Salumi: The Craft of Italian Dry Curing

It appears that the author is now settled with how charcuterie works and this new book on Salumi is delivered in a definate state of mind it's as if he's said outloud "I'm not going to rush this, I'm not going to overcomplicate this, I'm going to enjoy this". When I first read this book I recognised imediately the simplicity that will be its power. Well done to the authors, I'll include a copy in my classes. Marc-Frederic Le Charcutier Anglais

No room in the fridge for so much as a pot of yoghurt - full of loin, shoulder, curing pork bellies and copious amounts of back fat - oh yes and the lardo that will be, wrapped in black plastic - can't quite bring myself to tell my wife it will be six months before she gets the crisper drawer back.

We bought this as a gift for our son, who is a trained chef now working in catering management, so he has some knowledge of preserving. It looked fantastic and he was very pleased indeed with the content, the descriptions and the whole thing. Would certainly recommend it, based both on his assessment and my own.

Brilliant book for the novice like myself... some really good recipes and the equipment used is not out of the ordinary for most households...have a string of sausages hanging and cannot wait to test them when the time is right :)

THIS BOOK IS INFORMATIVE BUT WRITTEN IN THE USA FOR USE IN THE USA. ALL INGREDIENTS, CONTACTS, SUPPLIERS, ETC. ARE FROM THE USA AND NOT AVAILABLE TO THE UK UNLESS YOU WANT TO PAY HUGE DELIVERY CHARGES. THERE ARE GOOD RECIPES WHICH I AM ABOUT TO TRY AND ALSO SOME RECIPES USING THE SALAMIS YOU MAKE PLUS SOME OTHER ITALIAN RECIPES. ALL ROUND, A GOOD BOOK BUT WISH IT HAD SUPPLIERS IN FROM THE UK AS I HAVE HAD TO RESEARCH THE INGREDIENTS HERE.

Great book with excellent 'how to' instructions. Also the section on nitrate/nitrites and why these are needed and why makes a potentially confusing and dangerous subject easy to comprehend. Highly recommended if you want to make salumi/salamis at home

Great book. Impeccable delivery

Good book

First, I read comments on this book in the comment section of Amazon and was hesitating. Not sure if it would contain the level of information I wanted on the subject. Not sure about measurement and quanteties and other subjects people were complaining about. Well, after buying the book and read it in its entirety; everything is in there. From the hog's to the table with all steps and precision needed. Yes, if you skip the first half of the book and go directly to the recipes you're missing a lot of information about how and what. Take the time to read the first 200 pages and everything is in there,, well written and on a home cook level. No need for expansive Professional équipement. Magnificent work in my opinion. Do not hesitate; buy it!

Nice book with lot of original traditional receipts(I m Italian) and in depth explanation of the arguments .

Livro destinado a entusiastas ou até mesmo a profissionais . Livro de grande ajuda no dia a dia de um cozinheiro que se interessa pelo bom gosto com seriedade.

Lots of useful info

A long-awaited follow-up to their previous book Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing , this volume is exclusively focused on Italian dry-curing (while mentioned in Charcuterie, that book covered fresh sausages in much more detail). Salumi is a meticulous step-by-step look at the production of both whole-muscle dry-cured products such as prosciutto as well as salami and related products. It covers various technical food-safety details in a clear, easy-to-understand manner, and it cites its sources, a major plus. It also includes information on the curing environment, including advice on curing in refrigerators, wine fridges, and custom-made curing chambers (with the sensible cautionary note that "[those] who have built thriving dry curing businesses are regularly confounded by inconsistencies and failures"... in other words, don't panic!). Salumi contains "classic" recipes for what the authors call "the big eight" of Italian dry-curing (prosciutto, salami, coppa, lardo, spalla, guanciale, lonza, and pancetta) as well a number of other products such as mortadella and bresaola, and variations on the classics. The classic recipes themselves aren't doing any innovation, of course, but they aren't supposed to: what they are is straightforward, well-explained, and thorough. Make sure to read the introductory chapters, however, which is where you'll find the details that are common across all the salumi presented in the recipes section. I only have two minor objections to the book: first, while gorgeous, the photography seems more focused on being pretty than on showing the production of the salumi. Second, while I applaud the book for containing weight measurements for most ingredients (in both metric and English, even), there are a few, such as garlic, that they leave as "number of cloves" etc., which seems to defeat the point of much of the precision. All told though, as long as you've got the salt:meat ratio in weight, each cook will probably want to fiddle with the other stuff anyway, so it's not a huge omission. Overall, I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in dry curing, either at home or professionally: it is far and away the best dedicated volume on the market today. Pros: ---- * In-depth coverage of all important aspects of dry-curing * Up-to-date food safety recommendations * Clear, classic recipes for many of the major dry-cured products we are familiar with today Cons: ----- * Photographs aren't that helpful for production purposes (beautiful, though!) * Weights not given for 100% of ingredients