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.

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.

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.

There has been a need for a comprehensive one-volume reference on the manufacture of meats and sausages at home. There are many cookbooks loaded with recipes which do not build any foundation for the serious hobbyist to follow. This leaves him with little understanding of the sausage making process and afraid to introduce his own ideas. There are professional books that are written for meat plant managers or graduate students, unfortunately, these works are written in such difficult technical terms, that most of them are beyond the comprehension of an average person. Home Production of Quality Meats and Sausages bridges the gap that exists between highly technical textbooks and the requirements of the typical hobbyist. In order to simplify this gap to the absolute minimum, technical terms were substituted with their equivalent but simpler terms and many photographs, drawings and tables were included. The book covers topics such as curing and making brines, smoking meats and sausages, U.S. Standards, making fresh, smoked, emulsified, fermented and air dried products, making special sausages such as head cheeses, blood and liver sausages, low salt, low fat and Kosher products, hams, bacon, butts and loins, poultry, fish and game, creating your own recipes and much more... To get the reader started 172 recipes are provided which were chosen for their originality and historical value. They carry an enormous value as a study material and as a valuable resource on making meat products and sausages. Although recipes play an important role in these products, it is the process that ultimately decides the sausage quality. It is perfectly clear that the authors don't want the reader to copy the recipes only: "We want him to understand the sausage making process and we want him to create his own recipes. We want him to be the sausage maker."