Home Charcuterie: How to Make Your Own Bacon, Sausages, Salami and Other Cured Meats

An accessible and expert guide to the age-old craft of preparing meat and fish products by home curing, salting and drying.

The air-dried products include hams, lomo, lardo, coppa, bresaola, and salami - Milano, Toscano, Felino, Finnochiona, piccante, venison - as well as chorizo, sobrasada, and kielbasa. There are brine-cured hams, chine, salt beef and pastrami, pressed tongue, confit duck, pates, terrine, haggis, and faggots. There are sausages, of course, including black and white puddings, dry- and brine-cured bacons, guanciale, pancetta, lamb and mutton bacon, and dry-cured rack of lamb. There is jerky and biltong, and cured gravadlax and rollmops, and smoked foods including salmon, bacon and ham.

Shown in clear, step-by-step photographs, the techniques are straightforward to follow: the author ensures safe practise at every stage for quality results, and his love of these traditional products shines through, describing home charcuterie as an almost magical process, and one to be enjoyed.

Paul Thomas is a well-known expert in cheese and charcuterie, (an award-winning cheesemaker, he authored Home Made Cheese); a trainer and advisor on hygiene and best practice, he is a consultant for the Guild of Fine Foods, and writes their ’delihelp’ column.