When it comes to my charcuterie, I’m primarily relying upon the expertise of those around me, ie. the more experienced chefs I work with. In addition to the wealth of information to be gleaned by working with these people, I’ve also taken to educating myself in my spare time. If you are even thinking of doing something like starting a small-scale charcuterie program on your own, the best thing you can do for yourself would be to go out or rather hop on over to Amazon and purchase ”Charcuterie” by Michael Ruhlman & Brian Polcyn. This book is a treasure trove of information relating to the production of cured and fermented meat/sausages.

Before I even thought about purchasing my cabinet and doing this on my own, I made sure to read this book cover to cover, twice. Since then I have studied the recipes, methods, and ratios at length. Not only have I begun to understand the teqchniques more fully, I’ve also begun to formulate my own recipes for charcuterie, tweaking and refining, while using the recipes from this book as my template. I may be only a novice, but I’m sure with time, effort, and the help of this cookbook, I will only get better.

Until next time, Happy Eating.

-Charcuterist

After deciding to begin a charcuterie program at home the first obstacle I knew I would need to overcome was the acquisition of a temperature controlled cooler to use as my charcuterie “cabinet”. The ideal device would be a small refrigerator or wine cooler that could be set to an exact temperature, between 55 and 60 degrees fahrenheit, as well as maintaining a constant low level of humidity. Enter Craig’s List.

As I’m not exactly what anyone would describe as wealthy or even well off, my funds for this purchase were limited at best and nonexistent at worst. Luckily after searching Craig’s List in the appliances category of the for sale section, I found a number of possibilities. I eventually chose a Cuisinart 6 Bottle Wine Cooler, with a digital thermostat for which I paid $55. New this model retails for around $110, so I was already saving myself some money, and by removing all but the top bottle rack, I created a space in which I could hang my cured meats while they dried and fermented. Furthermore, the digital thermostat allows me to dial in a specific temperature thereby eliminating any guess work when creating the ideal environment.

The only downsideto my purchase was the size of the cooler itself was relatively small, and at capacity would only allow for 8-10 pieces of charcuterie at any one time. However, considering the relative size of my apartment(slightly larger than a small shoebox) I was willing to forego a cabinet that would allow for more charcuterie in order to save on space, additionally my smaller cabinet will use far less energy to maintain my desired temperature than a larger cooler.

If charcuterie at home is a hobby you feel you’d be interested in, I recommend you purchase your cabinet used from a site like Craig’s List. You will not only be saving money but also their is truly no reason to go out and buy a brand new wine cooler to stuff with cured meats when a lightly used one will work just as well.

Until next time, Happy Eating.

-Charcuterist

I have been cooking professionally for 7 years, I spent four of those years at Johnson and Wales in Providence, Rhode Island achieving an Associates degree in Culinary Arts as well as a Bachelors in Nutrition and Dietetics. For the past two years I’ve been working as a Sous Chef at a wine centric restaurant in Northern Delaware and after all that I felt my experience to be sufficient in order to continue on as a Sous Chef in my new locale, this was not to be the case. It is a very different thing to cook in the suburbs of delaware when compared to doing so in a food centric city such as DC.

My overall experience with charcuterie, specifically curing and fermenting whole meats as well as sausages and salumi is lacking, as is most chefs today. In a world where it is far easier to order “artisanal” products from your local specialty purveyor, most chefs simply don’t want to take the time to make their own cured meats. It’s a dying art, which is a sad fact, however, it is not a difficult process it simply takes time, planning, and a small initial investment. It is in the technical sense illegal to produce cured meats, hams and salumi that are intended to remain uncooked in a restaurant setting unless you have a separate space solely dedicated to their production as well as the proper licenses and permits. This is not to say that many chefs without the space necessary for a separate kitchen don’t produce their own cured meats, they simply have to be careful not to draw the ire of the local food inspector by getting a customer sick.

There are luckily no rules or regulations concerning producing your own charcuterie at home for your own enjoyment, which is what I intend to do. I recently purchased a small Cuisinart Wine Cooler which I will be using as my charcuterie cabinet for my experiments at home. By gleaning information from books and chefs around me I hope to begin a viable charcuterie program in my home and share my successes and failures with my readers here, in addition to the occasional book critique, industry anecdote and restaurant review. And with that I bid you adieu, until next time, happy eating.

-Charcuterist