meat science, meat manufacturing, meat technology, meat quality, meat safety, food safety

Make your own dry-cured pork delicacies at home with the know-how you’ll learn from this book. Over the centuries, dry-cured pork has evolved as a food of the changing seasons. Its flavors are truly a taste of the landscape and climate, and they have served as a crucial, long-lasting food source for many cultures. Dry-cured pork is the ultimate slow food. It doesn’t need to be complicated but it’s important to have clear, step-by-step instructions. That’s where Hector Kent comes in. Kent, a science teacher by trade, has written the book he wished he’d had when he made his first prosciutto: One that brings together the critical components of curing in the simplest form possible, with photographs and illustrations to assure the reader of safe and delicious results. In addition to basic recipes, Kent offers readers interviews, advice, and recipes from several trend-setting dry-curing operations across the country.

With this book, A. D. Livingston combines a lifetime of Southern culinary knowledge with his own love of authentic home smoking and curing techniques. He teaches how to prepare smoked and salted hams, fish, jerky, and game—adapting today’s materials to yesterday’s traditional methods. As he writes, “you can smoke a better fish than you can buy, and you can cure a better ham without the use of any chemicals except ordinary salt and good hardwood smoke.” This book shows you how, and includes more than fifty recipes—such as Country Ham with Redeye Gravy, Canadian Bacon, Scandinavian Salt Fish, and Venison Jerky—as well as complete instructions for: * Preparing salted, dried fish * Preparing planked fish, or gravlax * Building a modern walk-in smokehouse * Constructing small-scale barbecue smokers * Choosing woods and fuels for smoking * Salt-curing country ham and other meats

The most comprehensive book available on sausage making and meat curing.

Flavour is an important sensory aspect of the overall acceptability of meat products. Whether we accept or reject a food depends primarily on its flavour. Both desirable and undesirable flavour effects are contemplated. Furthermore, threshold values of different flavour-active compounds have an important effect on the cumulative sensory properties of all foods. Meat from different species constitutes a major source of protein for most people. Although raw meat has little flavour and only a blood-like taste, it is a rich reservoir of non-volatile compounds with taste-tactile properties as well as flavour enhancers and aroma precursors. Non-vola tile water-soluble precursors and lipids influence the flavour of meat from different species. In addition, mode of heat processing and the nature of additives used may have a profound effect on the flavour of prepared meats. This book reports the latest advancements in meat flavour research. Following a brief overview, chapters 2 to 5 discuss flavours from different species of meat, namely beef, pork, poultry and mutton. In chapters 6 to 12 the role of meat constituents and processing on flavour are described. The final section of the book (chapters 13 to 15) summarizes analytical methodologies for assessing the flavour quality of meats. I wish to thank all the authors for their cooperative efforts and com mendable contributions which have made this publication possible.

The craft of Italian salumi, now accessible to the American cook, from the authors of the best-selling Charcuterie. Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn inspired a revival of artisanal sausage making and bacon curing with their surprise hit, Charcuterie. Now they delve deep into the Italian side of the craft with Salumi, a book that explores and simplifies the recipes and techniques of dry curing meats. As the sources and methods of making our food have become a national discussion, an increasing number of cooks and professional chefs long to learn fundamental methods of preparing meats in the traditional way. Ruhlman and Polcyn give recipes for the eight basic products in Italy’s pork salumi repertoire: guanciale, coppa, spalla, lardo, lonza, pancetta, prosciutto, and salami, and they even show us how to butcher a hog in the Italian and American ways. This book provides a thorough understanding of salumi, with 100 recipes and illustrations of the art of ancient methods made modern and new.

“Brings to life—with real heart, history and technique—an astonishing look at the legacy of Spain’s flavorful meats.” —José Andrés, 2011 “Outstanding Chef,” James Beard Foundation Charcutería: The Soul of Spain is the first book to introduce authentic Spanish butchering and meat-curing techniques to the American market. Included are more than 100 traditional Spanish recipes, straightforward illustrations providing easy-to-follow steps for amateur and professional butchers, and gorgeous full-color photography of savory dishes, Iberian countrysides, and centuries-old Spanish cityscapes. Author Jeffrey Weiss has written an entertaining, extravagantly detailed guide on Spain’s unique cuisine and its history of charcutería, which is deservedly becoming more celebrated on the global stage. While Spain stands porky cheek-to-jowl with other great cured-meat-producing nations like Italy and France, the charcuterie traditions of Spain are perhaps the least understood of this trifecta. Americans have most likely never tasted the sheer eye-rolling deliciousness that is cured Spanish meats: chorizo, the garlic-and-pimentón-spiked ambassador of Spanish cuisine; morcilla, the family of blood sausages flavoring regional cuisine from Barcelona to Badajoz; and jamón, the acorn-scented, modern-day crown jewel of Spain’s charcutería legacy. Charcutería: The Soul of Spain is a collection of delicious recipes, uproarious anecdotes, and time-honored Spanish culinary traditions. The author has amassed years of experience working with the cured meat traditions of Spain, and this book will surely become a standard guide for both professional and home cooks. “A lovely, loving, fascinating, and, most all, useful book all lovers of the craft should be grateful for.” —Michael Ruhlman, James Beard Award-winning author of Ruhlman’s Twenty