Tag Archives: Charcutepalooza

One Vanilla Bean

By emilia | Published: January 2, 2012

Cecilia is one the two winners of Charcutepalooza, check out her blog, via One Vanilla Bean.

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Top Posts of 2011

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: December 31, 2011

Photos by Donna Turner Ruhlman

The economy struggled but cooking and writing about food sure didn't! My colleague Emilia and I decided to have a look at the most popular—or most viewed is perhaps the better phrase—posts from this site this year. By far the most exciting blog event of the year was Cathy Barrow's and Kim Foster's Charcutepalooza. What an amazing thing happened, and all because of that catchy hashtag on Twitter. This would not have happened without Twitter. Congrats to all who participated and who pushed themselves to cook in unfamiliar and often difficult ways! Special congrats to Cecilia, who blogs at One Vanilla Bean, and Peter, who blogs at Cookblog, as the two year's end finalists. Good luck to you both! Top ruhlman.com posts from ...

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Posted in Appetizers, Article, baking, Books, Bread App, Charcutepalooza, Charcuterie, Technique, Writing | Also tagged , , , , | 11 Comments

The “No Nitrites Added” Hoax

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: May 10, 2011

no-nitrite bacon

Trader Joe's "uncured" bacon/Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman

During a recent phone call with the excellent Elise of simplyrecipes, Elise wished aloud that I would address the nitrite issue directly.  “Trader Joe’s carries it!  Go look.  Is there one near you?” Indeed there is, and indeed they sell at least two products pitching themselves as a “healthier” bacon because they don’t add sodium nitrite. This is as odious as those sugar laden granola bars trumpeting “No Fat!” on their label—food marketers preying on a confused consumer who has been taught to fear food because of harmful additives (such as the recent, apparently genuine, Red Dye 40 warnings). Full disclosure if you don’t already know: I am a vocal bacon advocate, and one of my books, Charcuterie, ...

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Posted in Charcutepalooza, Charcuterie, Pork!, Rant, sausage, Seasonings and Spices | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments closed

Whole Hog: Ham Stuffed in Bladder

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: May 6, 2011

Ham in pig's bladder/Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman

I've been learning from the hog all week it seems. It just keeps giving.  Making salami, curing all parts.  Tenderloin and loin and coppa.  I've made a lot of fresh sausage and the headcheese is underway, the last of the hams are coming off the cure. Including this one, a portion of the ham, from the culo, stuffed into the pig's bladder, which James and I blew up to dry earlier in the week.  Once it had dried in its expanded shape, I reconstituted it in water, cut it open, and sewed up the salted ham inside.  I'll do my best to tie it up neatly so that it will hang well. I'll keep an eye on it, but figure it will cure in about 6 months. What ...

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Whole Hog

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: May 2, 2011

hog bladder

Pig bladder, inflated to dry/photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman

On Saturday I picked up a hog from the North Union Farmers Market, about 330 pounds with the head and some other requested parts. "They're big, long and slippery," James had told us.  Just getting each half into the back of our jeep was an effort.  The first step was to break the pig down for salumi into its three main sections just so we could store the creature in a friend's walk-in: shoulder, middle and ham.  Then back to work all day Sunday to break it all down into salumi cuts and sausage.  It took about six of us five hours to bone out the whole hog, isolate the muscles for curing, get everything on the ...

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Posted in Charcutepalooza, Charcuterie, Pork!, Weekend Project | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments closed

The Forgiveness of Cured Meat: Bacon

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: February 25, 2011

bacon or pancetta drying

This week's bacon, waiting to be smoked, photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman

I've been slammed this week, and now have to travel, if I can get out in this blizzard. But last week I put a whole pork belly on the cure. I'd given it a sweet cure, brown sugar, maple syrup and black pepper, because I wanted to smoke it rather than make pancetta. It was done yesterday but I had no time to smoke it.  Our lives get busy, we don't have time to finish something, sometimes we're too tired or the kids have a snow day. What's so great about charcuterie, as with this bacon, is its preserved.  There's no hurry. I'll smoke it next week, and until then, it's going to sit out, ...

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Posted in Charcutepalooza, Charcuterie, Pork!, Recipes, Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , | Comments closed

Canadian Bacon: Brining Basics

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: February 16, 2011

canadian bacon

Brining pork loin for Canadian Bacon/Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman

Herewith a Canadian bacon recipe (which is American) and a peameal bacon recipe (which is Canadian), inspired by this month's #Charcutepalooza challenge: Brining. Brining in one of the most powerful forms of seasoning, flavoringand curing meat.  Disperse salt and aromatics in water, then submerge a whole muscle into that salted flavored water.  Water surrounds the meat delivering by osmosis salt and flavor into the meat.  Some may argue that flavor molecules are too big to enter the meat, but my tasting experience says flavors of herbs definitively get into the meat. Brining basics are few: It's best to weigh your salt so you know exactly how much you have. Make sure your brine is cool if not cold before you put the ...

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Posted in Brines, Charcutepalooza, Charcuterie, Pork! | Also tagged , , , , , , | Comments closed

For Charcutepaloozians:
Food Safety and Common Sense

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: February 7, 2011

sausage making technique

Good Technique: Keeping Ground Meat Cold / Photos by Donna Turner Ruhlman

Welcome to the official #charcutepalooza Safety and Health Concerns post and page, and a place where you can ask questions comprising more than 140 characters that I or others can answer.  Have a look at our book Charcuterie for all general safety issues. Many of you are embarking on unfamiliar waters regarding the curing of meat.  If you’re fearful or nervous, remember that humans have been curing meat for millennia, that civilization depended on the ability to preserve food by curing it for most of human history and that if it were complicated and dangerous we probably wouldn’t be here. As with all cooking, curing meats and making sausages requires the use of all your senses, ...

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Announcements: Charcutepalooza and OpenSky

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: January 6, 2011

This week, two enthusiastic cook-bloggers, Cathy Barrow, of Washington, DC, and Kim Foster, of New York City, put a name to their joint efforts in curing duck breasts for duck prosciutto, hashtagging it on Twitter #charcutepalooza.  Their aim, one Charcuterie challenge per month.  A splendid idea, I thought.  The more cooking and curing that people do, the better the world is.  And the duck prosciutto is a perfect way to begin, an all but foolproof form of dry curing.  They've asked me to weigh in when needed and I will.  To their amazement, and my delight, 54 bloggers at last count have embraced the charcutepalooza challenge.  MrsWheelBarrow has the how what where on her site.  Join them in their monthly charcuterie quests!  May the body of charcuterie be with you. OpenSky: A New ...

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Posted in Bread, Charcutepalooza, Charcuterie, ruhlman products | Also tagged , , , , , , | Comments closed

English Pork Pie

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: December 22, 2010

Pork Pie

English Pork Pie/photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman

I've published this photo and this link in the past but it bears reposting, especially as today I will begin the annual Christmas morning pork pie and think about my Uncle Bill. From England with Love, published a few years ago in O magazine, is not only an ode to my Uncle Bill and his mother's Christmas morning pork pie, it's also about my beginnings as a writer about food and cooking, a time when I'd never heard the term forcemeat and had no idea what an emulsion was. The slice above is not the recipe Bill's mom, Elizabeth Morgan, used, but rather a country pâté, with dried cherries and pistachios, enclosed in the pate dough recipe, both from Charcuterie.  I think I ...

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Posted in Charcutepalooza, Holiday | Also tagged , , | Comments closed

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