In the Charcuterie

June 3, 2013
Boetticher and Miller are a match made in hog heaven. Having met at the Culinary Institute of America, the couple worked at several Bay Area restaurants before establishing the Fatted Calf charcuterie in San Francisco in 2003. There they provide a variety of cured-meat wonders and offer classes such as “Pig, Woman, Knife” and “All About Duck.” They bring their work to the page here with photo-enhanced instructions on butchering, rendering fat, properly aging salami, and the like. Over the course of 125 recipes, they explore stand-alone vittles like pork sausage, corned beef, headcheese, and a soup stock made with ginger, chilies, and 12 pounds of duck and pork bones, as well as offering many a hot dinner entrée. A chapter titled “Skewered, Rolled, Tied, and Stuffed” features options like fig- and sausage-stuffed quails, and grilled rabbit skewers with chicories, olives, and almonds. Among the spicier selections are goat shoulder; birria, which is a Mexican stew (birria literally means “mess”); and a Oaxacan-style chorizo that calls for four types of chilies. It perhaps takes a butcher’s mind-set to see meat loaf as a “classic American paté,” but there can be no arguing with the authors’ ménage of sirloin and pork, served with a ketchup-based cocktail sauce.

June 15, 2013

According to husband-and-wife team Boetticher and Miller, founders of the Fatted Calf Charcuterie, those who long to revive the traditional craft of preserving meats cannot take shortcuts. Should readers undertake their tantalizing recipes--mostly classics with contemporary flavor profiles--they'll need to render fats, simmer stocks, grind whole spices, stuff and link sausages, and patiently wait for meats to age, cure, brine, and smoke. Advanced home cooks and slow-food devotees will appreciate the authors' broad coverage of butchery and preserving techniques, often accompanied by step-by-step photos. VERDICT Informative and ambitious, this charcuterie collection blends gourmet recipes (e.g., duck liver mousse with Armagnac cream) with precise, readable instructions. Fans of Michael Ruhlman's Charcuterie and Salumi, take note.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2013
Most Americans continue to demand meat for their primary source of protein intake. But carnivorism has evolved over the past decade, and today's butchers supply sophisticated consumers with much more than basic, familiar beefsteaks and pork chops. Oaxacan chorizo and Italian cotechino now vie with the all-American hot dog for preeminence among popular sausages. Pancetta threatens to replace bacon, and long-disdained headcheese has become the most sought-after vehicle for productively using up perfectly edible and nutritious meat scraps and offal. In addition to basic information on deconstructing primal cuts of beef, pork, duck, and rabbit, the authors offer ways to prepare all parts of an animal for savory roasts, sausages, and pt's as well as smoked and pickled meats. A few recipes for accompaniments such as pickles, sauces, and other side dishes enhance the text's value for both home and professional cooks. Photographs supplement clearly written instructions.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)