Originally published on December 4, 2017
Author Meredith Leigh
We hear from Meredith Leigh author of The Ethical Meat Handbook Complete Home Butchery, Charcuterie and Cooking for the Conscious Omnivore and the recently released Pure Charcuterie: The Craft and Poetry of Curing Meat at Home. Today Meredith shares with us her top 5 reasons to cure our own meat.
Curing meats at home doesn’t have to be difficult, and once the home cook has even a basic understanding of the technique and process of charcuterie, he or she can realize a multitude of benefits in the curing craft. Of course, the principle reason to learn and to create is to experience delicious food, but there are a host of other benefits just waiting to be realized. Here are the top 5 things I seem to enjoy the most about my charcuterie skill. Perhaps they will help tip your hand towards trying a few homemade lunchmeats, hand-cured bacon, or other charcuterie items in your household.
1
Thrift
From left to right: prosciutto, coppa, pancetta, culatello
2
Storage
Tasso Ham
3
Purity
Lean & fat components are weighed separately, to establish the proper ratio
4
Creativity
From left to right: pate gratin in lard, Working Woman's Lunchbox Pate, and Pate en Croute
5
Wonder
Buttermilk Boudin Blanc
There are so many reasons to adopt a craft of some sort, and food crafts deliver not only delicious and nutritious sustenance, but also a host of other satisfactions. I’d love to hear from other readers about the biggest reasons they keep curing and preserving foods. The above reasons are just a few of mine. And if you aren’t already engaging in home food preservation, I hope this discussion has potentially tipped your hand towards giving charcuterie a try.