Centuries of skill and imagination have earned charcuterie a revered place in the world of gastronomy, and Professional Charcuterie honors that proud tradition. This working manual and treasury of recipes covers the selection and assembly of ingredients, the most effective use of equipment, and the indispensable basics of food safety. Incorporating a wide variety of meats, seafood, fowl, and game, its range of over 200 enticing, culinary classroom-tested recipes includes all the classics of charcuterie, as well as exceptional contemporary favorites. Step-by-step instructions for smoking and curing are clearly presented, as well as illustrated procedures for preparing and stuffing sausages.
Designed for professionals and culinary students as well as home cooks, Professional Charcuterie allows readers to produce superior products upon the very first effort, and to develop their skills to even higher levels.
>. It's out of print, but readily available used at Amazon.com.
Good Enough, In all fairness.......2003-01-28
I particularly like the spice combinations presented in the different recipes. It covers sausages from around our planet. Procedure-wise, methods can change depending on where we are in the globe but this book is an effective guide to charcuterie-making as a whole !!
... I really do not know what the other reviewers were looking for in a charcuterie book, though !!
A Commericial Text.......2001-12-17
This book is for the professional cook in mind not for homestead sasuage makers. It is not what i was looking for.
Good looking book but........2000-08-28
This book looks good, with lots of pictures and sausage mixes. I have been making sausages for a living for twenty years, I have won many local competions including currently holding the title for supreme champion of hampshire UK. When I first started reading this book I thought these will not work and how right I was. When I changed a few things around the sausages came out ok. This book is not as it states PROFESSIONAL.
Customer Reviews:
Bruce Aidells's Complete Sausage Book.......2007-03-27
This is a great book. I use it all the time. It my "Bible" on sausage or other meats.
encyclopedic, but not a good first book on the subject.......2006-06-14
This is a long and detailed book. I picked it up with another volume (Kobler's "Making Great Sausage") an thought Aidells' book was the less useful of the two.
Looks Pretty, Tastes Bland.......2006-01-14
I have used this cookbook now for six months or so. The book looks very nice and has some good pointers on grinding, making and stuffing sausage. I have tried a number of the fresh sausage recipes (mostly pork). The breakfast sausage recipe is really pretty good, although probably too hot for your average breakfast palatte (and I like hot food, works great for gravy though). A number of the other sausage recipes seem very bland (especially the Italian recipes, both sweet and hot). I was actually pretty amazed by this in that Aidell's is a premium brand of sausage.
Excellent Source on Fresh Sausage. Buy It!.......2006-01-03
`Bruce Aidells' Complete Sausage Book' by meat and sausage experts Aidells and Denis Kelly is the third book by Aidells I have reviewed and it easily maintains the consistently high quality I have come to expect from this writing team on the subject of meat. Along with the team of Schlesinger and Willoughby, they seem to be the reigning kings among culinary writers on the subject of meat, more especially on the subject of pork and sausage.
For starters, I strongly recommend this book for all people interested in reading about food and in cooking, even if you have no interest in making sausage yourself. In many ways, it is as good as the recently published book `Charcuterie' by the team of culinary journalist Michael Ruhlman and charcuterie expert and chef, Brian Poleyn, if only because Aidells and Kelly are better at staying focused on their primary topic. `Charcuterie' is very good, but if what you really want to know about is sausage, Aidells and Kelly are much better.
One thing these two books do for me is to completely reassess my opinion of Emeril Lagasse and his `Pork Fat Rules' mantra. It is so easy to take this as bluster, yet both books in one voice say that pork fat is the cream of the crop when it comes to animal fats. Beef suet is too grainy and chicken fat melts at too low a temperature to be useful for a lot of cooking applications for which pork fat is so good.
It is important to note that while this book does touch on the subjects of smoked and cured sausages, its primary subject by far is fresh sausage that you can make at home. Next to the affirmation of pork fat, I was most pleasantly surprised by the great variety of fresh sausage recipes and in the antiquity of so many of these varieties. It is easy to believe that hot and sweet Italian sausage and German bratwurst and Spanish chorizo and Polish Kielbasa have been around a long time and it is not unexpected to find that the Cajun specialties boudin and andouille are pretty old. However, it is surprising to find that ingredients such as apples and dried tomatoes are not modern foodie concoctions, but easily as old as fennel and garlic as sausage ingredients.
Another major epiphany I take from this book is the fact that along with pasta, canned tomatoes, olive oil, onions, garlic, parsley, anchovies, eggs, flour, milk and capers, sausage is one of the most versatile items one can have on hand in your pantry, as it can be used as a flavorful addition to a really wide variety of dishes. The only caveat is that fresh sausage must be frozen in order to keep it safe and it's frozen shelf life may not be much more than two months. Even so, this book will give you more than enough good ideas for using that sausage to keep you from forgetting about the stash of charcuterie goodness.
The book is divided up by three major topics. The first and shortest is on basic fresh sausage making techniques and the methods for hot and cold smoking fresh sausage. Even if you never use these techniques, the interested foodie should really know how these techniques work and what they do, so you are in a better position to make the best use of products of these two techniques. My biggest criticism with this book comes in this section which would have been much better done with a few good diagrams of various types of smoking devices. Most of this material would have been harder for me to appreciate had I not seen Alton Brown's popular `Good Eats' parody of `Iron Chef' where he cold smokes bacon with one of his typically McGyveresque contraptions.
The authors make simple sausage making sound easy, and with the right precautions, it really is. All you really need to convince yourself of this fact is to realize it is not much more than making meatloaf. The main concerns come with the care and sanitation involved in grinding the meat, as a dirty meat grinder is an open invitation to unwanted microbial beasties. And, while the book supplies sources for sausage making tools, I suggest you do the Martha Stewart routine of searching out tag sales for solid metal meat grinders you can probably get for a song.
The second major section covers recipes for making a wide variety of sausages. The chapters within this part cover:
American Sausages:
American Farmhouse Sausage with 10 recipes, including smoked sausage and chicken and apple sausage.
Southern Sausages with 9 recipes, including Boudin, Andouille, Chaurice, Tasso, and Pickled Pork.
Midwestern Sausages with 14 recipes influenced by Germany, Scandinavia, and Eastern Europe.
Southwestern Sausages with 6 recipes influenced by Spain, including chorizo and poultry sausage.
Mediterranean Sausages with 13 recipes including Italian, Spanish, and Greek sausages.
Asian Style Sausages with 5 recipes including mushrooms, chicken, and shrimp.
Game and Seafood sausages with 12 recipes including salmon, duck, crawfish, buffalo, and venison.
The third major section (Part II) covers recipes for using sausage in dishes. Recipes are organized in ten (10) chapters on:
Breakfast All Day
Sausage Starters: Appetizers and Salads
Sausage Based Soups
Sausage Sandwiches and Pizzas
Lotta Pasta (and Sausage)
Better Beans and Grains
Sausage with Fish and Seafood
Cacklers and Gobblers: Poultry and Sausages
Red Meat and Sausage
Sausage Spiked Side Dishes
This is more than enough evidence to convince me to have sausage on hand on a regular basis. And, one piece of very good news is the fact that nitrites in sausage are no longer considered a health risk and by making your own sausage, you can avoid almost all the unwanted chemicals put into commercial sausage.
This is a foodie `must have' book!
Good Eats.......2005-09-12
This book is both interesting to read and informative to those that desire to attempt to create good food rather than just but it. It is documented well with creatively laid out recipes and has a page in the back listing mail-order sources for herbs and spices as well as sources for sausages and specialty meats.
It is worth the price as a resource guide and a good read for food lovers.
Amazon.com
Making sausage at home is simple and pain free. Once you've learned the basics, experimentation and sausage innovation are bound to take over. Then before you know it, you will be making gourmet sausages that are better than anything you can buy in the market, and at half the cost! Charles Reavis's Home Sausage Making introduces a world of banger possibilities--from traditional pork to salmon and poultry. However, you will need more than just the book. A meat grinder is recommended as is a sausage stuffer and sausage skins. Beyond that, ingredients are pretty basic. This is, after all, reaching right back to the peasant kitchen--and the mindset that there's a way to use everything from snout to tail except for the squeal. Start with Reavis, then reach beyond. --Schuyler Ingle
Book Description
HOME SAUSAGE MAKING is the classic in the field. Now completely revised and updated to comply with current USDA safety standards, this new edition features 150 recipes. Included in the lineup are 100 recipes for sausages (cased and uncased) and 50 recipes for cooking with sausage, all written for contemporary tastes and cooking styles. There are instructions for making sausages with beef and pork, fish and shellfish, chicken and turkey, and game meats. Ethnic favorites include German specialties such as Bratwurst, Mettwurst, and Vienna Sausage; Italian Cotechino and Luganega; Polish Fresh and Smoked Kielbasa; and Spanish-Style Chorizo, Potatis Korv (Swedish Potato Sausage), Kosher Salami, and Czech Yirtrnicky. On top of all the meat varieties, there is an entirely new section on vegetarian sausage options.
Customer Reviews:
... and made easy!.......2007-10-04
I got the book to make bratwurst for an Okotberfest we were having and was nervous about making sausage for the first time. The book's instructions were very clear and easy to follow. I'm looking forward to trying many of the other sausages in the book!
Home Sausage Making.......2007-03-27
I think it is a great book in instructing you on making sausage.
Underwhelming.......2006-06-08
While the book is informative and provides good instruction about some of the basics of sausage making, it is nonetheless lacking in many respects. First, most of the book's recipes that I've made come out under-salted and under-spiced. While this is something that you can test for and adjust during production, it would have been better for the authors to simply provide quantities that produced sufficiently seasoned sausages. In short, most of the sausages end up bland, tasting more like plain ground meat than sausage.
Furthermore, the recipes utilizing sausage are unimpressive as well. Most cooks experienced enough to make fresh sausage probably don't need a recipe for a sausage omelette or sausage pizza.
Finally, and most importantly, the book misses some important techniques that are essential to proper sausage making. While they do make mention of freezing meats for 30 min. before stuffing, they don't sufficiently emphasize how essential it is to maintain near-freezing temperatures throghout the process until the casings or stuffed. Failure to do so will result in dry, crumbly sausages, something I learned the hard way. Additionally, there is no discussion of the "primary bind," an essential step in sausage making whereby the ground & spiced meat mixture is beaten (either by hand with a wooden spoon or with a paddle attachement in a stand mixer) for a couple of minutes before stuffing. This allows the meat to bind together, preventing a loose & crumbly sausage, yet this essential step is entirely absent from the book.
My recommendation would be to look at "Charcuterie" by Michael Ruhlman & Brian Polcyn. Not only does that book provide all the ins & outs of sausage making (plus the reasoning behind them) from award-winning professionals, the recipes are perfectly seasoned every time. The book has the added benefit of providing information on some more exotic things to do with meat as well, such as dry-curing hams, prosciutto, salami, etc.
I agree: Good Coaching, weak sausage.......2006-04-27
Two days ago I made about 9 pounds of sausage using 3 different recipes in this book and 3 different meats.
This is my first sausage making attempt and the book did a great job of teaching me the process. But I agree with the 'Good Coaching, weak sausage' review. The recipes are pretty under-spiced and generic. I guess it gives me a good baseline for creating my own recipes, though.
So, if you know what you're doing and are looking for recipes- look elsewhere. If you're a sausage newbie, this is a great book to teach you what you need to know.
Excellent book for hands on advice. Buy It........2006-01-06
`Home Sausage Making' by Susan Mahnke Peery and Charles G. Reavis is a great small book in its third edition since it was originally published in 1981 by the very small publishing house, Storey, which specializes in culinary titles. Reading this book shows up the dangers to a reviewer in reviewing the very first book one encounters on a specialized subject such as home sausage making. Just three days ago, I reviewed `Bruce Aidells' Complete Sausage Book' by meat and sausage experts Aidells and Denis Kelly, published by cookbook behemoth, 10 Speed Press. Naturally, with Aidells' reputation and my liking the previous two books this pair have done, I gave the book a very complementary review.
Now, I read another book on exactly the same subject and I find an even better book that addresses all of the criticisms I had of the Aidells and Kelly book. Specifically, it makes liberal use of illustrations of both equipment and technique, with the added bonus of being very specific about health hazards and the means for avoiding them, by being clear about cooking, aging, and smoking temperatures. Thankfully, there is enough difference between the two books and they are both inexpensive enough to make it worth your while to own both. If you really need to limit yourself to one, the Aidells / Kelly book is better for the armchair sausage buff, who is more interested in things to do with sausage and with the scoop on what is in the sausage he buys at the deli, megamart, or specialty meat store. Peery / Reavis is better for people who are really interested in actually making sausage, based on the much better illustration of sausage making equipment and technique, and fewer recipes, compared to Aidells / Kelly on what to make with sausage.
Peery / Reavis also has a much broader interpretation of what constitutes sausage. In addition to all the obvious preparations, this book includes recipes for making scrapple (2 recipes) and other American favorites. While both books include lots of famous international recipes for fresh and cured sausage, Aidells / Kelly presents these recipes is a more organized fashion which is better suited if you happen to want to make a Spanish or Cajun or oriental sausage.
I compared the recipes for `basic breakfast sausage' in both books and found the ingredients to be virtually identical. The only difference in ingredients is the presence of dried marjoram in Peery / Reavis and their substitution of brown sugar for granulated white sugar. Peery / Reavis' procedure was also more detailed, especially since it was oriented toward making sausage in casings while Aidells / Kelly refers you the general technique on filling casings without repeating the instructions for the specific recipe.
While Aidells / Kelly organizes their recipes by region, Peery / Reavis organizes their recipes by ingredients, giving us chapters on:
Pork Sausages
Beef, Lamb, and Veal Sausages
Combination Sausages
Game Sausages
Poultry Sausages
Seafood Sausages
Vegetarian Sausages
Both books have lots of sidebars on the origins and trivia about sausages. The introduction giving the history seems like one of them cribbed from the other, as they both seem to touch on the same bases, right down to the references to sausage in Homer's `Odyssey'. Aidells / Kelly is just a bit more interesting in this background information; however the charm of Peery / Reavis' background from U.S. bratwurst central in Sheboygan, Wisconsin is not lost in their obvious love of their subject.
As a trivial aside, I must object to Peery / Reavis' comment on Otto von Bismarck's comparison of sausage making and lawmaking, as Bismarck's intent was clearly to illuminate the nature of lawmaking and politics and not to make a culinary comment.
Both books are very good. Get both, but get Peery / Reavis first if you really want to make sausage yourself.
Customer Reviews:
What do you really want to know?.......2005-04-01
The ratings seem to be waffling around on this one so maybe I can help. I own this book and love it but you may or may not depending on what you really want this for.
If you want a book that is jammed full of recipes of different sorts and help you come up with some on your own this thing is a treasure.
If you want a hard core how-to on sausage making, then you need to look somewhere else. This book is pretty light in my opinion on the technical details.
The most complete book bar none is Rytek Kutas's book. I've seen that book selling second hand for $165. You don't need to pay anything near that amount though.
Here's a tip though. If you want to make "fresh sausage" let me tell you, it ain't rocket science. You grind the meat and stuff it in a casing. Let it sit in the fridge for a day and fry up what you want and freeze the rest. The finer points will come to you I promise. Cured sausage is a little different though. You can make yourself mighty dang sick if you don't do it right. If you want to try "fresh sausage" making, don't get wrapped around the axel on the technical details. With practice you will get it right and it doesn't take long. Buy this book for the recipes alone.
Too Vague To Be of Value To Beginners.......2002-11-03
"The Sausage Making Cookbook" is the first of three sausage making cookbooks I own and it is definitely the least valuable. This book leaves too many questions unanswered if you go beyond the basics of making a fresh sausage. The author recommends processes that directly conflict standard USDA food safety recommendations. I would definitely get better information before I would start smoking or dry curing sausages & meats. Two other books that I own offer more and better beginner's info, how-to's and also good technical data, they are:
1. "Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing" by Rytek Kutas.
2. "Professional Charcuterie: Sausage Making, Curing, Terrines, and Pates" by John Kinsella, David T. Harvey.
My first choice is the book by Rytek Kutas. I think "The Sausage Making Cookbook" is best for someone that already knows the basics of making the different types of sausages; fresh, smoked and cooked, semi-dry and dry, as it has a lot of variety in the recipes, I got some good flavor combinations that the other books don't have.
Too Vague To Be of Value To Beginners.......2002-11-03
"The Sausage Making Cookbook" is the first of three sausage making cookbooks I own and it is definitely the least valuable. This book leaves too many questions unanswered if you go beyond the basics of making a fresh sausage. The author recommends processes that directly conflict standard USDA food safety recommendations. I would definitely get better information before I would start smoking or dry curing sausages & meats. Two other books that I own offer more and better beginner's info, how-to's and also good technical data, they are:
1. "Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing" by Rytek Kutas.
2. "Professional Charcuterie: Sausage Making, Curing, Terrines, and Pates" by John Kinsella, David T. Harvey.
My first choice is the book by Rytek Kutas. I think "The Sausage Making Cookbook" is best for someone that already knows the basics of making the different types of sausages; fresh, smoked and cooked, semi-dry and dry, as it has a lot of variety in the recipes, I got some good flavor combinations that the other books don't have.
Good starting book.......2002-04-10
You will probably end up experimenting , even with all the recipes included. I have been trying to find an incredibly good Mexican chorizo recipe and I am afraid this book didn't give it to me. Though it did have several different versions. I am lucky and can get hog casing locally, but you don't have to have it to make good sausage. I used my Kitchen Aid stand mixer(with sausage stuffer attachment and grinder attachment from Amazon) and it worked like a charm!!! I did notice that fresh sausage is definitely better. Try it sometime!!!
Great Starter Book!.......2002-03-21
This book is great for the first time sausage maker! Great recipes and easy directions. From start to end this book makes it easy.
Amazon.com
A.D. Livingston talks to you like a buddy who's into sausage making and wants you to give it a try. "Good sausage starts with good meat. Right now, let's put together a simple sausage and cook some recipes just to show how easy it is," he opens, providing the necessary information for dealing with the ground pork and fat and basic seasonings required. Once you mix them together, just refrigerate or freeze this sausage; no casings are required. The five recipes given for using your first batch of sausage meat range from a quick casserole to a mouthwatering Stuffed Crown Roast.
Once he's got you hooked, Livingston presents more detailed information on kinds of meat to use, the grinding process, and seasonings. Then comes the information on casings, plus instructions for curing sausages.
There are recipes for sausages, familiar and obscure, from Cajun Boudin Blanc and German Knockwurst to Finnish Perunamakkra made with potatoes and milk and South African Boerwors. You'll even find one for bologna and another for haggis.
Recipes for dishes like Bavarian Salad with Bockwurst; Louisiana Red Beans, Rice and Sausage; the intensely meaty Eastern European stew, Bigos, made with sauerkraut; and Hacked Chicken with Chinese Sausage make this book worth having even if you just want to cook prepared sausages--but your pal Livingston may just convince you to try it the old-fashioned way. --Dana Jacobi
Book Description
Curing and smoking meat using natural and synthetic casings
Selecting and storing meat and choosing other ingredients
Fresh Italian Sausage, Dried Beef, Andouille Sausage, Kippered Salmon
Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing is the most comprehensive book available on sausage making and meat curing and has sold more than 500,000 copies worldwide. It is easily understood, contains a wide variety of recipes, and is very effective in helping solve common problems. It is written by a man who learned the art of sausage making and meat curing at a very young age and who made a living smoking and curing meats.
Customer Reviews:
Sausage recipe.......2007-08-08
Very informative and great explanations! No pictures, but very good book for the beginner.
Handy guide for a small-scale butcher or more.......2007-06-05
Being a meat technologist and having spent twenty years in the meat seasoning business I bought this book for curiosity and to enlarge my library of professional cookbooks. I couldn't have made a better choice. The Kutases (originally Latvian?) have a very practical approach in their book. Anyone who plans to set up a butchershop can benefit from their handy hints. On the other hand even the seasoning suggestions for a variety of sausages seem useful.
You can get a better deal...........2005-02-08
If you will go to http://www.sausagemaker.com you can buy this book 3rd edition brand new for $29.95 and the book with DVD for $39.95. I paid what everyone was asking here on Amazon as a used book, it's insane what they are asking for...over $100. I did not do enough research, save yourself some money, unless you are looking for a vintage gift, first edition, buy it from the source. This book is fantastic and the best resource for this topic. If anyone knows where you can get food grade sodium acetate though, please share your knowledge. Thanks!
Absolutely, THE best!.......2000-12-15
His book is excellent. As the previous reviewers indicated, I also give him many thumbs up.
Now - what are you waiting for? Order the book and enjoy what you make!
You will NOT find a book full of pretty color pictures - what you will find is a book loaded with important step-by-step instructions. ...And if you are not into sausage making -you must know a relative who is. Buy it for them in that case!
I've Used this Book for Years.......2000-11-22
As a professional chef, I have taught sausage making and charcuterie to students and other professionals throughout the U.S. This is the book I use for reference. It is easy to follow and very comprehensive.
I like the fact that Rytek is a second generation cuiseur-de-chair and draws his knowledge from practical experience. The resources in his book are from his mail-order house- "The Sausage Maker" in Buffalo, N.Y which carries everything you could imagine to make any kind of sausage.
Books:
- The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Three Ancient Cuisines: China, Greece, and Rome
- The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Three Ancient Cuisines: China, Greece, and Rome
- The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook: America's Bestselling Step-by-Step Cookbook, with More Than 1,400 Recipes
- The Great Domaines of Burgundy: A Guide to the Finest Wine Producers of the Cote D'or
- The Heat Islands: A Doc Ford Novel (Doc Ford Novels)
- The Little House Cookbook: Frontier Foods from Laura Ingalls Wilder's Classic Stories
- The Little Saigon Cookbook: Vietnamese Cuisine and Culture in Southern California's Little Saigon
- The Naturally Sweet Baker : 150 Decadent Desserts Made With Honey, Maple Syrup, and Other Delicious Alternatives to Refined Sugar
- The Rum Diary : A Novel
- The Secret (Unabridged, 4-CD Set)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Alloway Remembers: Tales of Town and Township
- Taggerung
- Julia Morgan, Architect of Dreams
- History: Fiction or Science
- Physics of Sound, The
- The Divine Comedy: Inferno - Purgatory - Paradise
- Reef Fish Identification: Florida, Caribbean, Bahamas
- Life in the Shadows of the Crystal Palace, 1910-1927: Ford Workers in the Model t Era
- Labor Mobility and Population in Agriculture
- A House on the Water: Inspiration for Living at the Water's Edge
Comic
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Portuguese Irregular Verbs
At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances
44 Scotland Street
Blue Shoes and Happiness (No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, Book 7)
Espresso Tales
Professional charuterie: Sauasage making, Curing, terrines, pates.......2006-10-14
