In The Charcuterie: The Fatted Calf's Guide to Making Sausage, Salumi, Pates, Roasts, Confits, and Other Meaty Goods [A Cookbook]

Two earlier reviewers offer fine and informed reviews of this book; reviews that go into useful detail. Make no mistake: this is a very fine book on the craft of charcuterie. It begins with herbs and spices, goes on to talk about a range of tools and equipment--both simple items and 'nice to have' ones and clearly presents recipes from 'The Fatted Calf' and the techniques used to produce them. Reviewers have rightly praised the full-color photos in the book: they are particularly effective teaching illustrations for 'breaking down' cuts of beef, poultry, pork, rabbit and so on. These photos are the best I have seen in twenty-some years of buying books on this subject. Interested readers will know how to produce any of the items presented in the book and will be ready to add other charcuterie books to their collection.This book and its recipes 'delivers the goods' on many specialties. I am particularly grateful for the porchetta recipes, of Italian inspiration. I ate wonderful 'street food' porchetta sandwiches in Tuscany and tried to imagine how to do this 'at home.' Now I know. You will know, too, if you can 'transpose' the seasonings from one meat to another (rabbit to pork) or can move the same seasonings on to the recipe for a 'Cuban' presented a few pages later. Francophiles will find a very fine recipe for cassoulet.One earlier reviewer notes what I can only echo: there are a good many recipes for baking and roasting items. Readers will appreciate that, even if going so far 'downstream' from making sausages and terrines and curing meats is unexpected in a book of this type. Chapter titles include: The Charcutier's Pantry; Provisioning the Larder (they mean a root cellar); In the Butcher Shop (where the photos of breaking down the cuts are concentrated along with unexpected and useful information about meats and fats); Skewered, Rolled and Stuffed (Items); Sausage, Salami and their Cousins; Pates, Potted Meats, Terrines and Loaves; Brined, Cured and Smoked and what the authors call 'Accoutrements'--really, condiments. This last chapter goes beyond the technical scope of 'charcuterie' but will be of interest for its recipes on bread and butter pickles, cucumber dills, pickled red onion rings, chowchow, mostarda, chutney and the like.You WILL want to buy this book for your working library but it is not necessarily the first book you should buy. In recent years, the Marianski brothers book 'Home Production of Quality Meats and Sausages' includes better ideas and techniques for curing and smoking hams and for making breakfast sausage--my first foray into charcuterie (but I began with Fanny Farmer and Rytek Kutas' almost encyclopedic book on the commercial sausage kitchen.) The Marianski brothers offer a wider range of recipes than this book does but their recipes are different and not necessarily better. They do offer better instruction on using sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite as essential preservatives right in the recipe for many cured meat items. My recommendation would be to purchase both books. Taken together, they provide an up to date coverage of a fascinating and tasty culinary subject.

A huge amount of work went into this 342 page text. Color photos throughout and many are dedicated to illustrating the techniques required when breaking down large meat carcasses and preparing the primals for various recipes. Much like Jacques Pepin's classic volume, La Technique, but dedicated to breaking down fowl, pig, rabbit and other less familiar carcasses including a whole beef carcass into primals using a meat saw. The first 192 pages are dedicated to everything but Sausages Salumi, Pates and Terrines. In other words, more than half the book is devoted to roasting and braising meat recipes and preparing confits and side dishes; Pork Brochettas, Harissa Marintated Lamb Kebabs, Marsha's Grilled Rabbit Spiedini, Pancetta Wrapped Pork Tenderloin, plus 8 more roast recipes are found in the roast chapter. The sausage making chapter starts with hamburger and is over in 50 pages without a single emulsified sausage recipe included but Oaxacan Chorizo, Lamb and Herb Meatballs and Duck and Lemongrass Sausage are prominent. The smoking chapter is short at 30 pages and that includes all the air cured charcuterie with classic recipes for bacon, corned beef and cooked picnic ham and and includes a neat description of the various wood types for smoking meats but I don't think the detail is sufficient for hot or cold smoked meats to be successful without additional information found in other cookbooks dedicated to the subject. I wanted to find much more detail here. I would describe the recipes as very world cuisine and not Euro centric. Charcuterie is the French way of preserving meats and this book has a much more world cuisine approach with many recipes requiring a complex spice bill. Piment d'Espelette is the world's most costly red pepper and it appears at least twice when a less costly piment would surely be as authentic in basque sausage making. And although lavender is grown in huge quantities in Provence, it is NOT a culinary herb except apparently in Napa, California as it appears in the Herbs de Provence mixture used here. The book is filled with beautiful pictures and many recipes that are not related to what I would consider classic Charcuterie or Salumeria but world cuisine and the spice mixtures are exotic and complex for some recipes and overly so, in my opinion.

This book is easy to comprehend. And recipes are very tasty. Mexican Chorizo was short in dye and did not provide full satisfaction. Flavor was good. I dehydrated the chorizo and used it for pizzas dam brilliant. The italian sausages sweet and spicy were superior to anything ever had elsewhere. Super recommended.

This book one of those books that come along now and then; that stands out from the rest. Very well written, and presented. Every Larder Chef Garde Manger should have it in his collection. ​

Excellent full of recipes and expert advice.

Excellent book, had a great range of recipes and tips - spent ages looking for something like this on the high street but to no avail.

Excellent product and service

fantastic just what i was looking for cheers