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Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing?
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Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing (Revised and Updated) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0393240053/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_9JbiDb82S780M
This book is amazing, i have a 15lb ham hanging in my dining room drying. I used their basic dry cure, pulsed about 5 ancho Chiles in a magic bullet until they were powder put the cure on the belly flipped every other day for 5-7 days pulled it out of the bags, cut a piece rinsed and fried it to check my salt level(at this point you can let it cure longer they say up to 10 days but it gets super salty. After you’re happy with your salt level rinse thoroughly and pat dry let sit in fridge(or the garage if it’s cold out, hence why i like doing it in January/February) over night suspended and uncovered. Then cold smoke for about 16 hours on applewood(I’m a big fat cheater and use the masterbuilt cold smoking attachment about $50 on amazon and cut a hole in a 55gallon drum absolutely perfect setup) if you’re afraid it’s gonna get too warm keep a tub of ice in the bottom.
The easiest and best book I used to get started was “Charcuterie, the craft of salting, smoking, and curing”. I think that is the gateway for a lot of people in the game.
https://www.amazon.com/Charcuterie-Salting-Smoking-Revised-Updated/dp/0393240053
I’ll have to check that out. I started using the recipe from Ruhlman’s Charcuterie and then it evolved as I learned about equilibrium brining from Modernist Cuisine and other places. Then I accidentally left it go too long due to time constraints and liked the way it came out. I generally do about 12 days and then wash and let it dry out on racks in fridge for 2 days.
17 years of running professional kitchens. Towards the end before I switched careers I personally decided I wanted to focus on learning the good stuff. Most of my career focused on volume and what goes well with beer or whiskey. Anyway when I quit working in restaurants and started my next career in architecture I resumed my study of charcuterie as a hobby. Start with this book Charcuterie the craft of salting, smoking, and curing don’t be afraid to fail. It happens. I still use this book for base recipes all the time and tweak them as I see fit.
Obviously pork is the better option but legs tend to be massive and not very practical for at home. (Unless you have access to small pigs) If you can get particularly good lamb where you are thats another interesting option for prosciutto. Just enough fat on older animals for there to be nice balance. For venison, best bet is to do bresola from the loin. That's delicious.
This is a REALLY good book if you're interested in this stuff. Very adaptable recipes. (Obviously you do have to get it from amazon either, just a link) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Charcuterie-Craft-Salting-Smoking-Curing/dp/0393240053/ref=asc_df_0393240053/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=310842649900&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=6045519763468436793&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hv...
I would check out this book if you want to learn how to work with dry cured, salt cured and smoked meats. It's thoroughly instructive and helps with the techniques as well.
You can get a stuffer for the kitchen aid grinder attachment. I recommend this book of you want to make your own cured meats
https://www.amazon.com/Charcuterie-Salting-Smoking-Revised-Updated/dp/0393240053
I really enjoyed this book and learned enough from it to adjust recipes more to my taste. I hear it recommended all the time and my chef buddy said every chef he worked for owned this book.
Thanks, i'll end up picking that up. What are your thoughts about... Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing (Revised and Updated) ?
I've been using Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing. It calls for the use of Prague Powder #1 in short-cured meats like Tasso Ham, Bacon, and Pancetta, and Prague Powder #2 only for products with long curing times (like curing for months).
Wikipedia says about Prague powder #1 -
> It contains 6.25% sodium nitrite and 93.75% table salt. It is recommended for meats that require short cures and will be cooked and eaten relatively quickly.
...and about Prague Powder #2...
> It contains 6.25% sodium nitrite, 4% sodium nitrate, and 89.75% table salt. The sodium nitrate found in Prague powder #2 gradually breaks down over time into sodium nitrite, and by the time a dry cured sausage is ready to be eaten, no sodium nitrate should be left. For this reason it is recommended for meats that require long (weeks to months) cures, like hard salami and country ham.
But your recipe might take that into consideration, and it isn't a rolled pancetta, so might be more susceptible to botulism.
Pick up a copy of Charcuterie by Ruhlman & Polcyn. It'll get you off to a great start. If you like BBQ, you'll love doing your own charcuterie then BBQ'ing. :-) Home-made bacon is incredibly easy and far better than store-bought.
The fact that you are looking for "resources" leads me to believe that you don't have anybody that has deep experience in this area of food production. Before you get into this "professionally" I would hope that somebody on your team already has experience making charcuterie as the learning curve can be steep (and expensive) and screw ups can be dangerous/fatal. I see from your post history that you may have experience making cheese and with fermentation, so that's at least a step in the right direction. Finally, you may need to check with your local health officials to make sure of the rules for service of your final product. You appear to be from Europe and the rules there are sometime laxer and sometimes stricter than they are here in Canada so I can't comment directly.
Now that that is out of the way, all you really need are 4 things. An understanding of the process, the name of a product you wish to make, Chef Google to look for the recipes to start from, and a space to do the actual curing. To get a better understanding of the processes and the different types of offal, these are pretty much the go to resources for most of the people I know:
https://www.amazon.com/Odd-Bits-Cook-Rest-Animal/dp/158008334X
Start here Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing https://www.amazon.com/dp/0393240053/ref=cm_sw_r_awdo_RSGCD107KDNQJETY1BDC
I really got a lot from the book Charcuterie (Ruhlman & Polcyn, 2005). There's a lot of good advice about food safety and the importance of managing temperature. Polcyn has a heavy hand with the salt in my opinion, but once I dialed that in, everything works great.
For a way more technical text, I like Home Production of Quality Meats & Sausages (Marianski & Marianski, 2012).
For a newbie, I wouldn't start by prepping casings from hog intestine. It's much easier to buy prepared casings. I like the natural ones at Butcher and Packer Supply.
You're going to have so much fun (and good food)!
Use the recipe straight out of this book. Both chorizo recipes work great! Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing https://www.amazon.com/dp/0393240053/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_48WCBF77TMECGHMSFHCA
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When people say "Ruhlman's" recipe, are you talking about https://www.amazon.com/Charcuterie-Salting-Smoking-Revised-Updated/dp/0393240053/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8? Should I just ignore the bad reviews of it?
Charcuterie has a great recipe that I will be remaking (for the 4th time) for xmas. Page 1 and Page 2. The left overs makes outrageous red beans and rice.
If you really want to get into preserving meat, here's a GREAT place to start - http://www.amazon.com/Charcuterie-Salting-Smoking-Revised-Updated/dp/0393240053/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1445889783&sr=8-1&keywords=ruhlman+charcuterie
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