charcuterie

[badthings]

The home charcuterie book sounds mouth-watering. Would you mind describing what your concept is, how it's working out, things that have surprised you, etc.? Is there a regional focus? Amusing anecdotes? Thanks for sharing.

[Michael Ruhlman]

Book began because of my love of duck confit and the fact that duck confit's raison d'etre is preservation rather than taste. Charcuterie is all about preservation, and even though refrigerators preserve things great today, we still practice charcuterie because it results in awesome food. Charcuterie, originally from the word for pork butcher, is the specialty conserning preserved foods, especially pork, such as confit, rillettes, pates, bacon, fresh sausages, dried sausages, etc. In the book we explore methods of preservation that result in amazing food. Would also like to make things like pates and rillettes and confits more accessible to the home cook. First draft is done, now lots of recipe testing and editing. You'll have to tell me how it worked out!