Best Charcuterie Cookbooks

[MaxH]

I didn't notice Wise's non-charcuterie content (the shop itself was known for meat products). While there may be much better charcuterie books today (even out here in these former colonies, so far from France, whose chattering youth all seem to fancy that "beignet" means mainly fried dough from New Orleans and "macaron" the fashionable Paris sandwich cookies) I'd describe its role rather as historically important.

Just as for instance Morrison Wood on savory international cuisines (US, 1940s) or Yoxall on Burgundies (UK, 1960s) or Mrs. Chiang on Sichuan home cooking (US, 1970s) are not unique or maybe primary choices today, but in their time and for years may have been the only books in their markets with this content, helping popularize their subjects, showing the way for later authors who built on their work (and occasionally even credited it).

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The wine of the Clos [Vougeot] was sent to the Popes in their exile in Avignon, and Petrarch said that it was this that made them so reluctant to end the schism and return to Rome! One abbot, already mentioned, sent thirty hogsheads to Pope Gregory XI, and four years later -- Vougeot, even then, took some time to develop -- was made a cardinal.

Harold Waldo Yoxall, The Wines of Burgundy, Stein and Day, second edition 1978, ISBN 0812860918. From original.

[dougal]

... While there may be much better charcuterie books today (...) I'd describe its role rather as historically important.

Just as for instance Morrison Wood on savory international cuisines (US, 1940s) or Yoxall on Burgundies (UK, 1960s) or Mrs. Chiang on Sichuan home cooking (US, 1970s) are not unique or maybe primary choices today, but in their time and for years may have been the only books in their markets with this content, helping popularize their subjects, showing the way for later authors who built on their work (and occasionally even credited it).

...

Its an interesting book, and doubtless significant in the historical context of Californian Cuisine and the Chez Panisse incubator, rather than in the context of charcuterie.

And yes, Wise's bibliography DOES credit Jane Grigson's prior works. Not just the charcuterie one, but also the Fruit and the Vegetable books.

[HKDave]

I've got on the shelf:

Bertolli

Ruhlman

Kutas

Marianski x3 (and have just ordered the 4th)

Grigson

Terrines, Pates and Galantines (US Edition, Time-Life Good Cook Series)

Cottenceau et al 'Professional Charcuterie Series' v1+2

Davies 'Manual of a Traditional Bacon Curer'

The book I reach for most, and the one I'd recommend to anyone starting out, is Bertolli. Ruhlman is a decent collection of recipes (despite a few errors), but that one chapter on Italian charcuterie in Bertolli provides a better education on how and why you're doing what you're doing, and provides a good foundation to developing your own recipes. And his prosciutto method works; I've used it for years. If you just want recipes, Len Poli's website is excellent and free.

Kutas is mainly of historical interest; there are better now. The recipes are all by US volume, not weight, and the emphasis is on bulk production. I use it only for seeing what spices he thought might be in something, and I often don't agree.

The Marianski books... ('Meat Smoking...', 'Polish Sausages' and 'The Art of...'). Not for beginners. There is great info in these books but they are not good writers, there's huge overlap of material between the (cheaply-bound) books and the early editions (from Outskirts Press) didn't have an index. If they would hire an editor (please!) and designer, these could be distilled into one really good book; in their current forms they are rough going. But if you want recipes for Polish sausages, their book is the one. I'm hoping their latest is an improvement, but I said that the last 3 times I bought their books, too.

Grigson is also of historical interest. As has been pointed out, you have to modernize her use of saltpeter to sodium nitrite-based curing salt, but if you understand the basics, that's easy. Good reference for traditional French recipes, and her casual approach is also a reminder that it's just cooking, not rocket science.

The Time-Life series is long out of print but available. Very well written and illustrated. If you want lots of how-to pictures on terrines, this is a great book, and is more useful than Reynaud for a fraction the price. Nothing on sausage or curing. The US and UK editions are not the same (true of the whole series).

The Professional Charcuterie Series is very expensive, and hard to find. It's still in print, barely. The cheapest place to buy them is Kitchen Arts and Letters in NYC, certainly not any of the guys on Amazon, some of whom are charging laughable prices. Only the first 2 volumes are available in English (vol 1 = sausage, ham, rillettes; vol 2 = pate, terrines); the 3rd volume, on seafood charcuterie, wasn't translated. These appear to be the textbooks of CEPROC, the French charcuterie school, and when it comes to French charcuterie, these are the reference books. For instance, there's a full chapter on blood sausage alone. Excellent photos. Almost nothing on dry-cured, however; in France, that apparently requires an apprenticeship. And curing salt in here is European, not American, so you have to know what you're doing to adjust the recipes.

Davies is educational because it's one of the few books I've found on traditional British charcuterie. As the title suggest, the emphasis is on bacon, but there's much more. However, it's not a "how-to" book; before the Introduction he cautions that this is how it was done back in the day and the recipes don't meet modern regulations. And the recipes (all in Imperial measure) refer to different kinds of natural salts that I have no idea if are still available. Not for beginners, but lots of information.

I've read and have just ordered:

Frentz 'Charcuterie Specialties' (out of print but available, old-school French recipes).

I've read and don't recommend:

Sonnenschmidt 'Charcuterie'(surprisingly sloppy work from the author of 'Garde Manger', very poor value)

Coxe 'The Great Book of Sausages' (not 'Great' at all)

Livingston 'Sausage' (meh)

Kinsella 'Professional Charcuterie' (Ruhlman does it better)

Reynaud 'Terrine' (like his 'Pork and Sons', a very pretty book, but a pretty useless one for cooking)

I think the Great Charcuterie Book has yet to be written...

[nickrey]

I'm quite enjoying Lindy Wildsmith's book Cured.

It's not a definitive work but it has a number of good recipes in it.

The section headings are:

Introduction

Salted

Spiced and Marinated

Dried

Smoked

Potted

Pickled

Raw.

Something for everyone and she covers fish, meats, and vegetables with processes from around the world and comments and insider tips from chefs.

Definitely worth a look for those of you with an interest in curing (and don't we all in this forum).

[HKDave]

...

The Marianski books... ('Meat Smoking...', 'Polish Sausages' and 'The Art of...'). Not for beginners. There is great info in these books but they are not good writers, there's huge overlap of material between the (cheaply-bound) books and the early editions (from Outskirts Press) didn't have an index. If they would hire an editor (please!) and designer, these could be distilled into one really good book; in their current forms they are rough going. But if you want recipes for Polish sausages, their book is the one. I'm hoping their latest is an improvement, but I said that the last 3 times I bought their books, too.

...

I just got the new Marianski ('Home Production of Quality Meats and Sausages') and sadly, it suffers from the same problems as their earlier books. Some of the material is re-hashed from their previous books (there's some text they've re-used 3 or 4 times now), the writing is dying for a proofreader and an editor, the binding is cheap... Once again, there's a lot of excellent info here, but as a book, it's an amateurish effort. Many parts are ambiguous and are likely to be confusing for beginners.

[jmolinari]

Agree with dave. "Home production...." is decent, in that it contains a lot of good information, but it's really hard to read, is very repetitious (within itself and against the previous book), and in some cases confused me profoundly.