Salumi: The Craft of Italian Dry Curing Hardcover – Illustrated, August 27, 2012

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 todayCons:-----* Photographs aren't that helpful for production purposes (beautiful, though!)* Weights not given for 100% of ingredients

Having started curing meats about 3 years ago, this is another great book to use as a rescource. The book is put together well from start to finish and includes some excellent pictures of finished product. Ruhlman and Polcyn Salumi includes some great new information. They describe the traditional hog breakdown by American and Italian processes. To assist the novice, they explain what to do with the cuts and how to best utilize the cuts according to the style of the breakdown.In this section, they also touch on bone-in and out for Spalla, a quicker way to produce a "prosciutto" type product for example.Next, they describe the dry curing basics describing and suggesting different salts, molds, equipement and drying enviroment. Some of this information will be review for the Salumeria but vital for the novice.Next, they go into whole muscle curing of the big 7 and salami. A great section with explanation and recipes. A new recipe includes the Culatello and an explanation of the Culatello versus the Fiocco. The last section of the book reveals recipes on how to cook and serve the Salumi. A nice way to wrap-up the book and to show off your creations.I really enjoyed the book and I look forward to putting this infrormation to work. I am especially interested in trying my first Lardo recipe inspired by their visit to Italy, I am assuming they went, from the region of Colonnata. In any case, the recipe and information looks to reward the Salumeria with a great product. Of course, it all starts with the hog and the quality of the hog.Thanks again for a great book and I look forward to sharing the finished products with others that enjoy and appreciate the art of Charcuterie!Bartolio Salumeria

This book has a well-deserved outstanding reputation. On top of that, it’s well written and fun to read.

Of the three books on charcuterie I have read this is probably the best for the novice who wants to remain closer to the Italian tradition of salted and cured meats.The first few chapters deal with the what, why and how of charcuterie. There is even a section on how to butcher a hog, if one is so inclined. The instructions for the various preparations are detailed and the two color illustrations are very clear. The book provides tips on which cured meat are more suitable if the space to cure them is limited. The recipes using cured meats are valuable to any cook. Of the books on charcuterie I have read so far it is the only one to provide a recipe for "Zampone" and "Cotechino"The retail price is a hair short of $ 40.00, but the book can be found on amazon both new and used for considerably less. Actually I found a new one for less than the price of a used one. I am thrilled with the book and determined to give charcuterie a serious try. This book provides all I need to do it successfully and almost feel that I know what I'm doing. It would make a splendid gift!

By his reaction when opening this gift, I knew I was gonna love this book - I was personally going to get to enjoy all the wonderful information in this book for not much effort on my part except for the eating! And he thought he was lucky! Because my grandfather was a sausage maker from Switzerland I appreciate very much that my brother-in-law is sooo into old country style food preparation . . . and he's good at it. He will read this book like it's a text book all the way through (he started on Christmas Day) and then he will follow it like a bible for a few recipes and then start using them for basic ideas on which to base his own inventions. Then, I'll ask him to review it at Amazon.