Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing is essentially a love poem written about curing animal fat. Published in 2005, Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing has become the ultimate resource for the lover of the ancient craft of curing meats and making sausages.
If you want to immerse yourself in the sacred art of sausage stuffing or the ceremonial brining of corned beef, this is the cookbook for you. This is a hard pass for Vegans.
Ruhlman’s love of cured meats is clear in his description of a cold-cut platter in Italy:
“the way the sunlight hit the fat of the dried meats, the way it glistened, the beauty of the meat.”
This new newly revised and updated version of the cookbook is well-organized and includes all the traditional classics: duck confit, sausages, prosciutto, bacon, pâté de campagne, knackwurst, and more.
This is the bible of charcuterie: with instructive illustrations (over 75) that assist newbies thoroughly with the core techniques of curing, brining, etc.
Every chef worth his salt has Charcuterie on their bookshelf.
Michael Ruhlman has written many other bestsellers, including The Soul of a Chef, The French Laundry Cookbook, and Ratio.
You can grab a copy online here.