Michael Ruhlman

bacon's a fully cooked product, so it's hot smoked. though there's no reason it couldn't be cold smoked then cooked. if it were smoked at danger zone temps, then there would be botulism concerns. re temps: botulism spores are very temp resistant and hard to kill. the bacteria that arise from the spores are less resistant, easier to kill. the toxin the bacteria produce, which is what is so dangerous to us, is rendered inert at even lower temps. what these temperatures are, I don't know exactly. any scientists out there with definitive info on thermal death points?

here's the story: "nitrite free" is a marketing device. it's not safer or better for you than regular bacon--it just sounds like it should be and most people don't know any better. nor does it taste better or look better. I've tried niman's and it tastes pretty good, though it's brown. the reason for pink salt in bacon is for flavor, color, and for anything smoked pink salt will prevent the grown of the bacteria that cause botulism. this is more important for sausages, though. in fact, i've never understood why bacon was ever in danger of botulism contamination. It's hot smoked, and then chilled and then cooked at very hign temps. even were the bacteria to grow in the smoker, the toxin would be inert by the time it reached the plate. as far as i'm concerned, the reason to add pink salt is for color and flavor, which i do even if i'm not smoking. you can make and cure delicious bacon without pink salt. caution still argues in favor of not smoking it unless you use pink salt. though i remain skeptical that there's any danger. also, smoking it without pink salt is difficult--impossible to keep lit.

depends on what's being smoked. if the spores are there, then there could be trouble. are they likely to be there? probably not but you never know. there are a lot of spores in the ground, so if it's cured with a veg or garlic, there might be. re nitrites and nitrates. you must use sodium nitrate (DQ #2) for dry cured sausages; this has nitrite and nitrate, which is like time released nitrite. the spores can be ground into the interior of the sausage. use sodium nitrite (DQ #1), pink salt, for anything that's going to be smoked, or anything that you want a cured effect. but that's not going to be hung at room temp for a weeks. you don't need pink salt for whole muscles that are hung to dry, eg ham, because there is no risk of botulism (spore can't be inside the muscle; and outside the bacteria can't grow because of oxygen). A pancetta hung for two weeks is probably fine with pink salt, one because the pink salt prevents the bacteria and second, it's usually cooked till it's very hot, which would disable the toxin. if you were hanging it for a long time, however, i would use DQ #2 as a precaution. i'm going to talk to brian about this issue, because no recipes or methods i know of call for sodium nitrate in pancetta cure.

interesting notes on blood pressure etc. mine went down after working on the book, both bp and cholesterol. i think that if we eat natural foods our body helps us to regulate what we need and what we don't. we're super sensitive to salt concentration when it's not in soda and lean cuisines, so when we gorge on bacon, we eat less salt the next day. cholesterol, i don't know. i just suspect pork fat isn't as bad as other animal fats, especially when combined with a diet low in processed food. ron, the reason for pink salt in smoked salmon is to prevent botulism, which can grow on the outside of the salmon in a smokey warm environment. it doesn't have anything to do with dryness. i'll bet that comes from curing a really good lean wild fish--which requires considerably less time on the cure than grocery store salmon. because it doesn't affect flavor much, i'd leave the pink salt but cut down on the cure time.

sorry, you need about 4-1/2 pounds of bone in short ribs. salt ratio is 1/2 ounce kosher, one teaspoon pink.

that's a fantastic report from abra. notice the clean grind, love it. the abundant fat! the difference between the smoked and non, the difference between the texture of the KA and the food processed. no secrets, recipes are a dime a dozen. what I like about this that i haven't seen before is using short rib meat, good ratio of meat to fat, not that expensive, and the fat is soft enough to be emulsified. 2.5 pounds diced second, the ground meat and salts are combined for a day or two so that the salt can work on the salt-soluable myosin, which will help develop a good texture, the main problem with do-at-home emulsified sausages. have i already said this--can't remember if i was writing this in the headnote. 1/2 ounce and one tsp pink salt with 8 oz of ice water meat is then mixed with seasoning and ground again (garlic, paprika, coriander, mustard, sugar in proportions listed in current recipe, but i encourage improvising), partially freezing each time to ensure the emulsion. than processed for a minute or two, stuffed and smoked to 150. the smoke is really important on this sausage. so there it is. I had one today on a soft bu with onion and dijon and it was outstanding.

An update on the charcuterie revision. alas, our ed at norton, maria, wanted only small revisions that wouldn't change the layout or page count, so a broader revision has proved to be impossible right now. maria asked for a recipe for guanciale, and though it's basically a pancetta style cure, she wanted people to better understand this item which is growing in popularity. so that will be in there. i was never happy with the hot dog recipe and so worked on an alternative method. there wasn't a lot of time to get it done and abra was the last to bring it up so i asked her to help me test a new method and she did. i'm very grateful to the many others who volunteered. abra took interesting pix of the various methods tested and did an extraordinary job. abra, please post your pix if you feel like it. It's impossible to make a hot dog at home identical to the big good producers (such as vienna beef, which makes the best commercial hot dog there is) due to the power of their choppers, so the main goal for the hot dog was to devise a method that could give a home sausage maker a good dog with a firm texture and a good bite. The main innovations of this recipe, if you will, is to use the meat from beef shortribs, which are very fatty, rather than using suet or pork fat and leaner beef. the flavor of beef fat is very important to the hot dog. this soft fat emulsifies well. second, and this i learned at the vienna beef factory, the salt and pink salt and water are added to the ground shortrib meat at least a day before regrinding and mixing. myosin is salt soluable and this brining stage helps ready the protein that will give the sausage a solid texture. the main flavors of the hot dog are beef fat and beef, paprika, garlic and smoke. the smoke is more critical in a hot dog than i'd imagined. abra tried adding some liquid smoke to what she felt was an insipid batch and she thought, "There's the hot dog flavor." they don't need a lot of smoke, just a little. I smoked a batch for twenty minute and finished them in a warm oven and they were extraordinary. so any, that's the hot dog story. abra, please feel free to weigh in with your comments if you wish.

i see they are making vegetable shortening that has no trans fats. does anyone know if this is any good?

use actual lard or liquid vegetable oil. or duck fat.

I've been working on this, but the task gets more and mroe daunting every day. But, if it helps, in the lower LEFT* corner, there is a search window that allows you to only search this topic. It is most helpful! *Edited to change right to LEFT corner for the search button ← this is an interesting comment on a couple levels but it compels me now to note fyi, that we are working on a revised charcuterie to include a few new recipes that people seem to want and to revise some older ones. my current obsession is to create a foolproof hot dog recipe for the home suasage maker. anyone want to help me test a new method? grinder, food processor, stuffer, and pink salt would be required in addition to standard items.

It didn't win? hmm...who the heck won it then? ← Bones by Jennifer McLagan won the category. I read it from cover to cover, then left it in the bookstore. Not only was it not in the same league as Charcuterie, it was barely useful. I'm astounded that such a faux cookbook could win any award. =R= ← thanks everyone, appreciate all your good thoughts. frankly, i wasn't the least surprised. I was surprised once, though--when the french laundry cookbook didn't win. after that I realized how irrevocalby political the process was. i've skeptical and dubious about the beard awards and have been given no cause to think otherwise in the intervening years. the iacp awards to my mind are more reflective of the actual quality of a book. and lest you think I'm biased here, I should note that charcuterie wasn't even nominated by iacp. so there you go.

definitely didn't cure long enough. that sounds like the only thing. i emailed brian. we should address ways of judging doneness, though weight is probably the best. in parma the stick needle-like bones into it and sniff--i'll bet you can smell raw vs cooked.

i don't know why for sure why bacon is smoked rind on, but i suspect it is indeed because of the hook. It's easier to remove when the belly is cooked. the skin can then be used like a ham hock for flavoring. It can be removed half way through smoking. or remove it raw and use it in stocks purely for its gelatin.

do you have access to recently picked cukes at a farmers market? you might try a natural pickle. we write about it in our book charcuterie. Use a five percent salt solution (50 grams of salt per liter of water). pour it over a jar full of pickles with a bunch of tarragon, garlic and black peppercorns (cornichon seasoning), make sure everything stays submerged and in a relatively cool place, under 75 degrees, and in a week you should have a good natural pickle. there's also a very good book devoted to pickling, can't remember thename but you could find it by that word at amazon.

ingenious stuffer, you should market it. though i bet you have a Popeye forearm by the time you've pumped five pounds out. and make sure you throw that grinder into the freezer the night before you grind. good luck!

i've never heard of anyone curing blue fish to slice and serve raw. that's fantastic.

hare au royale

don't despair until you taste it. if it did in fact break, slice it and serve it like a meat loaf sandwich, maybe make a good mustard. if that doesn't work, batter and deep fry it, that seems to work with just about anything...

thanks for all those replies. i haven't been to several nanchyh mentioned, haven't been to classics recently or giovanni's. i'd love to do a story on what the best restaurants here are and have the cash to do a good job of eating at and evaluating these places. i agree that it would be tough to have a restaurant of a three or four star restaurant in cleveland because of financial reasons. a big part of it too is the difficulty of finding really good and experienced service. cory, i hope you like cleveland. and what's the word on takashi--i heard he was unhappy in vegas and was moving, is this true?

but nancyh, in your worldly, new york informed opinion, which if any of these restaurants would belong on a list of the top 100 in the united states?

I get asked a lot what are cleveland's best restaurants? People from elsewhere ask me and I'd like to know from those of you who frequent fine dining places here which ones you think are the best. not best hot dog or best ethnic, best sushi, etc. I mean best in that they can stack up in a list of the country's best, i don't know, one hundred restaurants. Which are the contenders and why?

that recipe is the french laundry version. the bouchon is easier and you don't wrap it in the pig skin, the pig skin is in the trotter mixture. if you want to try it i can send you an unedited copy if i can dig one up... i'm eager to know how the blood works.

The best trotter recipe i know of is in bouchon cookbook. i'm biased of course but it can be done as much as a week ahead and is very easy to finish and serve when the time comes. it's the perfect entertaining dish.

casings are entirely connective tissue and fat. i've actually harvested these things while they were still warm. they're scrapped clean. they don't have blood vessels. nor, as ron might confirm, do butchers consider the webbing to be a sign of inferior quality. i actually prefer it. more texture to one of the best parts of a sausage.

YES! That's it exactly! Better in fact: you can't eat your pets! (Bourdain excluded, of course.)