The system by which most meat comes our way in America is based on backward economy, poor resource management, coercion of farmers and mechanized suffering, to name a few of its many vices. On top of this, the product lacks flavor and nutrient density relative to meat and fat that can be sourced close to home, from purveyors without allegiance to corporate dominion over the food supply and the soil. That being said, not all local products are superior, and there are some very good people in the world who have no choice but to participate in the ghastly external system. There are very good farmers forced to model their systems as the industry dictates, and not as nature suggests. We, as consumers, or everyday “food citizens” as I like to call us, are indeed the biggest contributors to the backward food industry, and its biggest victims. I say this in an effort to honor the truth, which is simple and whole: Good food comes from good soil and diverse, synergistic systems. I speak this truth with full recognition of reality, which is less simple, and less than ideal: We eat and work within a food system that does not support good food for all. What are you to make of this? Do the best you can, considering the situation.
Look for healthy lean muscle, deep in color and firm but springy in texture. Fat should be creamy and white, and at least somewhat plentiful. This can apply to both intermuscular fat (fat located between muscles and muscle systems) and intramuscular fat (fat within muscles/marbling), however less intramuscular fat could be attributed to breed of animal or feed regimen. Again, the more you can talk to the producer, or the more the butcher can tell you, the more you can select your meat relative to your project, and in good faith toward the ethical meat ethos. As you develop your charcuterie practice, you will be able to recognize quality meat and fat almost instantly, via texture, scent and color.
This image depicts the typical American method for pork butchery, and attributes traditional charcuterie preparations to their customary carcass primal.
Most recipes and many traditions dictate a specific cut for each charcuterie preparation. This is many times due to the way a cut lends itself to a process, but it can also be tweaked, based on knowledge of similar muscles within the animal, and based on availability. I am a firm believer in full reverence to tradition, but I also believe good practice and holism require us to evolve tradition to the extent that it best serves the whole. If you are not knowledgeable of butchery, follow the suggestion in the recipe until you gain more experience. As you learn about muscle science and have some sensory experience with butchery practice, you can allow yourself to become more flexible. I have tried to note in each recipe where you cannot afford to be cavalier, and processes or instructions with which you can allow yourself some creativity.
The same can be said for spices, salt and other ingredients. Seek the freshest and most responsible ingredients possible, as these will inform a better product and a better food system. Follow tradition where it serves you, and branch out where you wish to forge new and delicious ground.
For casings, I prefer natural over synthetic. For fresh sausages, I use natural hog casings, for salamis I use natural beef middles, and for larger preparations or whole muscle cures, I use hog bungs and hog bladders. Sheep casings will come in handy if you want to make breakfast links or snack sticks, and beef bungs are used for curing coppa. You will see each of these items pictured with the recipes for which they are used.
The Resources section at the end of the book provides online purveyors for items that you might have trouble purchasing around the corner.
SAFETY / HOW IT WORKS
I am not a germ freak. On the contrary, I grow mold next to my desk on an ongoing basis. Let’s be honest — some of our best foods in the world come from our understanding of, and openness to, microorganisms. Chocolate, coffee, tea, yogurt, cheese, alcohol and salami are just a few of the delicious possibilities we’ve come up with by not being total germ-a-phobes. That being said, we must also have a respect for the harmful microorganisms that can plague our cookery. Charcuterie is a practice in which you can become intimately unafraid of nature, and indeed delighted by its mystery. But you will also need respect for its power. In meat processing, there are a few notable foes of the process. The majority of them, including Campylobacter, listeria, salmonella, E. coli and staph can be prevented by cooking fully or preserving thoroughly, ensuring you start with clean product, and maintaining a clean and cold processing regimen. Botulism is in another category, as the deadliest potential pathogen in food preservation. It thrives in oxygen devoid, acidic environments, and can only be inhibited by thorough cooking or use of nitrite (more on that later). Trichina is a parasite of concern in wild game and some pastured animals. Freezing meat for at least 82 hours at less than –10 degrees Fahrenheit (a median temperature for most home freezers) will kill it.
The most important and most basic safety principles are to 1) keep work area, hands, equipment and everything as clean as possible, and 2) keep everything as cold as possible. As meat gets smaller, it needs to be kept colder. This is because the more surface area meat gains (via cutting or grinding), the more breeding ground bacteria is given. You’ll notice the particular attention given to temperature as we deal with preparations that include grinding and fine mincing of meat products. In many preparations, you will be encouraged to not only work with frozen meat, but also to freeze parts of your equipment (working parts of your grinder, mixing bowls). You may also want to take a break in the middle of processing, and let the meat chill in the fridge before continuing to ensure everything stays around 40°F, and no warmer. 3) Ensure your projects meet parameters for internal temperature when hot smoking or cooking, and for weight loss when air curing. For the latter, measures of pH and water activity are the most reliable markers of food safety.
An understanding of how charcuterie works, when it works, is essential to preventing safety issues, as well as producing great-tasting products. In addition to common sense sanitary practices and cold storage, we use specific tools to aid our cause. Understanding these tools and their role in the process of meat preservation is essential to grasping the essentials of how charcuterie is even possible.
Salt is a critical player in charcuterie practice. It provides flavor, but it also creates inhospitable environments for many harmful microorganisms. Additionally, salt does the important work of reducing water activity, which is a measure of the total water available for microbial activity in the meat. Via the processes of osmosis and diffusion, salt lowers water activity and aids in the dehydration of meat, which is ultimately what preserves it for safe consumption.
Smoke has antimicrobial properties, a low pH and other qualities that inhibit rancidity. In addition, the flavors smoke contributes to cured meats play a major role in charcuterie tradition. (More on smoke in Chapter 6.)
Fermentation reactions give us the ability to alter pH, exclude harmful microbes and welcome friendly ones. (More on the magic of fermentation in Chapter 5.)
Controlled temperature and humidity (Chapter 5) similarly allow us to tailor the environment to microbes that we want, and discourage those we don’t want.
Nitrite prevents toxicity of Clostridium botulinum, the bacteria that causes botulism. Most nitrite used in the kitchen is chemically derived, but it is a naturally occurring compound that can be found in the stems of leafy greens, particularly concentrated in the stalks of the celery plant. In addition to inhibiting botulism, nitrites also provide color to cured meat items. While nitrite has caused much controversy in the food world, it cannot be flatly condemned. Research has shown that a person would have to eat more than 14 pounds of cured meat in one sitting to become ill from nitrite poisoning, while a mere half microgram (or less) of botulism can kill them. As we explore methods for curing meat throughout this text, we will also explore situations in which nitrites can be excluded. I encourage skeptics to gain an understanding of nitrite in the environment and in our bodies, and to understand that having control over our own processing by making our own charcuterie allows us to avoid some
of the pitfalls of this controversial ingredient.
For example, any time a product will be cooked to temperature (150°F for red meats, and 160°F for poultry) any botulism present in the product will be killed. This means that for warm or hot smoked charcuterie, or sausages poached to temperature, a nitrite is not necessary to ensure safety. People often include sodium nitrite in cooked charcuterie products anyway, because it is a color enhancer. However, when producing cured meats on the home scale, you have the freedom of making your own decision regarding the use of nitrite in cooked applications. Additionally, cooking products that are cured with nitrate produces nitrosamine, a known carcinogen. If you omit the nitrite because you know you will be cooking the product to temperature, you can avoid this concern.
When it comes to fermented meats that are never cooked, nitrates are a requirement for food safety. Whether you obtain the nitrate component from naturally derived celery juice extract or from commercially uniform curing salts, the nitrate and nitrite in these additives interact with microorganisms to render botulism inactive and prevent its toxicity in the product. I find it useful to remind people that these are metabolic interactions, wherein nitrite (which is itself only 4% sodium nitrite and 96% table salt) has been added in small quantities (just 4 oz. per 100 lb. of meat) and has then been changed by microorganisms. Nitrite in cured meats is metabolized into nitric oxide, and the trace amounts of this are then metabolized and used by your own body and the microorganisms your body hosts. To attempt to understand the dynamism of these interactions, and to claim to know their exact scientific effects on our health, is laughable, if you ask me. I say you are part of the nitrogen cycle, as you are of nature. I say absolutism of any form is annoying and egoist. Cure on, friends.
Natural sources of sodium nitrite are available, if you are more comfortable with this approach. The most common source is celery juice powder. It is added to the recipe similarly to a curing salt. Simply follow the instructions of the provider in terms of quantity. Because this is a natural source, there can be inconsistencies in the amount of nitrite contained in a measurable amount of product. Even so, I have used it with success, and know many salumists both commercial and home-based who use it with satisfaction.
Time plays in our favor, both because the ultimate symbiosis with beneficial microorganisms only comes when we allow them the time they need to do their work, and because the slow dehydration of meat is the ultimate determinant of shelf stability.
EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES
There are many items you’ll want in the kitchen to make your curing projects easier and faster. Remember that people used to do this with stone blades and bladders and rams’ horns, so feel free to get as minimalist as you want. Below is a list of equipment to consider. I have listed some of the specific models I use throughout the text.
• Boning knife
• Meat grinder
• Sausage stuffer
• Stand mixer
• Smoker
• Food processor
• Steamer
• Freezer space and refrigerator space
• Various stainless steel pots for poaching and blanching
• Tamis or a fine-mesh sieve
• Various sized mixing bowls
• Digital kitchen scale
• Hooks — bacon hangers and various S-hooks mostly
• Loaf pans or terrine molds
Climate-controlled charcuterie cabinet basically any insulated box wherein you can control temperature and humidity. I have a few refrigerators I have adapted with an external thermometer and a cool mist humidifier. Details for this exact setup can be found in The Ethical Meat Handbook.
Casings I use natural casings. These are hog intestines (used for standard size sausage links), beef middles (for fermented salamis), beef bungs (for curing whole muscles), bladders (curing whole muscles) and sheep casings (snack sticks or breakfast sausages). I do use collagen casings and synthetic casings occasionally, mostly for mortadella, hot dogs and bolognas.
• Butcher’s twine
• Nonreactive containers for storing spices, soaking casings and holding meats under refrigeration while they cure
• Cheesecloth
• Sheet pans/rimmed baking sheets
• Towels and aprons
ON PRECISION
How do the oranges divide up sunlight in the orange tree?
PABLO NERUDA The Book of Questions (1974)
A FRESH SAUSAGE IS a tremendous thing. Done properly, no one argues, and everyone just grunts. The precise and loving combination of well-raised meat, pure fat and fresh seasonings is one of the kitchen’s most open-ended and rewarding vehicles for flavor. Get some snow-white fat, some healthy cold muscle, some whole spice, a few herbs you just tore from the garden, some coarse salt and dry wine and experience real freshness from start to finish. You can create a show-stopping fresh sausage in less than an hour, if you’re so inclined.
SAUSAGE PRIMER
My five-year old son was set to have some dental work done, and I was chatting with the dentist about preparing him for the big day.
“Best not to go into detail about what will be happening,” the dentist said. “Just . . . tell him we’ll do a bit of work and it will be over in a flash. Kind of like — you don’t just go around telling people how sausage is made!”
You can imagine the laugh I choked back at that point. Conversation over, or barely begun. I could go on forever, telling the dentist just how much time I spend explaining to people how sausage is made.
Buttermilk Boudin Blanc
All that aside, why don’t we talk more about how sausage is made? In the pursuit of Pure Charcuterie, to touch on this story and not get to the root of the matter would be absurd. Why, sausage is not a frightening food item. Dare I say, purer than a casserole? Perhaps the food industry can be blamed for stomach-turning concoctions of otherwise questionable scraps, ground to smithereens and punished with additives that cause us to bristle when we consider their origins. But . . . real sausage?
It is meat, fat and salt, y’all. That’s all.
From there, it is a veritable playground for the inventive cook, one of the chief jumping-off places for creativity, and a vessel for profound flavor experiments. It is also the foundation of most charcuterie practice. If you understand and feel comfortable with sausage making, you are more likely to master the finer points of meat preservation.
So we begin with fresh sausage. When we say “fresh” sausage, we communicate very quickly that there is no curing step involved, and no fermentation or drying is expected. This is a mixture of fresh ingredients, intended for cooking relatively soon. It is a supremely easy process, requiring only a bit of knowledge about proper recipe ratios, and a mind opened to delicious possibility.
As with many of the preparations you’ll encounter in this book, we turn to a “master” or generic recipe, which informs the ratios of ingredients. If you think about it, all cooking is ratios, so this should not be daunting. Rather, an understanding of ratios is a more proper way to go about mastering any cookery. Understand the proportions of ingredients in relation to one another, respect the precision that ratios provide, and you are suddenly equipped with the ability to edit and create almost indefinitely. Opinions vary on the best master ratio when crafting sausage recipes. I don’t scoff or scorn anyone their master ratio. Food is art, and art is subjective. Cooking is making controlled mixtures of ingredients into a beautiful mess. Just like life. My ratio for fresh sausage is below. I encourage you to tweak it as the spirit moves you.
Lean meat
70%
Fat
30%
OF THE ABOVE TOTAL WEIGHT, ADD
Salt
1.75%
Liquid
10–14%
Spices
No more than 4%, usually much less
Let’s explore each component in detail, so you understand the interplay of ingredients, and what to tweak when.
&n
bsp; Lean & fat components are weighed separately, to establish the proper ratio.
Lean Meat
When I mention lean meat, I refer to muscle in any animal species (beef, pork, lamb, goat, poultry or game). You want healthy muscle tissue. Avoid meat that looks funny. If it has a lot of blood or hemorrhage on it, don’t use it. If it is mushy or gray, dry or damaged, don’t use it. Of course, if these imperfections can be trimmed off, that’s ideal. Work with what you have to isolate the best-quality lean for your sausage. Cutting corners will produce a product that is either unpalatable or susceptible to rancidity. Trim lean meat to a size that will fit your meat grinder, usually around 2 inches wide and up to 3–4 inches long. You’ll want to be sure you’ve cut out any cartilage, tendons, sinew and opaque fascia (also called silverskin). If you’re using an electric grinder, you can worry less about silverskin that you can see through. If, however, you are using a hand-powered grinder, you will want to be especially picky about fascia tissue; de-nude as much as you can, slipping your knife under the silverskin and undercutting it to take it right off the top of the muscle.
If you choose to tweak the lean meat component in your recipe, consider that 70%, as I have outlined here, is about the minimum acceptable ratio. Other master recipes call for 80%, 85% or as much as 90%. Start with these alternatives as you adventure, and you’ll more quickly find your sweet spot.
Fat
The most ideal fat for sausage making is firm back fat or superficial (outside the muscles, under the skin) fat from any species. That being said, softer fats from the belly can still be used — they just should not be used exclusively in any recipe. If you have a lot of soft fats or belly fat to deal with, spread it out among several recipes, combining it with quality, firm back fat to ensure a good eating experience. Don’t use caul fat (also called leaf fat or cod fat), which is the fat around the organs. This fat has a different melting temperature than other fats in the body, and is best reserved for making pastry lard. Also, glands in the body are usually embedded in fat, so as you trim through, make sure you remove any glands you find. They are beige or olive colored, and easy to spot.
Pure Charcuterie: The Craft & Poetry of Curing Meat at Home Page 2
