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What books do you folks think are essential must haves for curing meats and making sausages? Without listing my own choices, I wanted to see what the group suggested without influencing. I read as much as possible in a multitude of genres but I feel I am rather limited in this area and could use some quality suggestions. Thanks gang!

For technical stuff, I find myself referring to the books by the Marianskis more than any others.

I also like Rytek Kutas and Maynard Davies, and have really enjoyed the Bruce Aidell book that I was bought recently. The one I use least for sausage and curing, but which has a superb pork pate recipe, is Charcuterie by Rhulman and Polcyn.

For researching sausage recipes I like my old copies of trade books.

OK, I'll admit it, I'm a bit of a 'bookaholic' - an extra 18 inches of books appeared on my shelves just this Christmas!

Phil

Here is an annotated list of some of the books in my library. My collection has expanded significantly in the last several years, and I need to do a more complete list. Still many of these are representative works.

http://forum.sausagemaking.org/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=9123&p=83474&hilit=workshops#p83474

Wow, great start for me! I'm gonna go hit a few specialty used bookstores tomorrow that have unusually large collections of culinary works. Hopefully I can find a few of these titles for my collection.

Wheels, I have to agree, my bookshelf grows several inches after Christmas and several more on my birthday. I know I should sort through and give away some of the lesser read books but I find it hard to do. When I sit on my deathbed I want to be able to look back and say I read every book I possibly could in this life.

Toronto has some great bookstores. There are a lot of old cookery books from prior to 1924 (copyright limits) that have been scanned and are available as free downloads in a variety of formats, online. archive.org, the Gutenberg project, and Google books are places to search.

The Marianski's "Home Production of Quality Meats and Sausages." provides the most bang for the buck.
I would definitely start with that book.
I have nearly 100 books relating to sausage making and/or meat curing, none of them are perfect, or even close.

~Martin

I don't have as many as Martin or Vagreys but I agree with Martin's statement that none are perfect, some are better than others. I second Martin's comment that the "Home Production.." give good bang for the buck. Sadly I felt that too much information was repeated in other titles from the Marianskis. Here are a couple titles I have which weren't mentioned previously:

Charcuterie - Sonnenschmidt
Sausages - DK Publishing (I can't vouch for the recipes, haven't tried any, but great information and pictures)
Professional Charcuterie - Kinsella
Salumi - Ruhlman & Polcyn


Coincidentally I had contacted Kitchen Arts & Letters, one of the foremost cookbook stores in the US, just a couple days ago for some additional title recommendations and this is what they suggested:

Professional Charcuterie, Volumes 1 & 2 by Cottenceau, Deport & Odeau. $89.95 each
Volume 1 covers "Hams, Sausages, Sausage Meats, Blood Sausages and White Sausages, Rillettes, Rillons, Confits and Smoked Pork"
Volume 2 covers "Pates, Terrines and Ballotines made with Poultry, Veal, Pork and Liver, Andouilles and Andouillettes--Foie Gras"
This pair of books focuses on artisanal production of traditional charcuterie, primarily but not exclusively in the French style. There are many detailed photographic sequences showing such things as the desired texture of the meats, the composition of elaborate terrine, the grading of foie, and the shaping of hams. Very old school in the best sense.

Mes Secrets de Charcutier by Gilles Verot. In French. $55.00
Verot is from a long line of charcutiers in the Loire Valley; he's also the chef who Daniel Boulud brought in for the opening of the charcuterie-focused Bar Boulud here in NYC. Here he presents pates, terrines, and a mixture of sausages, largely traditional but with an occasional innovation. More photographic emphasis on presentation than technique.

Le Livre du Compagnon charcutier-traiteur by Jean Claude Frentz and Michel Poulain. In French. $102 (paperback)
This is a textbook used in French culinary programs, with an emphasis on issues of food safety and the use of basic formulations which can be easily amended for various regional specialties.

Dry-cured Meat Products by Fidel Toldra. $104.95
Highly technical, industrial-level discussion of dry curing, including selection of fermentation and starter cultures, troubleshooting, and safety issues.

They're some heavyweight books they're recommending - I just need a lottery win now.

Has anyone got: Le Charcutier Anglais by Marc Frederic:

http://www.sausagemaking.org/acatalog/Books.html

Phil

I just recently learned about that titled myself and it's on the short list to purchase...

Regarding the Kitchen Arts and Letters recommendations they tend to lean towards the harder to get and specialty titles. Also, I have a decent collection already so they probably went a little heavier than they would for some people. This is the list that I sent them of my current collection:

Charcuterie by Ruhlman and Polcyn
Salumi by Ruhlman and Polcyn
American Charcuterie - Victoria Wise
Home Production of Quality Meats and Sausages - Marianski
Meat Smoking and Smokehouse Design - Marianski
The Art of Making Fermented Sausages - Marianski
Polish Sausages - Marianski
Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing - Rytek Kutas
Bruce Aidelle's Complete Book for Pork
Bruce Aidelle's Complete Sausage Book
The Complete Meat Cookbook - Aidell and Kelly
The Whole Beast - Fergus Henderson
Pork and Sons - Reynauld
Sausage - Fletcher (the aforementioned DK title)
Manual of a Traditional Bacon Curer - Davies
Professional Charcuterie - Kinsella and Harvey
The River Cottage Meat - Fearnley-Whittingstall
Charcuterie - Sonnenschmidt

I couldn't find many of the books used (my fav source) so I splurged and ordered two Marianski books, "Home Production of Quality Meats and Sausage" and "The Art of Fermented Sausages". I did however luck out in regards to Kutas "Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing" for only $4! So I think these, long with "Charcuterie", "Salumi", and "The Whole Beast" are a good start for now. I have to admit, any excuse to roam my favourite book stores for hours on end is one I look for! Thanks for the suggestions folks!

I would steer clear of Salumi by Ruhlman and Polcyn. Don't get me wrong, it's an okay book from a recipe standpoint but not something that gives much help or advice to those starting out. To the contrary there is some misleading if not dangerous info in it. There is a thread on this site commenting on thoughts and those specifics. I'll dig it up and add to this thread. Oh, it also looks "nice" on the coffee table.

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=10099

Hope I did that correctly.

Funny thing on one of the links to Ruhlman's blog in the linked post is that he mentioned botulinum toxin can be destroyed by cooking. While this is true according to the USDA FSIS (food safety inspection service) destruction of the botulinum toxin requires 10 min of boiling. Doesn't make for pleasent eats!

LOL!

That's been one of the rules of "safe" home canning!
Pressure can your foods this way, blah, blah blah,because it's "safe", but just in case it's not, boil the hell out of it for 10 minutes before eating. LOL

According to Douglas Baldwin (sighting various research), botulinum toxin can also be deactivated with a long exposure time to lower temperatures.

Who knows?

~Martin

ComradeQ wrote:I did however luck out in regards to Kutas "Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing" for only $4!

Cool!
I hope it's one of the newer editions, the first edition is riddled with serious errors.
But, he didn't push that crappy soy protein concentrate or fermento so much in the first issue.


~Martin

Fair point!