhlman and Polcyn acknowledge, the craft of charcuterie challenges cooks to practice, explore and improve. Cured food takes care, thought, common sense. And time. Slow food at its fi nest. Knowing you have a slab of salted fish weighted down in your fridge, or a hunk of pork nurtured to new heights in your smoker, is half the adventure. The fl avors are concentrating and the texture is evolving. Preserving and curing can’t be rushed and maybe that’s what appeals. This craft rewards preparation, precision and patience. Decidedly not for seekers of instant gratification.

The heart of the book contains a lengthy treatise on sausage making. Whether you are tempted to tackle this process or not, reading about the techniques will make you appreciate those artisans who do produce those mouthwatering plump beauties.

Settle in with Charcuterie and have faith that you can indeed make your own duck breast prosciutto, smoked trout rillettes, fennel-cured salmon or homemade corned beef, fresh bacon and pancetta. Suddenly the long months ahead look like promising, generous stretches of time devoted to expanding your culinary prowess.

Charcuterie
Authors: Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn 
Illustrations: Yevgeniy Solovyev
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company