/r/Charcuterie
Charcuterie is the branch of cooking devoted to prepared meat products such as bacon, ham, sausage, terrines, galantines, ballotines, pâtés, and confit.
Charcuterie is the branch of cooking devoted to prepared meat products such as bacon, ham, sausage, terrines, galantines, ballotines, pâtés, and confit, primarily from pork. Charcuterie is part of the garde manger chef's repertoire. Originally intended as a way to preserve meat before the advent of refrigeration, they are prepared today for their flavors derived from the preservation processes.
We'd hope that you join our community to discuss and share techniques, recipes, procedures, step by step directions, and other knowledge used to create, or in the process of creating and making charcuterie at home.
If you are posting a picture of a charcuterie plate please take time to read the rules:
- No "nibble plates" - the focus must be on the charcuterie.
- Any images of charcuterie platters must be accompanied by a description of the contents in the comments or they will be removed.
- It is strongly encouraged that if you are posting a charcuterie platter it contains your own handmade products. Store bought items that have been arranged on a platter, or pictures of a platter you were served at a restaurant will be removed if they don't add to meaningful discussion.
Pictures of random platters or nibble plates belong in /r/FoodPorn.
/r/Charcuterie Resources Master List
Related groups:
Related subreddits:
“He was almost at the corner of the rue Piroutees, and the [charcuterie] shop was a joy to behold. It was filled with laughter and bright light and brilliant colors that popped out next to the white of the marble countertops. The signboard, on which the name QUENU-GRADELLE glittered in fat gilt lettering encircled by leaves and branches painted on a soft-hued background, was protected by a sheet of glass. On the two side panels of the shop front, similarly painted and under glass, were chubby little Cupids playing in the midst of boars' heads, pork chops, and strings of sausages; and these still lifes, adorned with scrolls and rosettes, had been designed in such a pretty and tender a style that the raw meat lying there assumed the reddish tint of raspberry preserves. Within this lovely frame was the window display on a bed of delicately shredded blue paper, with a few well-placed sprigs of fern making plates of food look like bouquets with greenery. It was a world of good things, mouthwatering things, rich things.
Down below, close to the windowpane, was a row of crocks filled with rillettes alternating with pots of mustard. The next row were some nice round boned jambonneau hams with golden breadcrumb coatings and adorned at the knuckles with green rosettes. Behind these were large platters: stuffed Strasbourg tongues all red and looking as if they had been varnished, appearing almost bloody next to the pale sausages and pigs feet; boudin coiled like snakes; andouilles piled two by two and plump with health; saucissons in silvery casings lined up like choirboys; pates, still warm, with little labels stuck on them like flags; big, fat hams; thick cuts of veal and pork whose juices had jellied clear as crystallized candy.
In the back were other tureens and earthenware casseroles in which minced and sliced meats slept under blankets of fat. Between the plates and dishes, on a bed of blue paper, were pickling jars of sauces and stocks and preserved truffles, terrines of foie gras, and tines of tuna and sardines. A box of creamy cheeses and one full of wood snails stuffed with butter and parsley had been dropped in opposite corners.
Finally, falling from a bar with sharp prongs, strings of sausages and saveloys hung down symmetrically like the cords and tassels of some opulent tapestry, while behind, threads of caul were stretched out like white lacework. On the highest rung in this temple of gluttony, amid the membranes and between two tall bunches of purple gladiolus flowers, the window was crowned by a small, square aquarium decorated with rocks and housing two goldfish that never stopped swimming.
The sight gave Florent goose bumps."
― Émile Zola, The Belly of Paris, 1873
/r/Charcuterie
95,026 Subscribers
Pork roll to drying, opinions on smell?
Hi,
After two weeks equilibrium curing in the fridge (3%) , and even if I expected to keep it for three weeks, today I decided to move my first pork shoulder roll to drying (around 1.1Kgs).
Pork shoulder roll after curing in the fridge for two weeks, ready for drying
The reason is that it lost it's brine several days ago, and I'm not sure if that's normal, good, or bad. It was on a zip bag, no vacuum, but I'm not sure it was 100% air-tight.
Thing is, when I opened it, it first came this typical weird smell, not sure if rotten, but when opening an enclosing container with meat... sulphur? I don't know. It smelled weird, nothing nauseus, but as if some bacteria took over inside.
After a few minutes open, I took the piece out, thinking on tossing it to the bin, but I realized that neither the piece of meat, nor the zip bag, smelled at all. The smell faded away. I put my nose close to the piece, smelled, and did the same on the zip bag, but nothing. And when something is rotten or decomposing, it doesn't just go away that easy, in my experience.
So I'm at a place where I'm not sure if that smell was just becuase "some bacteria" (reasonable I mean) grew inside the zip bag after so long closed... but the meat is good because it was salted.... or if the meat is indeed ruined, even if it doesn't smell bad.
I also noticed that the meat texture was a bit like soft. The tissue would break easily, it was really tender.
In any case, I covered it in a mix of ground pepper and paprika, and hang for drying.
I would just like to know if it's relatively "normal" to smell something after having the meat curing for several days, or if I should just discard this piece. I just use regular sea salt (no aditives or anything), without nitrites.
As a sidenote. When the piece started curing, the zip bag filled a bit with some brine, and I turned the piece 2-3 times a day, but after some days, the brine was gone.
Thanks for any input.
Regards!
00:27 UTC
My first cured meat adventure
Coppa dry hanging after 3 weeks in 2.5% salt
00:19 UTC
Home Made Capicola Using Wrap Method for Drying
I made capicola by drying it in the fridge using the wrap method. It took about 90 days for it to dry down to 75% of its original moisture. The taste and texture are amazing—I’m especially impressed by how tender it turned out.
23:50 UTC
Wild boar pancetta
Tried making pancetta from some wild boar belly, and it tastes phenomenal! Next up is wild boar guanciale.
17:07 UTC
Meat slicer - which one?
Looking at meat slicers and these two are in the same price range, 4.6 star reviews... anyone have experience with them? Ease of cleaning is very important, safety and we are wanting to be able to slice very very thin. A problem I keep reading that cheaper options have trouble with. Any thoughts?
16:32 UTC
Pork Loin
Cured and cold smoked with applewood/ cherry mix at 150 for 4 hours.
23:16 UTC
How should I store this jamón serrano?
I bought this jamón serrano without realizing that it didn’t include the base/stand and I haven’t seen a small base online, all I see is the big ones for the entire thing, can I use a net and hang it somewhere? It’s a small cut around 2 pounds, advice is needed for storage purposes
22:12 UTC
Advice on doing a pork tenderloin please!
So I just picked up 2 pork tenderloins on sale, and before I just cook them, I figured I'd see what my chances of curing them are.
I have a second fridge in my basement that I use for drinks, so it's not opened very often. I've used it to make pancetta tesa previously.
What do I need to do to cure pork tenderloin? I know I can do 3% salt with some spices and vacuum seal for a week-ish. Then what? I don't really want to buy any wraps, but I do have cheesecloth. Is this necessary for the drying step? Or can I just toss onto a rack and let it buck for a few weeks?? Thanks!!!
21:00 UTC
How much liquid I'm required to use when wet brining?
When a recipie calls for a specific amount of water, salt and meat (making "salo" in hot brine), is it only for the proper brine ratio or I'm meant to ensure that the given amount of meat is being brined in a given amount of liquid?
E.g. the recipie I have at hand asks for:
- 1000g water
- 125g salt
- 500g pork belly
- spices
Am I required to find a jar large enough to hold both 500g of meat and 1000g of liquid? Or can I use a smaller jar that can hold 500g of meat but, say, only 100g of liquid before it's full to the brim?
FWIW I found this discussion very helpful: https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/equilibrium-cure-open-question-proper-amount-of-cure-1-in-a-wet-curing-brine.306621/
04:20 UTC
Recipe advice wanted for truffle salami
Hi all, I have obtained a 53g black French truffle and have it a jar filled with salt in the fridge. How much pork would you put with that and any other recommended or not recommended ingredients?
21:04 UTC
Lonza
Salt, pepper, fennel, and garlic. Two days being pressed in the fridge, then a wine rinse, wrap, and it goes into the aging chamber.
21:02 UTC
Curing area got too warm
Hey there! I am doing some guanciale right now. I let it cure in the fridge for about 18 days before moving it to hang in a cooler room of my house. The temp in there was about 50-55 degrees for the first week, now the temp outside has gone up and the room is too warm. I have moved the meat to a cooler room but I am worried it sat above 60, maybe even 70 degrees for about a day. Will it be okay?
I do see a bit of powdery white mold starting.
17:14 UTC
Guanciale
Just put 1575 grams of cheek meat in cure.
16:19 UTC
Coolidor gets second life as a drying chamber
I don't smoke cigars any more so I converted an active-cooling cigar humidor (a "coolidor") into a sausage drying chamber because I can control the temperature —but only for cooling— and the humidity. I tested it with 10 lbs of Kabanosy and 5 lbs of Myśliwska hiding in the back. Temp held at 60-65°F and humidity around 80 %rh. Sausage lost 15% of it's weight after smoking and cooking, and another 23% after 3 days in the chamber. Success!
16:18 UTC
Question about fermentation.
I'm told promoting proper fermentation involves temperature and humidity. I understand about temperature; you want to optimize the growth rate of your chosen bacteria within the meat. But why is humidity important? All that bacterial growth is inside the meat. So why is it important to have high humidity during the relatively short fermentation cycle if that humidity will never reach the bacteria inside?
Google says "Humidity is crucial when fermenting sausage because it ensures the sausage's surface remains moist, allowing the beneficial bacteria responsible for fermentation to thrive and produce the desired flavors, while preventing the exterior from drying out too quickly, which could hinder the fermentation process and affect the final texture and quality of the sausage."
But that doesn't make much sense to me because most of the fermentation is happening anaerobically inside the meat, not on the outermost layer. What am I missing here?
03:19 UTC
2nd Charcuterie Attempt: Details Within
22:31 UTC
Annual Curing Fest
Got together with the family this past weekend and made the annual haul - sausage, pancetta, soppresatta, prosciutine, capicollo, bresoala, and one prosciutto. I’ll post a results photo in about three months for all the large cuts. 6 weeks for the sausage.
20:42 UTC
Sticking things inside a curing fridge
Hi all
How do you stick things in place inside your curing fridges?
I have three mains sockets in there for the various gubbins, and I've tried sticking them to the plastic walls using sticky tape, and velcro pads, but nothing seems to like the temperature and moisture.
I'm hesitant to use glue as I don't want any fumes polluting the meat. Neither do I want to drill holes.
Given that I like things nice and neat, any suggestions?
Olly
18:32 UTC
First ferment, and a question
Hello fellow meat nerds.
After years of being too chicken to try, this weekend, I finally started my first fermented sausage: Hank Shaw’s venison boerenmetworst recipe.
I’ve had a couple rounds of summer sausage and link sausages over the last several months, with excellent results. So, since I had the basic sausage-making skills down, I figured it was time to jump into my first minced cure.
I really wanted to do droewors, because I’m a biltong fiend. But making a dried sausage without a started culture for my first bid was a bit too intimidating. Boerenmetworst has several of the same seasonings, so figured that would be a reasonable alternative.
The recipe call for wide hog casings, but I went with fibrous collagen for the simplicity of it, and because I wanted a wider sausage.
I have it fermenting at 75F +- 5 on the PID settings, and at 85%rh +- 3% on the setting.
I bought one of the cheap-o Yinmik ph probes off Amazon, and got it calibrated and ready to use. Question is, how do I test the ph of the sausages? Seems like stabbing them with the probe would just invite bad bacteria/molds. Pry the hog ring off the bottom of one, remove some meat, and re-ring?
The after thought was I should have saved the leftover chub from the stuffer for testing—but that thought came after it’s been sitting in my trashcan outside for the last 18 hours, while the sausages have been in the chamber. But, absent the chub, what do you all do?
22:13 UTC
First Salami - Success Pics!
I put together a little mini-fridge dry curing chamber at the start of the month and decided to try my hand at Salami.
Spanish Chorizo was my first attempt and it was a complete success.
Here are some pics. I pulled out the first couple today at 35% weight loss, but will be leaving the rest until 40% weight loss.
It's DELICIOUS.
20:46 UTC
Reference recommendations
Hi! Anybody have any recommendations for books, videos etc on Italian charcuterie? I have most of the known books but am looking for more detail on the whole muscle butchery for things like spalla, prosciutto, speck, pancetta etc.
Pictured: sirloin tip bresaola 3.0 salt, 2% sugar .24 cure 2 Black pepper, juniper, rosemary, thyme
07:06 UTC
Saucisson d'Arles
Does anyone have a recipe for Saucisson d'Arles?
04:53 UTC