The Art and Economics of Charcuterie Part 2 (StarChefs.com)

The Art and Economics of Charcuterie Part 2

by Amanda McDougall and JJ Proville
photos and video by Antoinette Bruno
March 2009

Interview
John Toulze on Charcuterie


In-house charcuterie programs have experienced exponential growth over the past two years. It is arguably the biggest and most far-reaching trend we’ve seen—bordering on an all out culinary movement. US Chefs are learning the craft—from old school/Old World techniques to more modern ones—and developing their own programs large and small.

With this in mind, we’ll be publishing a multi-part charcuterie series that looks at several different operations, but all run by chefs with a penchant for curing and aging all sorts of animal parts with a goal of bringing in some serious revenue for their restaurants.

Zach Allen and his Vegas salumi operation—not to mention his oversight of all of Batali’s dozen other restaurant salumi programs—was the first in this series of features. The second in the series takes a look at how chef John Toulze of the girl and the fig (restaurant, café, and catering) and Estate works his brand of charcuterie into his two restaurants and catering operation (see below). Seattle’s Adam Stevenson of Earth & Ocean at W Seattle is third in line, discussing his charcuterie program from a hotel chef perspective. The fourth piece goes small-scale with El Dorado Kitchen chef Justin Everett’s charcuterie on-a-shoestring.
Part 2: A Multi-Restaurant Operation on a Smaller Scale
For chef John Toulze, making good and safe charcuterie is “all about pH”—knowing that you’ve got the right amount of acid to kill off the bad stuff, but keep the good stuff. Of course, extensive reading, practice, and some trial and error, also contribute to a fine end product—and Toulze does plenty of that.

A self-taught charcutier, Toulze has been making all forms of charcuterie for nearly all of his life (he remembers witnessing his parents arguing over how to best make headcheese as a kid), and professionally for over a decade. As a novice, the chef started with what he calls “wet charcuterie,” country-style pâtés and mousses; years later, he’s graduated to smoked bacon, chorizo, rosette de Lyon, sopressata, and 18-month cured prosciuttos. All in all, Toulze and his team produce anywhere from 7 to 11 products for the two restaurants, café, and catering operation.

When it comes to the economy of charcuterie, Toulze sees making it in-house as a no-brainer. Where he once paid $7 a pound for outsourced bacon or upwards of $12 a pound for quality prosciutto, he’s now looking at getting in the raw cuts for a buck and some change per pound, plus the added benefit of knowing the meat’s source and having direct control over quality and production. “There is a tremendous opportunity for savings,” Toulze explains, “If you manage your staff, time, and space there really is not a product where your food cost won’t be amazing.”

But it’s not just about that amazing food cost that keeps Toulze keen on cured meat. He loves the process; he loves introducing people to new products; most of all, he loves having a story to tell about his food. “There a lot of food trends right now, but I think there’s one that never goes away and that’s the idea of handmade production—simple, ancestral foods that have a place and a story to be told.”

Interview with John Toulze

JJ Proville: How long have you been doing charcuterie? How did you get into it?
John Toulze: It’s been 10 years. I can remember my father making headcheese at my house and it being a total disaster [laughs].
I remember it was always a big feud between my parents on how to make it. For a kid it was a pretty big novelty to see a pig’s head in the fridge. That was a fascination for me. On Sundays we always had French bread, cheese, and a pâté of some kind.

JJP: Have you been formally trained in charcuterie?
JT: No. My experience comes from trial and error and a lot of reading; trying a lot of things; asking questions.

JJP: Was it something you immediately got into at the beginning of your culinary career?
JT: It evolved. In the beginning we always made what I call wet charcuterie. Rustic terrines and country-style pâtés with chicken liver mousses and things like that. It just kind of evolved over time and still is. You get good at something and one road will lead to another. You get good at making pâté de campagne and then you ask, what’s next? Wet charcuterie leads to some of the very simple cured dried meats. Timing and space also plays an important part. As we had more space and more time, it got easier to take on some of the more complicated elements that take months to start and finish.

JJP: Would you say that wet charcuterie is a more natural place to start at the beginning of one’s charcuterie career?
JT: I think so because it gives you that first element of the importance of your grind and it allows you to have a first look at the transformation of a product from raw to finished. The good thing is that it’s quick. There’s some technique involved, but there’s a relatively quick turnaround. Pâté de campagne takes three days.

JJP: How long did it take to reach the point where you knew what you were doing?
JT: It took a good year and a half for the dried stuff before I felt confident about understanding why things were going in one direction and not the other. We’re constantly playing with different starter cultures and different cuts, but now it’s coming from a base of understanding and being creative instead of going “OK, I think I did everything right.”

JJP: How many projects do you currently oversee?
JT: We have three restaurants and a catering company. We also have a line of food products called Fig Food.

JJP: How many different types of charcuterie do you offer in the restaurants at any given time?
JT: We usually offer between 7 and 11 types at any given time. For the Fig Café we have two or three. Right now we’ve got two types of cured salami for their cheese plate and some chorizo for their pizza.

JJP: How do you allocate the charcuterie to the restaurants?
JT: We store it until its ready and then the restaurants can take what they want. Right now we started a batch of rosette de Lyon for a salami sandwich. We brainstorm over the menus for the restaurants, make the charcuterie, and then once it’s ripe that whole batch will be brought over to the restaurant. We also have items that we frequently do like sopressata, lonzo, lardo, pancetta, rosette de Lyon, and chorizo. We always want to have three or four salamis that are ready. The only one that doesn’t rotate off the list is the sopressata.

JJP: What are the shortest and longest timeframes of charcuterie that you practice?
JT: The shortest would be something like a chicken liver mousse or a boudin, which is basically casing up some chicken liver mousse. From there it would be terrines of all different types, like pork liver terrine or pâté de campagne. We also do our own bacon and smoked salmon which are on the short side. It’s a four day process for us.

The ones that take the longest to make are the salumi, the rosette de Lyon, the Genoa-style salumi, or the large sopresattas. Right now we’ve got some prosciutto in the process which will become the longest; that takes about a year and a half. You start feeling like a wine maker because you’re aging a product and you don’t know your success until you try it!

JJP: What’s the greatest risk in charcuterie?
JT: The peril is that you don’t know how it’s going to turn out for at least a year but you can’t wait that long to start your next batch. So it’s a leap of faith that you have some idea what you’re doing. I think our confidence has evolved to a point where we’re pretty sure we can execute it and we have control over our environment enough that we can do it.

JJP: What keeps you coming back to it?
JT: It’s the suspense of not knowing how it’s going to turn out but it’s also the transformation of the product that’s incredible. I also enjoy it because some of my sous chefs really got into it and I like sharing that excitement with them about what is a very old tradition—which is really controlled spoilage.

You don’t necessarily know how it’s going to turn out and I think that’s the fun of it. Even if we change the starter culture or if we cut it a little different you have to be patient to see how that turns out. The other thing is that you have to keep pretty fastidious notes because how else do you know? That’s the excitement of it. When we take out a new batch, everyone is excited to try it and see how it is.

JJP: What are some of the important lessons you’ve learned?
JT: Some of the things that we’ve learned is that a few more grams of starter culture makes the difference between a beautiful fermentation all the way through, and having one where we couldn’t get the pH to drop fast enough, and that’s just not something that you can guess at. And you’re also dealing with products that in large doses aren’t necessarily considered safe, with your nitrites and your nitrates. That’s what I use and I haven’t gotten comfortable playing with alternatives.

JJP: Is most of the charcuterie you do pork-based?
JT: Its 95% pork. We do beef. We haven’t done a lot of lamb, but I’d like to start.

JJP: How many people are involved in the production?
JT: There are three of us. I have a sous chef that does 90% of it. He’s 23 and been working with me since he was 16. He’s really into it. I help out and so does my chef Chris Jones.

JJP: What are your favorite charcuterie items to make?
JT: My favorite things are the simplest ones. Bacon, pancetta, and the lardo. Bresaola too.

JJP: How do you make your bacon?
JT: We cure it for about three and a half days. Three days is not quite enough and at four days it’s too salty. We smoke it for about three hours. Our technique is really simple. We put it in a 210°F oven and we have an old pan that we throw a bunch of chips in that we get smoldering really good. We throw that underneath the bacon and cook it until the bacon comes up to an internal temperature of about 150°F. However long that takes is how long we smoke it. That has been a really good method for us.

JJP: What kind of wood do you use?
JT: We’ve done fig wood but apple wood has been the nicest [for the bacon]. We tried hickory, but that was just not good [for the chorizo]. It didn’t work with the flavors of the paprika and spices we put it in.

JJP: How long does your chorizo take?
JT: It takes about 10 weeks. It’s one of the most elaborate things we make. We start by cubing up the meat and doing the marinade, which takes three to four days and then we grind it, ferment it, and let it dry out for a couple days. Then we smoke it and hang it.

JJP: Do you do all the ordering and supply management?
JT: No. I work with my sous chef who does the direct ordering. We have pretty strict regulations about the way we order and the way chefs in our company order product.

JJP: How many meat suppliers do you use?
JT: We’ve been using Niman Ranch. We did make some jambon from suckling pigs and brought in a whole pig once to make coppa di testa, lonzo, and pancetta. We’d like to be able to bring in whole pigs, but we have to put together the rest of the facilities to do that. That’s the ultimate goal.

JJP: So your limitation for using whole pigs is lack of space?
JT: Not anymore. Right now it’s just getting to that next step. But one of the reasons we’ve been successful in this program is that we’ve gone step by step and we haven’t bitten off more than we can chew. Most folks don’t realize what kind of commitment bringing in a whole pig is. We have the space and we have a catering kitchen, but its off-premise. So it’s doable, but we need to make the time.

JJP: What do you do in the off-premise space?
JT: We do most of the fabrication there. Some of the easier things we can do in the restaurants like wet charcuterie and bacon, but anything that requires fermentation and extended aging time we do down there.

JJP: Should chefs starting out in charcuterie start out by ordering individual pieces as opposed to a whole pig?
JT: That would be my advice. It allows you to focus on that one product and that one item. If you are trying to do fermented and dried products, you can start with high quality pork shoulder for example. Start and get good at it. That’s been our method of growth.

JJP: How much do pay for your basic cuts? Do you always pay the same thing for your meat?
JT: No we don’t, but they don’t vary that much. You can get pork belly for $1.39-$1.79/pound price range and that’s how much we pay. Shoulder is around $1.19/pound and back fat is about a dollar. Leg is going to be more expensive. It depends on how much we order. If there are fifteen pork bellies, we can get a better price from our purveyor.

JJP: The margin seems to be pretty good.
JT: It’s a no-brainer. For example, with bacon we used to use Nueske’s and were paying around $7 per pound. There’s not a lot of shrinkage when you’re making bacon, maybe 10%. I think we’re making bacon that’s just as good if not better, and we are paying around a dollar for that [laughs]. So even in a worst case scenario we are paying two dollars a pound. But it’s not [that much], even after all the spices, salt sugars, and wood—and I’ve got plenty of wood for my wood-fired oven. [It’s the] same for pancetta—before we were paying around 6 dollars a pound. We use collagen casings to wrap the bellies and those cost around 60 to 70 cents. We can do 10 pancettas in an hour. There is a cost of labor involved, but it’s not significant.

JJP: What charcuterie product contributes the highest margin?
JT: Lardo has the largest margin by far. Some people love it but people can be reluctant to try it if you’re not there to really explain it to them. In the restaurants, where we do have time to explain it to them, it sells really well. It’s neat because there are not a lot of people who have had it. We recently put it on a salad and it sold wonderfully.

JJP: What other products offer similar margins?
JT: All of our bacon and all of our salamis. Prior to ramping up our production we would source very expensive salami. Now we are using pork butt for it which is around $1.20/ pound. But even with a 30-35% weight loss, you’re still in the $2/pound range and you get all the added value with how it’s made. Compare that to a $12-$14/pound product from somebody else and it’s such an incredible margin and it’s so much interesting for me to sell. There is a tremendous opportunity for savings. If you manage your staff, time, and space there really is not a product there where your food cost won’t be amazing.

JJP: Is every piece of charcuterie profitable?
JT: I think there’s no reason they shouldn’t be; I’ve never come across one that hasn’t [been]. Unless you spoil it, it should be profitable and significantly so.

JJP: What’s the biggest challenge to maintaining that margin?
JT: The biggest logistical challenge is just staying ahead. It’s really about thinking in advance about how much you’re going to use in six weeks. If you get behind, you can’t shrink your timeframe. It’s not going to go bad but you don’t want to have too much on hand.

JJP: Is putting charcuterie on the menu well fitted to the economic climate?
JT: I think so, and for two reasons: You can be very flexible with the pricing if you need to be, because you know your margins and there’s a lot of perceived value. People know there’s a lot of hand work and time involved. The other thing is that, right now, I think people are looking for a lot of comfort food. I think that salumi is the ultimate comfort food. There a lot of “food trends” right now but I think there’s one that never goes away and that’s the idea of handmade production—simple, ancestral foods that have a place and a story to be told. And it’s an easy story to tell. People are looking to get value for their money and obviously it’s about quantity and quality, but it’s also how interesting it this. What’s the story behind it? A plate of sliced cured meats and maybe some crusty bread by the fire, or a salami sandwich, or a plate of wet charcuterie is the greatest comfort food. And you can bring that to the guests in the dining room, too.

JJP: You said that sopressata was a constant on the menu. Do you always order a fixed quantity of it?
JT: No, and we have a lot of fun with that too because I’m always changing the size of it. The last one we did was all by hand and we stuffed it into beef bungs (casing). So it’s a bigger format salami. It’s basically the same ingredients but just in a different way. You get more of a mosaic look. That’s close to mortadella size and about five and a half inches in diameter. It has a six month aging time.

JJP: Where do you get the casings?
JT: I get most of them online from Butcher & Packer or The Sausage Maker. We get our cultures, molds, salts, and simple sugars from Butcher & Packer. It makes our life so much easier. It’s all very inexpensive.

JJP: How do the simple sugars come into play?
JT: We use dextrose and glucose and a couple other simple sugars. You really need to have them because they’ll help fermentation and make the process so much easier than if you use [a complex sugar like] sucrose.

JJP: At what point do you think you are going to go local with your meat supplier?
JT: We’re definitely moving towards the direction of ordering whole pigs and at that point we’re just going to have to be really intelligent about the pricing and tell a good story, and produce a really phenomenal product. That’s really the next logical step to improve what we’re doing—that is, to refine the product that we are bringing in. Now that we are at a point where we are very good at technique and making things happen it’s finding a fresher, better product. That’s where our program needs to go from there.

JJP: Is sourcing whole pigs going to remain as profitable as ordering separate cuts?
JT: I think the economics are hard on that because there’s so much additional labor involved. I also think you can charge more for some of the things you make out of it. The idea of breaking down a whole pig is a story to be told and you can build that into your price. Is it going to be more cost effective? Probably not. If you’re going to deal with whole animals, you’re going to be paying a fixed price and you’re going to be dealing with smaller producers who will charge a higher premium, as it should be. So I think from a strictly economical standpoint I don’t see how it could be more cost effective than the broken down Niman Ranch pork bellies. What we have to do is think ahead and have different outlets for it and build that premium into some dishes.

JJP: Do you have any health and safety tips?
JT: With salumi, it’s all about about pH. That’s what folks need to learn. That’s going to control your bacterial growth. For safety measures we don’t send out our charcuterie to be tested. Consistency in processing temperatures, watching your pH levels, having the right ratios, getting in fresh products—that, to me, is what you do to have a safe product. And don’t count on someone else to do your due diligence. I think that’s the chef’s responsibility. That and continually developing purveyor relationships so that you can trust your product.

JJP: Do you have any parting advice for chefs starting their own charcuterie programs?
JT: The most important thing a chef can do is read, find someone else who’s been doing it for a while, and do the basics: watch your pH, your salt and preservative ratios, and be smart about it. It’s no different than any food. If you bring in a fish five days before and hold it a room temperature, it’s not safe! There’s no different between these things. It’s really common sense

The Art and Economics of Charcuterie (From Star Chefs)

FROM STARCHEFS.COM

The Art and Economics of Charcuterie, Part 1: A Multi-Restaurant Operation with Chef Zach Allen of B&B Ristorante, Carnevino, and Enoteca San Marco

by Amanda McDougall and JJ Proville
March 2009

In house charcuterie programs have experienced exponential growth over the past two years. It is arguably the biggest and most far-reaching trend we’ve seen—bordering on an all out culinary movement. US Chefs are learning the craft—from old school/Old World techniques to more modern ones—and developing their own programs large and small.

With this in mind, we’ll be publishing a multi-part charcuterie series that looks at several different operations, but all run by chefs with a penchant for curing and aging all sorts of animal parts with a goal of bringing in some serious revenue for their restaurants.

Zach Allen and his Vegas salumi operation—not to mention his oversight of all of Batali’s dozen other restaurant salumi programs—is the first in this series of features (see below). The second in the series takes a look at how chef John Toulze of The Girl and The Fig (restaurant, café, and catering) and Estate works his brand of charcuterie into his two restaurants and catering operation. Seattle’s Adam Stevenson of Earth & Ocean at W Seattle is third in line, discussing his charcuterie program from a hotel chef perspective. The fourth piece goes small-scale with El Dorado Kitchen chef Justin Everett’s charcuterie on-a-shoestring.
Part 1: A Multi-Restaurant Operation
Charcuterie—or sausage-making at least—has been a part of chef Zach Allen’s life since childhood. His family had annual family sausage prep days to take them through the year with a steady supply of the encased ground meats. But it wasn’t until he was working at Batali’s Lupa in Manhattan that his childhood family past-time turned into a professional pursuit.

Allen has spent time with Armandino Batali, Mario Batali’s salumi-famous father, but he’s also done formal training at Iowa State University’s Meat Lab, taking one of their multi-day classes on the science (and safety) behind curing meats. He takes a hands-on approach to his salumi-making too, doing most of the work himself at the three Batali restaurants, and visiting the farms that produce the pigs he turns into cured, money-making magic.

Although Allen doesn’t skimp when it comes to paying for top-quality pork (in the neighborhood of $5.50 a pound, even!), he’s still able to bring in the profit for nearly every piece of coppa or testa that goes to a table. Allen pays top-dollar for his pork, no doubt, and the fact that he’s still making money on it is a statement in itself.

There’s intrinsic value to salumi for diners—especially as they become more and more familiar with it—but it’s especially valued when it’s made in-house and tastes as good as Allen’s. As Allen demonstrates, he can charge upward of $20 for a mere ounce and half to two ounces of product. Granted, you have to take into account the time put into each product (some require multiple brinings, rubs, and other fairly time-consuming manipulation), but in the end, it’s usually literally time (for curing) that can be the most costly aspect.

Every week no less than 1,500 pounds of pork is processed in Allen’s kitchens—it’s brined, cured, ground, stuffed, aged, and sometimes poached in beer (see his recipe for Liver Sausage). It’s a massive volume of meat to process and Allen is careful to balance the menus at the three restaurants and therefore what’s curing in his salumi walk-ins (that’s walk-ins—plural) with a range of items, some taking only a day to make (like pâté) while others cure for months (take his 9-month minimum aged culatello for example). Planning ahead is essential, especially when you have, like Allen, twenty salumi items going at a time and a half dozen in development and testing for three separate restaurants with different price points and menus.

But at the end of the day, it’s always worth the effort and the wait. In Allen’s own words, “if you look at the cost versus the price you sell it at, they all make money.”

Read the interview with Allen to learn more about how he handles his multi-restaurant salumi operation >>

Émile Zola and Charcuterie

"It [the charcuterie:] was almost on the corner of the Rue Pirouette and was a joy to behold. It was bright and inviting, with touches of brilliant colour standing out amidst white marble. The signboard, on which the name QUENU-GRADELLE glittered in fat gilt letter encircled by leaves and branches painted on a soft-hued background, was protected by a sheet of glass. On the two side panels of the shop front, similarly painted and under glass, were chubby little Cupids playing in the midst of boars' heads, pork chops, and strings of sausages; and these still lifes, adorned with scrolls and rosettes, had been designed in so pretty and tender a style that the raw meat lying there assumed the reddish tint of raspberry jam. Within this delightful frame, the window display was arranged. It was set out on a bed of fine shavings of blue paper; a few cleverly positioned fern leaves transformed some of the plates into bouquets of flowers fringed with foliage. There were vast quantities of rich, succulent things, things that melted in the mouth. Down below, quite close to the window, jars of rillettes were interspersed with pots of mustard. Above these were some boned hams, nicely rounded, golden with breadcrumbs, and adorned at the knuckles with green rosettes. Then came the larger dishes--stuffed Strasbourg tongues, with their red, varnished look, the colour of blood next to the pallor of the sausages and pigs' trotters; strings of black pudding coiled like harmless snakes; andouilles piled up in twos and bursting with health; saucissons in little silver copes that made them look like choristers; pies, hot from the oven, with little banner-like tickets stuck in them; big hams, and great cuts of veal and pork, whose jelly was as limpid as crystallized sugar. Towards the back were large tureens in which the meats and minces lay asleep in lakes of solidified fat. Strewn between the various plates and dishes, on the bed of blue shavings, were bottles of relish, sauce, and preserved truffles, pots of foie gras, and tins of sardines and tuna fish. A box of creamy cheeses and one full of snails stuffed with butter and parsley had been dropped in each corner. Finally, at the very top of the display, falling from a bar with sharp prongs, strings of sausages and saveloys hung down symmetrically like the cords and tassels of some opulent tapestry, while behind, threads of caul were stretched out like white lacework. There, on the highest tier of this temple of gluttony, amid the caul and between two bunches of purple gladioli, the alter display was crowned by a small, square fish tank with a little ornamental rockery, in which two goldfish swam in endless circles."
— Émile Zola

What the heck is this Charcuterie Things?

A number of people have been asking me what this charcuterie thing is that I do. I usually give a simple answer that it has to do with sausages, terrine, pate, galantine and the sort. However, I started to realize that they probably did not know what a terrine, pate or a galantine was either. So in the interest of education I thought I would post the Wikipedia article which I personally wrote a few weeks ago describing the different aspects of the craft. The article is not complete, it is missing items such as confit and I do not have specifics found in different cuisines, so check back soon and there should be some more info on there. The platter you see up to the right there is an example of a competition platter I did a couple years ago utilizing charcuterie skills. I hope everyone has a wonderful 4th of July.

Charcuterie, derived from the French words for flesh (chair) and cooked (cuit), is the branch of cooking devoted to prepared meat products such as bacon, ham, sausage, terrines, galantines, pâtés, and confit, primarily from pork.^[1] Charcuterie is part of the garde manger chef's repertoire. Originally intended as a way to preserve meats before the advent of refrigeration, these preparations are prepared today for their flavors that are derived from the preservation processes.^[2] Charcuterie in Italy is known as salumi.

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History

The Romans may be the first to have regulated the trade of charcuterie as they wrote laws regulating the proper production of pork joints; it was the French though, who raised the skill to an art. In 15th century France local guilds regulated tradesman in the food production industry in each city. The guilds that produced charcuterie were those of the charcutiers. The members of this guild produced a traditional range of cooked or salted and dried meats, which varied, sometimes distinctively, from region to region. The only "raw" meat the charcutiers were allowed to sell was unrendered lard. The charcutier prepared numerous items including pâtés, rillettes, sausages, bacon, trotters, and head cheese. These preservation methods ensured that meats would have a longer shelf-life.^[3]

Products created with forcemeats

Forcemeat is a mixture of ground, lean meat emulsified with fat. The emulsification can be accomplished by grinding, sieving, or pureeing the ingredients. The emulsification may either be smooth or coarse in texture, depending on the desired consistency of the final product. Forcemeats are used in the production of numerous items found in charcuterie. Proteins commonly used in the production of forcemeats include pork, fish (pike, trout, or salmon), seafood, game meats (venison, boar, or rabbit), poultry, game birds, veal, and pork livers. Pork fatback is often used for the fat portion of forcemeat as it has a somewhat neutral flavor.^[4]

In American usage, there are four basic styles of forcemeats. Straight forcemeats are produced by progressively grinding equal parts pork and pork fat with a third dominant meat which can be pork or another meat. The proteins are cubed and then seasoned, cured, rested, ground and then placed into desired vessel.^[4] Country-style forcemeats are a combination of pork, pork fat, often with the addition of pork liver and garnish ingredients. The finished product has a coarse texture.^[4] The third style is gratin which has a portion of the main protein browned; the French term gratin connotes a "grated" product that is browned.^[4]. The final style is mousseline which are very light in texture utilizing lean cuts of meat usually from veal, poultry, fish, or shellfish. The resulting texture comes from the addition of eggs and cream to this forcemeat.^[4]

Sausage

Derived through French from the Latin sal, "salt", sausage-making is a technique that involves placing ground or chopped meats along with salt into a tube. The tubes can vary, but the more common animal-derived tubes include sheep, hog, or cattle intestinal linings. Additionally, animal stomachs, bladders, as-well-as inedible casings produced from collagen, plant cellulose or paper are used. Not all casings are edible; inedible ones are primarily used to shape, store, and age the sausage.^[5] There are two main variants of sausage, fresh and cooked. Fresh sausages involve the production of raw meats placed into casings to be cooked at a later time, whereas cooked sausages are heated during production and are ready to eat at the end of production.^[6]

Emulsified sausage

Emulsified sausages are cooked sausages with a very fine texture, using the combination of pork, beef, or poultry with fat, salt, nitrate, flavorings and water. These items are emulsified at high-speed in a food processor or blender. During this process the salt dissolves the muscle proteins, which helps to suspend the fat molecules. Temperature is an important part of the process, if the temperature rises above 60 degrees for pork or 70 degrees for beef, the emulsification will not hold and fat will leak from the sausage during the cooking process.^[6]

Pâté, terrine, galantine, roulade

Pâté and terrines are often cooked in a pastry crust or a earthenware container. Both the earthenware container and the dish itself are called a terrine. Pâté and terrine are very similar: the term pâté often suggests a finer-textured forcemeat utilizing liver, while terrines are more often made of a coarser forcemeat. The meats are chopped or ground, along with heavy seasoning, which may include fat and other proteins. The seasoning is important for pâté and terrine as they will generally be served cold, as the seasoning must be increased as the flavors will be muted when cold.^[7]

The mixture is placed into a lined mold, covered and cooked in a water bath to control the temperature, which will keep the forcemeat from separating as the water bath slows the heating process of the terrine. Pâté and terrine are generally cooked to 160 degrees, while terrine made of foie gras are generally cooked to an internal temperature of 120 degrees. After the proper temperature is reached the terrine is removed from the oven and placed into a cooling unit topped with a weight to compact the contents of the terrine. Then it is allowed to rest for several days to allow the flavors to blend.^[7]

Galantine is a chilled production of poultry created after the French Revolution by the chef to the Marquis de Brancas. The term galant connotes urbane sophistication. Other origins are suggested: the older French word for chicken géline or galine or the word gelatin which sources suggest that the spelling of gelatin transformed into the words galentyne, galyntyne, galandyne, and galendine. The galantine is prepared by skinning and de-boning a chicken or other poultry. The skin is laid flat, with the pounded breast laid on top. A forcemeat is then placed on top of the pounded breast. The galantine is then rolled with the ends of the breast meeting one another. The galantine is then wrapped in cheesecloth and poached in poultry stock until the proper internal temperature is reached.^[8]

Roulade is similar to a galantine. There are two major differences, the first difference is that instead of rolling the poultry evenly for the ends of the breasts to meet, the bird is rolled into a pinwheel shape. The second difference is that when the roulade is cooled it is chilled after it has been removed from the poaching liquid.^[8]

Salt-cured and brined products

Salt serves four main purposes in the preservation of food in the charcuterie kitchen. The first is inducing osmosis: this process involves the movement of water outside of the cell membranes of the proteins, which in turn reabsorb the salted water back into the cell; this process assists in the destruction of harmful pathogens. The second is dehydration, which means that the salt pulls excess water from the protein, which aids in the shelf-life of the protein as there is less moisture present for bacteria to thrive in. Fermentation is the third, in which salt assists in halting the fermentation process in meat which would otherwise completely break it down. Finally, salt assists in denaturing proteins, which in essence means that the structure of the proteins are effectively shifted, similar to the effects of cooking.^[9]

Before the discovery of nitrates and nitrites by German chemists around 1900, curing was done with unrefined salt and saltpeter (potassium nitrate). As saltpeter gives inconsistent results, and has been outlawed in the United States for culinary uses since 1975, nitrate and nitrates have increased in popularity for their consistent results. Nitrates take a considerably longer period of time to break down in cured foods than nitrites; because of this fact nitrates are the preferred curing salts for lengthy curing and drying periods. Nitrites are often used in foods that require a shorter curing time and are used for any item that will be fully cooked.^[10] Eventually a portion of the nitrates will break down into nitrites.^[11]

Nitrite has multiple purposes in the curing process. One purpose is flavor, the nitrites give a sharp, piquant flavor to the meat. Secondly the nitrites react with the meat molecules to produce nitric oxide. In producing nitric oxide the iron becomes incapable of breaking down the fat in the meat, thus halting rancidity. The binding also creates the characteristic reddish color found in most cured meats. Finally the nitrite inhibits the growth of botulism which would ordinarily thrive in the oxygen-deprived environment in the sausage casing. German scientists originally named botulism poisoning Wurstvergiftung or "sausage disease". The term botulism derives its name from the Latin term for sausage.^[12]

Nitrates and nitrites have been noted to react with one another and form nitrosamines which are known to cause cancer. Recent research has proven this risk to be minimal, but regulations in the United States limit residual nitrates and nitrites to 200 parts per million (0.02%) as a cautionary measure.^[12]

Curing salt blends

There are two main types of curing salt mixtures used by the charcutier. The first is known by multiple names, including "tinted cure mix", "pink cure", "prague powder", or "insta-cure #1". The mixture is 94 percent sodium chloride and 6 percent sodium nitrate. When used, the recommended amount is a ratio of 4oz/113g for each 100lb/45.36kg of meat or 4 percent of the total weight of the meat. This blend is colored bright pink to keep the charcutier from confusing the mixture with regular salt.^[13]

The second curing salt blend is called "prague powder II" or "insta-cure #2". Also colored pink to differentiate it from table salt, this blend is produced from salt, sodium nitrite, and sodium nitrate. This mixture is used for dry-sausages that require a longer drying period which requires the presence of nitrate.^[13]

Seasoning and flavoring agents

Sweeteners and other flavoring agents are necessary in the production of many cured products due to the harsh flavors of the curing salts. A number of sweeteners can be used in curing foods, including dextrose, sugar, corn syrup, honey, and maple syrup. Dextrose is seen often in cured meats as it not only mellows the harshness, but it also increases the moisture content of the cured product while not adding a sweet flavor to the cured meat. The sweeteners also assist in stabilizing the colors in meats and it also helps the fermentation process by giving a nutrient to the bacteria.^[14]

Numerous spices and herbs are used in the curing process to assist with the flavor of the final product. The sweet spices regularly used include cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, mace, and cardamom. Other flavoring agents may include dried and fresh chilies, wine, fruit juice, or vinegar.^[14]

Fermented sausage

Fermented sausage are created by salting chopped or grounds meats to remove moisture, while allowing beneficial bacteria to break down mild flavored proteins into highly aromatic and flavorful molecules. Bacteria, including Lactobacilli and Leuconostoc, break down these protein molecules and create lactic acid which not only affects the flavor of the sausage, but also lowers the pH from 6 to 4.5-5, making the environment less suitable to bacteria that may spoil the sausage. The effects are magnified during the drying process, as the salt and acidity are concentrated as the moisture is extracted.^[15]

The ingredients found in a fermented sausage include meat, fat, bacterial culture, salt, spices, sugar and nitrate. Nitrate must be added to fermented sausages to stop the formation of botulism bacteria. The sugar is added to aid the bacterial culture in the production of lactic acid during the 18-hour to three-day fermentation process, the time depending on the temperature in which the sausage is stored at: the lower the temperature, the longer the fermentation period. A white mold and yeast normally adheres to the outside of the sausage during the drying process. This mold adds to the flavor of the sausage but also aids in preventing harmful bacteria attaching itself to the drying sausage.^[15]

There are two main types of fermented sausage. The first would be the dry, salted, spiced sausages found in the warmer climates of the Mediterranean in countries such as Italy, Spain, and Portugal. As these sausages contain 25-35% water and more than 4% salt, they may be stored at room temperature. The sausages of northern Europe are usually contain less salt, usually around 3% , 40-50% water and as such do not dry well in the humid climate of countries like Germany.^[15]

Charcuterie: Preserving a Classical Skill

One of my favorite parts of classical French cooking is the preparation of garde manger items. Specifically I love pates, terrines, rillettes, sausages and other similar items which are more specifically considered charcuterie. I go through phases of what I like to prepare depending on the time of year and other outside influences, such as seeing fresh product used to make such items. During the summer I tend to lean toward seafood and poultry items, while the fall and winter tends to bring forth heavier pork preparations along with turkey and game meats.

Many of these items were originally prepared as a way of preserving food longer or using pieces of the animal that there was little other usage for. Today we have such access to ingredients that not only do we get to utilize ancillary proteins in our kitchens, but we can use just about any flavor combination we desire, as long as it is tasty.

Seeing as we are in summer, I will share a recipe for a Trout Galantine with Dilled, Smoked Trout Forcemeat.

Trout Galantine with Dilled, Smoked Trout Forcemeat
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon butter
2 oz. onion, minced
3 oz. smoked trout fillet, skinned, chopped coarsely
3 oz. trout fillet, skinned, chopped coarsely
2 slices white bread, crust removed
1 egg white
1.5 tablespoon light cream
pinch of salt, ground white pepper, nutmeg and dry mustard
1/2 cup whipping cream
1 teaspoon fresh dill, minced
7 trout fillets, skinned, 3oz. each
Enough fish broth to submerge galantine in poaching vessal

Method:
1. Melt butter in a medium saute pan over medium/high heat and onions and cook until soft, but do allow to color, remove from pan and allow to cool.
2. Place smoked and fresh chopped trout into a large bowl, top with the sauteed onion and bread. Top egg white and cream to moisten bread and top with salt, white pepper, nutmeg and dry mustard. Place in cooler and chill for at least 1 hour.
3. Grind all chilled ingredients through the finest die of a meat grinder. Sieve through a drum sieve or strainer into a bowl over ice.
4. Mix ground forcemeat with whipping cream over iced bowl and then fold in dill.
5. Place trout fillets down on a layer of plastic wrap making sure they touch one another with the skin side up. Completely cover fillets with trout forcemeat. Once covered, roll the covered trout fillets into a log to create the galantine. Roll galantine in plastic wrap or cheese cloth as tightly as possible and tie the ends tightly with butchers twine.
6. Chill galantine while warming fish broth t0 175 degrees. Once at the proper temperature, submerge galantine in broth and poach for 30 minutes or until an internal temperature of 140 degrees is reached. Remove pan from heat, add 8 oz of ice cubes to poaching liquid and chill the galantine inside poaching vessel for 6-8 hours or until fully chilled.
7. Remove galantine from poaching liquid, unwrap and slice as desired. Serve with a dill or tarragon infused mayonnaise and a light salad as a first course or a light luncheon.

I have quite a large library of books on garde manger. Any chef would do well to have many of these in their repertoire, but any home cook with some practice can make any of these items as well. The most important part of attaining the ingredients for charcuterie and other garde manger items is to assure that the items are of the utmost freshness. So with that, I give you a list of suggested books for you to work on your own garde manger and charcuterie skills.

Book List
Garde Manger: The Art and Craft of the Cold Kitchen by The Culinary Institute of America.
Third edition is due out January 3rd 2008

The Professional Chef's Art of Garde Manger by Frederic H. Sonnenschmidt.
Chef Sonnenschmidt is a walking reference book and classical practitioner of the craft, this was my textbook in culinary school.

The Professional Garde Manger: A Guide to the Art of the Buffet by David Paul Larousse .
Another textbook style book, good writing

Modern Garde Manger by Robert B Garlough, Angus Campbell.
Winner of the International Association of Culinary Professionals cookbook award in the food reference/technical category.

Professional Charcuterie: Sausage Making, Curing, Terrines, and Pâtés by John Kinsella and David T. Harvey.
An absolute favorite of mine, especially for the sausage recipes.

Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing by Michael Ruhlman (Author), Brian Polcyn (Author), Thomas Keller (Foreword).
Aimed more at the home cook, this is a great book, and makes the topic very non-intimidating.

Pates and Terrines by Edouard Lonque (Author), Michael Raffael (Author), Frank Wesel (Author), Friedrich W. Ehlert (Editor).
An excellent book, one of my favorites. Very classical type recipes, this book is out of print, so it is slightly more pricey.

Kochkunst in Bildern 6: International Exhibition for Culinary Art 2000 (International Exhibition for Culinary Art) by International Exhibition for Culinary Art .
This is one of the books from the culinary Olympics that takes place every four years in Germany. This is one of my favorite editions, it is a book of pictures of competition garde manger platters and it is very inspirational for new ideas.

The Butcher Shop

The Butcher Shop in Boston is one of Barbara Lynch's smaller project restaurants which features French and Italian styles of cookery. For those of you unfamiliar with Barbara Lynch, she is of No. 9 Park fame. In addition to these restaurants she also owns B&G Oysters LTD., Plum Produce, as-well-as a specialty bookstore named Stir. The chef de cuisine for The Butcher Shop is Greg Reeves, a graduate of the University of New Hampshire and The Cambridge School of Culinary Arts..

The Butcher Shop is located at 552 Tremont st. in Boston in the historic South End of Boston. The restaurant accepts reservations, but the reservations are limited only to groups of six or more. Much of the reason behind this limited reservation policy is the size of the restaurant. Seating is limited to a handful of high-top table, perhaps six or maybe a couple more, that seat four or more when pushed together. The black soap-stone bar is a great place to sit as well, extremely comfortable and service is just as comfortable at a table or at the bar. Late night drinkers can also stand around the large butcher table with their drinks. There is no dress code as the restaurant is very informal, with the feeling of a small brassarie.

The dining room is decorated to feel like an actual butcher shop, which it actually is during the day toward the back of the dining room. The room is somewhat narrow, but spacious enough for people to walk back and forth as needed. The outside wall is a wall of windows which traverse the length of the wall as-well-as its height which matches the high ceiling of the room. The other walls are chalk-boards which are used for the butcher in back and behind the bar which illustrates new wine specials. The far back wall is a bank of reach-in coolers that hold the wares of the on-site butcher. Service is impeccable no matter where you sit or what time of day you go. The servers all know the menu well and know the wine list just as well. They can help with suggestions and are more than happy to assist the diner with any questions without making you feel inferior.

The menu which changes daily features many classical French items such as charcuterie, steak tartare, Antipasti della Casa, home-made hot dog and other traditional items. The rest of the menu changes often and features seasonal ingredients. One of the many nights I have dined there they featured an heirloom tomato salad with shaved onions and parmigiano reggiano which is hard to go wrong with, I have also had a salad of thin white French asparagus dressed with truffle oil and spring onions which was wonderful. I have probably had their charcuterie at least half a dozen times and each time it is completely different and each time it is one of the best I have ever had.

The steak tartare is made very traditionally and served with some of the best toasted brioche I have ever had. The only dish I have had here that I was not one hundred percent satisfied with was the cassoulet. I was excited to see that it was made with the traditional Tarbais beans and the items added to it were appropriate, but the flavors were not melded from the meats and beans and the beans were a bit under-done. Someday I'll find a restaurant who gets that dish correct. I would have to say that any choice off the menu normally is without a doubt made close to perfection.

The wine list is extremely eclectic with many choices that you won't find at other restaurants or even in your local wine shop. Buying power from the multiple restaurants surely helps the wine directors for Barbaba Lynch's restaurants. In addition the restaurant's cheese program is increadible. They feature a large selection of cheeses to choose from and the selection changes often as to what is available. Most of their cheese comes from Formaggio Kitchen which is one of the top purveyors of cheese in the country.

During the day there is a full-service butcher available on premise. Meats that I have observed have been strip loin, rib-eye, hanger steak, foie gras, rabbit and others. In addition they sell many different in-house made charcuterie items such as mortadella, soppresatta, rillettes, terrine and many other items by the lb. or less or even more if desired. They also offer some pre-cooked items, depending on the season. In addition they sell many specialty items such as quail eggs and other items. You can also pick up fresh baked bread here daily in addition to many pickled items, oils and vinegars. The butcher is very knowledgeable and can help you make any decisions on your purchases and can also make suggestions on what to do with items.

Lunch is available 11am - 3:30pm each day with a slightly smaller menu than at night.
Dinner is available sunday & monday from 4:30 pm - 10 pm. and available tuesday - saturday from 4:30 pm - 11 pm.
Brunch is available on Saturday & Sunday from 11am - 3:30pm
The Butcher is available Monday-Saturday from 11am - 8pm / Sunday until 5 pm.
Wine Bar open daily until 12am / Sunday and Monday until 11 pm.

Average meal price $40.00+/person including glass of wine

Address: 552 Tremont St. Boston, MA

Phone: tel: 617.423.4800

email: info@thebutchershopboston.com

Valet parking available after 5pm for $16 per car.

Charcuterie: Preserving a Classical Skill

One of my favorite parts of classical French cooking is the preparation of garde manger items. Specifically I love pates, terrines, rillettes, sausages and other similar items which are more specifically considered charcuterie. I go through phases of what I like to prepare depending on the time of year and other outside influences, such as seeing fresh product used to make such items. During the summer I tend to lean toward seafood and poultry items, while the fall and winter tends to bring forth heavier pork preparations along with turkey and game meats.

Many of these items were originally prepared as a way of preserving food longer or using pieces of the animal that there was little other usage for. Today we have such access to ingredients that not only do we get to utilize ancillary proteins in our kitchens, but we can use just about any flavor combination we desire, as long as it is tasty.

Seeing as we are still at the end of the summer, I will share a recipe for a Trout Galantine with Dilled, Smoked Trout Forcemeat.

Trout Galantine with Dilled, Smoked Trout Forcemeat
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon butter
2 oz. onion, minced
3 oz. smoked trout fillet, skinned, chopped coarsely
3 oz. trout fillet, skinned, chopped coarsely
2 slices white bread, crust removed
1 egg white
1.5 tablespoon light cream
pinch of salt, ground white pepper, nutmeg and dry mustard
1/2 cup whipping cream
1 teaspoon fresh dill, minced
7 trout fillets, skinned, 3oz. each
Enough fish broth to submerge galantine in poaching vessal

Method:
1. Melt butter in a medium saute pan over medium/high heat and onions and cook until soft, but do allow to color, remove from pan and allow to cool.
2. Place smoked and fresh chopped trout into a large bowl, top with the sauteed onion and bread. Top egg white and cream to moisten bread and top with salt, white pepper, nutmeg and dry mustard. Place in cooler and chill for at least 1 hour.
3. Grind all chilled ingredients through the finest die of a meat grinder. Sieve through a drum sieve or strainer into a bowl over ice.
4. Mix ground forcemeat with whipping cream over iced bowl and then fold in dill.
5. Place trout fillets down on a layer of plastic wrap making sure they touch one another with the skin side up. Completely cover fillets with trout forcemeat. Once covered, roll the covered trout fillets into a log to create the galantine. Roll galantine in plastic wrap or cheese cloth as tightly as possible and tie the ends tightly with butchers twine.
6. Chill galantine while warming fish broth t0 175 degrees. Once at the proper temperature, submerge galantine in broth and poach for 30 minutes or until an internal temperature of 140 degrees is reached. Remove pan from heat, add 8 oz of ice cubes to poaching liquid and chill the galantine inside poaching vessel for 6-8 hours or until fully chilled.
7. Remove galantine from poaching liquid, unwrap and slice as desired. Serve with a dill or tarragon infused mayonnaise and a light salad as a first course or a light luncheon.

I have quite a large library of books on garde manger. Any chef would do well to have many of these in their repertoire, but any home cook with some practice can make any of these items as well. The most important part of attaining the ingredients for charcuterie and other garde manger items is to assure that the items are of the utmost freshness. So with that, I give you a list of suggested books for you to work on your own garde manger and charcuterie skills.

Book List
Garde Manger: The Art and Craft of the Cold Kitchen by The Culinary Institute of America.
Third edition is due out January 3rd 2008

The Professional Chef's Art of Garde Manger by Frederic H. Sonnenschmidt.
Chef Sonnenschmidt is a walking reference book and classical practitioner of the craft, this was my textbook in culinary school.

The Professional Garde Manger: A Guide to the Art of the Buffet by David Paul Larousse .
Another textbook style book, good writing

Modern Garde Manger by Robert B Garlough, Angus Campbell.
Winner of the International Association of Culinary Professionals cookbook award in the food reference/technical category.

Professional Charcuterie: Sausage Making, Curing, Terrines, and Pâtés by John Kinsella and David T. Harvey.
An absolute favorite of mine, especially for the sausage recipes.

Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing by Michael Ruhlman (Author), Brian Polcyn (Author), Thomas Keller (Foreword).
Aimed more at the home cook, this is a great book, and makes the topic very non-intimidating.

Pates and Terrines by Edouard Lonque (Author), Michael Raffael (Author), Frank Wesel (Author), Friedrich W. Ehlert (Editor).
An excellent book, one of my favorites. Very classical type recipes, this book is out of print, so it is slightly more pricey.

Kochkunst in Bildern 6: International Exhibition for Culinary Art 2000 (International Exhibition for Culinary Art) by International Exhibition for Culinary Art .
This is one of the books from the culinary Olympics that takes place every four years in Germany. This is one of my favorite editions, it is a book of pictures of competition garde manger platters and it is very inspirational for new ideas.