While much of what I have learned about making salami, sausages, and other charcuterie projects has been by making it, most of those efforts have been backed by reading up on the subject.
I get a lot of emails from readers wanting to know where to start, and many want to know which of the books that are out there on the subject are worth buying. Sifting through the literature is surprisingly easy: I have found fewer than 20 books that deal seriously with the subject, and I own 12 of them.
What follows is a rundown of 11 of those books; I am leaving out the excellent Bruce Aidells’s Complete Sausage Book
because he deals mostly with fresh sausages. While that is indeed charcuterie, what I am focusing on here is cured meat.
What I have found is that there are two main types of books: French influenced and Germanic-Slavic influenced. I have found only one good book that focuses on Italian charcuterie, and one on Spanish and none on Portuguese sausage-making.
I’ve also found two main styles of book: Those written by a professional sausage-maker, aimed at other professionals or very serious amateurs; and those books written by writers and chefs who have delved deeply into the subject. Each are useful.
Start with Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn’s Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing
. This is definitely the “one book” on charcuterie, and is a hybrid of the genre: Written by a professional writer (Ruhlman) with a professional chef and sausage-maker (Polcyn) looking over his shoulder. Ruhlman’s ethos is deeply French, while Polcyn is a card-carrying member of the Kielbasa crowd. This book answered a great deal of my questions as I began learning the craft (although I did not start with this book), and it has been consistently useful even as I have moved beyond its instruction.
But anyone serious about the craft must view “Charcuterie” as a first step, not a bible. I have very little to quibble with in this book, but for the sake of safety (legal liability?) it does oversimplify important matters such as starter cultures for salami, how much nitrites you can use and get away with safely, as well as questions concerning the length and temperature and humidity levels when curing meat.
By far the best book to answer those questions in detail is the Marianski brothers’ The Art of Making Fermented Sausages
. This is the book you simply must own if you are going to get serious about making salami — nearly all dry-cured salami are fermented, by the way. This is the book that discusses in depth the variables Ruhlman and Polcyn do not. It is also a book by a professional for serious amateurs or new professionals — it’ ain’t bedtime reading, let me just say.
The Marianskis’ book is a specialist’s book, and so does not deal with matters such as terrines, fresh sausages or hams. For that I recommend two books: Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing
by Rytek Kutas, and the formidable The Professional Charcuterie Series: 2 Volume Set
, by Marcel Cottenceau, Jean-Francois Deport and Jean-Pierre Odeau.
Start with Kutas’ book, as it is cheaper. Kutas is of course in the Kielbasa camp, and has tons of recipes for Polish, Russian and German sausages and hams, especially smoked products. Kutas also has an easy-to-understand discussion of sanitation and equipment needed to do this right — as he should; he’s the founder of the company The Sausage Maker. Kutas is of course a professional sausage-maker, so his writing isn’t fabulous and his recipes are solid, but are very Americanized.
Not so much for the French book. I would only recommend “Professional Charcuterie” for a really serious charcutier, as I have never seen the book sell for less than $100. It is also geared toward pros, the English translation leaves a lot to be desired and the photos are laughably dated — 1982 called, and it wants its curly parsley garnishes back.
Still, Cottenceau’s book is the real deal and I am very glad I own it. It has lots of recipes for boudin noir and boudin blanc, a whole section on rilletes and rillons, and its confit recipes are excellent. (On the subject of confit, there is still no better discussion of this than Paula Wolfert’s The Cooking of Southwest France.)
Speaking of France, no review of charcuterie books can omit Jane Grigson’s classic, Charcuterie and French Pork Cookery
. Written in 1967, this book is the only thing approaching literature that I have yet found among the charcuterie books. Grigson’s recipes are lyrical and diverse, and her recipes for petit salé (a kind of streaky bacon) and boudin noir are keepers.
Grigson’s failure are those recipes, however. They were written in an era where more people possessed actual cooking skill, so she take a great deal for granted in her text. I can follow them and enjoy reading them as points of departure for my own projects — but I’d be lost and potentially in trouble safetywise if I had not read books like Ruhlman’s or Kutas’ first.
If you can imagine a similar book written 20 years later, you would find Victoria Wise’s American Charcuterie
— a dated but classic 1980s work. You can almost see the nasturtium flowers on the plate when reading this one, but I am nonetheless happy to own it, if for nothing else than her recipes for lamb crepinettes and lamb ham. And I can’t wait to try her recipe for a sausage made with chicken livers — only I will use wild duck liver. Another reason to buy Wise’s book is because if you look online, you can often find it cheap; my copy only cost a few dollars plus shipping.
Through all this reading I kept wondering where the hell were the Italians? I prefer to cook Italian and Spanish food, and while there are some excellent Spanish fresh sausage recipes in Penelope Casas’ The Foods and Wines of Spain
, she doesn’t delve too deep into cured meat.
Ruhlman and Polcyn have a few good Italian recipes, as does Marianski, but the only real place to find an Italian emphasis is in chef Paul Bertolli’s Cooking by Hand
. Now Bertolli’s book is only partially about charcuterie, but the section of the book devoted to it is thorough, detailed and serious. This book was my first in-depth look at cured meats (I had made fresh sausages for years), and as a first look it did feel like jumping into the deep end of the pool. Bertolli makes liberal use of equations to determine the amounts of salt, nitrite and starter culture in his product. But he’s right, and I learned those equations and have become a better salumiere for it.
“Cooking by Hand” may be the single greatest book in this list, by the way. Its discussion of pasta and Bertolli’s method of designing a menu were, in a small way, life-changing experiences for me.
I want to finish my recommendations with two other books not entirely devoted to cured meat: The Briton Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s The River Cottage Meat Book
, and his countryman Fergus Henderson’s The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating
. Both contain excellent discussions of curing meats, and both are exceptionally good with offal — another of my obsessions.
Both books are well worth buying, although I am concerned with Henderson’s seeming hatred of crispy things and of the color green. My faves in Whittingstall’s book are his corned beef recipe and his rendition of the Italian air-cured beef bresaola. He also has an interesting cotechino, but I have been unable to find a hog’s bladder to make it properly. Sigh.
Incidentally, it is Henderson’s recipe for dried, salted pig’s liver that I used as a basis for my own cured pork liver (Remember that mangalitsa hog I got?) Henderson’s real gift is with offal.
Finally, there are two books I cannot really recommend: John Kinsella’s mediocre Professional Charcuterie
and Fritz Sonnenschmidt’s truly awful Charcuterie: Sausages, Pates and Accompaniments. Kinsella’s book is OK, but it lacks focus and depth — it is neither as clearly written as one would expect for a layperson’s book, nor as detailed as one would expect for a professional book. Sonnenschmidt’s book is downright dangerous, with several serious errors that could potentially make eaters of these recipes ill. This is all something of a mystery as Sonnenschmidt has a reputation as being a master of the craft. Editing error?
So what’s the bottom line on all these books? If you really want to get into charcuterie, you absolutely need to make it often — and expect to fail sometimes. As for books to read, I’d suggest this progression:
- Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing
- The River Cottage Meat Book
- Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing
- Cooking by Hand
- The Art of Making Fermented Sausages
- Charcuterie and French Pork Cookery
- American Charcuterie
- The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating
Good luck, and if you make something special I’d love to hear about it.
I have used Umai Dry bags and “casings” for a few years now with good results. I don’t hear much from people trying it and I was wondering why.
I used to brew beer and at first I was an extract brewer using specialty grains and then I transitioned to all grain. At times the all grain guys might throw a derisive word or two towards the extract guys basically the all grain camp believed the extract guys weren’t making “real” beer.
I was wondering if the some guys that cure in a chamber with real casings feel the same towards the Umai Dry guys?
What about The Art of Charcuterie by the Culinary Institute of America?
I just purchased Ruhlman’s Charcuterie along with “Home production of quality meats and sausages” by Stanley Marianski. Has anyone used that Marianski book, the reviews on Amazon were very good. I also purchased “The artisan Jewish deli at home” which isn’t exactly a charcuterie book but should have some useful stuff in it. I’ll let you know what I think of the books once I’ve put them into use for awhile.
Great list of books, thanks for this.
To satisfy your Italian cravings, Ruhlmann and Polcyn brought out a successor to Charcuterie: Salumi: The Craft of Italian Dry Curing. http://www.amazon.com/Salumi-The-Craft-Italian-Curing/dp/0393068595/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1406444391&sr=1-5
And if anybody is in the UK and looking to get into charcuterie, I can thoroughly recommend River Cottages “Pig in a day” and “Meat Curing and Smoking” courses. Steve Lamb is very passionate, very knowledgeable and has a wonderful teaching style which will make you want to start as soon as you get home.
Finally, River Cottage also publishes Steve’s book, Curing and Smoking. This is an excellent beginner’s book and also includes a number of Italian recipes, as well as other countries.
Love the Book, I would recommend however that you include a book by Francois Vecchio on your list of books for required reading in the world of Charcuterie. As a student of Francois, I can say that his wisdom and knowledge are beyond richness, and as a Swiss Born 5th generation butcher, his legacy as an American Charcutiere needs to be shared with as many people as possible. Though we can say the world of cured meats is growing within the United States, it’s important to recognize the traditions that have existed along with the skill as well associated. His book is called Salumi, and I think he’s got another one in the works.
Just a thought! Thanks for this amazing contribution to our library!
I almost posted a question about the best Charcuterie books on the Charcutepalooza Facebook page, and here you’ve provided a list well worth having. I always tell people that sausage is my “junk food,” meaning I could eat too much of it all the time. So I joined Charcutepalooza to fulfill that desire. Now that I’ve spent a year “learning” about charcuterie, I realize that I have a new passion for cured meats. The flavor, obviously, is so much better than anything in the grocery store, plus I live in a place where much fresh meat of all kinds is available. Even though Charcutepalooza is coming to a close, I intend to continue this focus on cured meats. I found your list at such an appropriate time!
if you are a novice, michael ruhlman’s book is not the place to start. he leaves out too many details and you’ll end up wasting a lot of time and meat.
For more Italian recipes, I would recommend “Preserving the Italian Way” by Pietro Demaio. I bought it in Italy for less than $20. I saw it in multiple shops there. Unfortunately, It doesn’t appear to be available here, so it’s a bit pricey at $65 with shipping.
http://www.preservingtheitalianway.com.au/
Hello,
I traveled to Brazil in April and ate carne seca in a dish called feijoada. I have not been able to find a recipe for this cured beef. I am a chef and teach at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park. I have taught Garde Manger and am familiar with curing and sausage making. This type of carne seca is different than the Mexican versions. It is usually a 8-10 lb. piece of top round of beef that is dry cured with salt and TCM for 2-3 weeks.
Do you have any information or a recipe that I can use? Or do you know of any books that would have a recipe for it? Thanks.
Tom Kief
And there’s so many people out there who think cured meats are limited to salami, bologna, and other lunch meats. Such a comprehensive list of books!
Great post, Hank. Just found your blog while scanning around for kolbasz recipes. Holler if you ever hit Portland, we’ll grab izakaya at Tanuki.
Does anyone else see Ruhlman’s francocentricism as narrow? I find it tiresome.
My charcuterie library is almost identical to yours, and I share most of your opinions.
For those looking for The Professional Charcuterie Series vol 1+2, the cheapest place I’ve seen them is Kitchen Letters and Arts in NYC. They’re currently $89 each there, and they’ll ship anywhere on Earth.
I have one big reservation about the CIA Garde Manger book… it’s by the same Sonnenschmidt that wrote the awful ‘Charcuterie: Sausages, Pates and Accompaniments’.
Also not recommended are Reynaud’s ‘Pork and Sons’ and ‘Terrine’, which are very pretty books but also pretty useless; they have little information and recipes that don’t work.
Just posted a link to this post from my blog. Saw no need to list Charcuterie books when you did such a good job of it for me.
This is a great source to get some good cooking ideas. I think the hardest part of my mom letting us go hunting is that she doesn’t know how to cook the game when we get back. great job.
Larbo: Yep, apparently the seafood sausages volume was not translated. Can’t say it was a great loss. The Cottenceau book I own does have several seafood sausage recipes, however…
I’ve two hams hanging from the joists in the basement wrapped in cheesecloth. One will hang in a wine cooler for about another year starting some time in May. The other until we need it.
These are the third and forth hams I’ve done all by the Charcuterie method. I’ve had luck with my fermented sausage from the book but the sausscion sec was a failure. However I think that was my fault.
Your list mirrors my library own and mentions a couple books I hadn’t heard of, so many thanks for that!
Looked into Cottenceau’s Professional Charcuterie Series, and from what I read, the English translation does not include a volume that was in the French series, dedicated to seafood sausages. Is that correct? If so, too bad, because I can’t find a complete French edition anywhere.
Hank – Charcuterie – I’m right there with you. I’ve heard one or two criticisms that it was not “complete”. My response… “So what?” It’s a amazing book to get you started. I’m actually in the process for doing all the recipes in the book… my pancetta turned out /excellent/!
Thank you for the nice concise list. I have a few of them, but will add the rest to my wish list… the Marianski book in particular.
NTSC – I heard the same thing about Garde Manger from CIA. Thanks for reaffirming and additional suggestions.
Thanks for this list-I have Charcuterie (Ruhlman and Polcyn) and make fresh sausage regularly. I have dry cured jowls, but I think I’ll wait until I get the art of making fermented sausage to take on that challenge.
Thank you for the useful information. I have Ruhlman’s Charcuterie and love it. I do the simple cured preps, with pancetta being the longest cure I’ve done but feel like I’m ready to move on to more advanced preps. I will take a look at the Marianski book.
I’m looking to get this one: The Professional Charcuterie Series: 2 Volume Set, by Marcel Cottenceau, Jean-Francois Deport and Jean-Pierre Odeau. Pardus (via DelGrosso) recomends it highly. The set is very expensive as mentioned. I do hope to get it someday.
Is there a reason you have left out Bruce Aidells’s body of work?
There are only two of us to eat sausage here and so far “Charcuterie” has done all that is needed. Pate can be found all over the place, with the Time Life Series book, Terrines, Pates and Galantines being excellent and what got me started in about 82. The Terrine that is the frontpiece of my blog is from that.
There is also Home Sausage Making by Peery and Reavis and I’ve no opinon yet.
I will be ordering the Kutas book. I’ve been put off because hardware on the Sausagemaker.com is so overprieced, one can generally find the same item in a resturant supply house for half or less.
And Garde Manger from CIA is also good (it is the CIA text on the subject), but is $70 as I recall.
I have very limited charcuterie experience…specifically limited to a couple pates, goose jerky, and venison/feral pig fresh sausages. I recently purchased Ruhlman & Polcyn’s and Rytek Kutas books. I’m half way thru both, and this past weekend made Ruhlman’s fresh garlic sausage with some feral pig…outstanding! Hank’s description of both books are spot on and I’ll second his recommendations.
I have Charcuterie by Rulhman/Polcyn and River Cottage, and I love both books.
Thanks for the other recommendations.
So far my progression mirrors you suggestion.
Good stuff.