Book Review: Charcuterie

Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing

I received this book from one of my siblings at Christmas. In short, I love it! I recently wrote an article about why I enjoy learning and practicing food preservation (read that article here). I have already tried a few recipes from this book. My favorit so far was the pork confit from my own rendered lard... it was the most tender pork I have ever tasted. My 18-month old daughter almost ate as much as I did! I find it more than interesting that a baby can instictually know quality food. I think it is great.

If you are a foodie and a cook and a person who enjoys meat. You will likely love this book as much as I did. I highly recommend it.

I love this review posted on Amazon:
Starred Review. Without the faintest hint of apology, Ruhlman and Polcyn present an arsenal of recipes that take hours, and sometimes days, to prepare; are loaded with fat; and, if ill-prepared, can lead to botulism. The result is one of the most intriguing and important cookbooks published this year. Ruhlman (The Soul of a Chef) is a food poet, and the pig is his muse. On witnessing a plate of cold cuts in Italy, he is awed by "the way the sunlight hit the fat of the dried meats, the way it glistened, the beauty of the meat." He relates and refines the work of Polcyn, a chef-instructor at a college in Livonia, Mich., who butchers a whole hog "every couple weeks for his students." Together, they make holy the art of stuffing a sausage, the brining of a corned beef and the poaching of a salted meat in its own fat. An extensive chapter on pâtés and terrines is entitled "The Cinderella Meat Loaf" and runs the gamut from exotic Venison Terrine with Dried Cherries to hearty English Pork Pie with a crust made from both lard and butter. And while there's no shortage of lyricism, science plays an equally important role. Everyone knows salt is a preservative, for example, but here we learn exactly how it does its job. And a section on safety issues weighs the dangers of nitrites and explains the difference between good white mold and the dangerous, green, fuzzy stuff.

Here are some other reviews of this fine book:
Charcuterie is an important and definitive work which deserves to stand proudly and forever in every serious cook's kitchen. -- Anthony Bourdain, author of Kitchen Confidential

Charcuterie provides an open window on the delicious possibilities available to the home cook and professional chef alike. -- Paul Bertolli, author of Cooking By Hand

Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn have opened the door for home cooks everywhere to experience the thrill of making charcuterie. -- Mario Batali, chef/owner of Babbo Restaurant, New York

Never has the art of charcuterie been handled this thoroughly for the home cook. -- Lynne Rossetto Kasper, host of American Public Media's national radio series The Splendid Table®

The best techniques to cure, smoke and preserve meat in the tradition of the best charcutiers out there. -- Eric Ripert, chef/co-owner of Le Bernardin Restaurant, New York

Smoked Duck

The finished smoked duck... amazing!

Duck has a reputation in the United States of being hard to cook.  Many people don't like duck  This is mainly due to people poorly cooking it.  How many of you have had duck at someone's house?  Greasy and smothered in orange sauce?  Who would want to eat that?  Uh... not me!

The other experience most others have had is at a Chinese restaurant.  You can often get really good duck at a Chinese restaurant... IF they know what they are doing.  It can be fantastic.  However, it can be really bad as well.

I have always liked duck.  I plan on raising my own ducks in the future, so I thought I would experiment a bit and try to find some alternate ways to prepare duck.  I had actually never heard of smoked duck before I had decided to get some ducks for my smoker.  After I had read a bit online, I found out that there were a number of people who were also smoking duck.  Not a lot, but enough for me to get some ideas of what I was looking to do and confirming my own ideas as well.

Duck does have a lot of fat in it.  This is not a problem.  It gives it a lot of flavor.  But we don't want the fat to stay in the meat.  I am not too concerned about the fat content in a health context (since I saved the fat!), but too much fat left in duck meat results in a greasy meat.  That is not tasty at all.  One way to avoid that is to make sure that the duck's skin has "drains" in it.  I used a paring knife and poked all over the skin, through the skin but not the meat (muscle) underneath, to allow the fat to drain as the birds cooked.

I rinsed the birds with cool water after I removed the giblets and neck from the cavity.  I only used a bit of salt on and in the birds.  The fat and smoke will provide enough flavor.  I covered the wings and legs with foil to prevent them from cooking too fast and burning (I removed the foil during the last hour).  I did not tie up the birds at all.  I wanted the smokey, hot air to circulate all around the birds.  

I arranged my offset smoker as you can see above.  On the left is the firebox.  I have a pile of charcoal ready to light.  To the right of that is my water pan.  I make sure to keep the air humid (not wet) by keeping this full of water.   Under the cooking grate in the smoke box I placed a drip pan to collect the fat from the cooking birds.  I'll discuss what I did with the fat in a later post.

I used a mix of hickory and mesquite wood blocks and chips - that was all I had access to where I live.  Hickory is a medium strength wood - flavor speaking.  We can use it with beef and pork in moderation, lightly with chicken, and it is probably too strong for lighter fish.  Mesquite is a stronger wood for flavor.  It can easily overpower smoked meats, so we use it with caution depending on the natural flavors of the meat we are smoking.  Duck and other waterfowl, as well as most game meats, are much more strongly flavored, so they can handle a bit more mesquite.  I thought a mix of about 60/40 hickory/mesquite would be a good ratio.

In general, I add wood every 15-30 minutes for the first few hours, then I only add additional charcoal to keep the temperature at a steady place.  

Temperatures are the most important thing to monitor when smoking/BBQ-ing.  There are a number of temperatures which I keep track.  First is the smoke box temperature.  I try to smoke/BBQ fatty meats at about 225 F (107 C).  This is the ideal temp to slowly melt the fat and connective tissues and create a juicy meat.  Lean meats like turkey can be smoked/BBQ'd at a bit higher temperature... 325 F (162C).  For duck, I tried to keep the cooking temp between 250-275 F (121-135 C).  It is fattier than turkey, but it doesn't have nearly the connective tissue as a brisket would have.  I monitor this temperature with a screw-on probe thermometer I drilled through the door of the smoke box.

The next temperature I monitor is the meat temperature.  I use a probe thermometer with a heat resistant cord connected to a battery operated digital display as you can see in the photo above.  My goal for duck is 160 F (71 C) in the deep breast.  Once the temp raises to this goal, it will continue cooking for a bit with an ultimate goal of 165 F (74 C).  I like this model.  On the lower line of the digital display, you can see the current probe temp on the left and the goal (alarm) temp on the right.

In reality, I don't completely trust this temperature probe.  I think the heat will conduct down the probe and give a falsely elevated reading.  When I get close to the goal temp, I will then use an instant read probe thermometer and check the meat in several places.  This gives me an idea of how much longer to BBQ the meat.  I will move one piece of meat to the cool end of the smoke box (farthest from the firebox) if it is at a higher temp than the other pieces.  In the case of the ducks, I spun them around since one end was cooking faster than the other.

Here is the end product.  A crispy skin.  Juicy but not greasy meat.  Good smoke flavor, but not overpowering.  It took about 4 hours... I think.  I wasn't really keeping track of the time.  Our guest for the duck dinner, Joan (also a bit of a food snob... in a good way!) is a duck lover.  She orders duck whenever she gets a chance.  She said that this was the best duck she has ever tasted.  High praise!  

There is a mix of art and science to smoking meat the right way.  Practice will make perfect.  Get to know your smoker, and you will be making great food!  Have fun!