The book is well organized and contains a selection of charcuterie and restaurant recipes with some fantastic and mouth watering photography. There is also a chapter about Cairo's days as an apprentice at a charcuterie facility in Switzerland. Although I have found a number of gaffes, it is well written and edited since Cairo had the foresight to engage a professional co-author, food writer Meredith Erickson. At the beginning of the book Cairo outlines the elementary steps of sausage making, necessary equipment and safety, making this easier for a beginner. The recipes are interesting and I will definitely be trying some of them soon. I just wish there were more charcuterie recipes since I am not that interested in the restaurant plates. This could have easily been a two volume effort, but it was all crammed into one book. This is what happens when you try to please everyone.
Like the Ruhlman/Polcyn, Weiss, Kinsella, Farr books, this one is worth having. But if you are looking for that stand alone, definitive guide to charcuterie, it does not fit the bill. For instance, it is almost totally devoid of advice in using different starter cultures and how they actually work. There are also some questionable instructions that made me scratch my head. One is that meat for dry cured sausages must be fermented to a pH of 4.8 in a span of 48 hours and if you don't achieve that, you have to toss it.
Many of the slow acififying cultures that give you that traditional southern European flavour can take up to 72 hours and a pH of 5.2 is usually what we aim for. Another odd practice suggested by Cairo is to use one half of the package of the starter culture for each batch. Packets of starter cultures are intended for 100 to 200lbs of meat block. That advice is quite puzzling since most of Cairo's dry cured sausage recipes are in 3lb. batches. Having said that the book is still worth buying if you are into charcuterie and like a good and inspirational read. But as I already stated, it's not to be relied on for all your knowledge and practices. Treat it as a companion to the other publications and read the Marianski books first.
http://www.amazon.com/Olympia-Provision ... 1607747014
