Learning with Experts

Charcuterie at Home

£45 £27 Save 40%
Level: Peer






What’s the difference between Peer and Expert levels?

Both Peer and Expert levels provide:

  • Video lessons led by an expert tutor
  • Downloadable lesson notes
  • Practice assignments
  • Group learning in a 20-student online classroom
  • Lifetime access to videos, notes, and classroom

The Expert level additionally includes:

  • Personalized feedback and coaching from your tutor
  • Private messaging with your tutor
  • Certificate of completion
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Level: Peer

Course overview

Artisan charcutier Steve Williams teaches you how to create charcuterie including cured, smoked and dried meats at home.

You'll start with looking at the equipment you need, before learning how to butcher a pig ready to create charcuterie. Steve will then show you how to brine and dry cure your pork cuts. You'll learn how to choose which brine to use and you'll start creating your first charcuterie alongside Steve.

As you go through the course you'll learn how to make coppa ham, fermented sausages, and how to smoke venison and chicken. The final lesson shows you how to use your BBQ for hot smoking your meat and how to make a cold smoker.

What will you learn?

  • basic butchery and preparing a whole pig for charcuterie
  • brining and dry curing
  • casing options for sausages
  • how to hang meat and measure when it's ready to eat
  • hot smoking using a BBQ
  • how to cold smoke food

What is included?

  • 4 on-demand video lessons - presented by Steve Williams and River Cottage
  • lifetime access to the videos, notes and interactive class
  • flexible classes - join and learn when and where you like
  • downloadable lesson notes
  • practical charcuterie and smoked food assignments and recipes (with tutor feedback available)
  • access on your mobile, PC, Mac or laptop
  • small interactive online classroom - chat online to students from around the world and share your creative ideas

How long will it take to complete?

Every student is different but in general we think the whole course will take around 14 hours 15 minutes to complete including:

  • Video lessons: 2 hours 15 minutes in total
  • Course notes: 30 minutes per lesson
  • Your charcuterie and smoked food recipe assignments: at least 2 hours per lesson
  • Interactive classroom time: 15 minutes per lesson
  • Tutor feedback review (Expert level): 15 minutes per lesson

What will you need?

Your lesson notes will include the full details of the ingredients and equipment you'll need, but you will be making charcuterie and smoked food, so you'll need standard kitchen equipment.

Independent Cookery Schools Association approved
This course has been approved by the Independent Cookery Schools Association (ICSA), recognising the highest standards of training.

Lesson summary

Basic butchery
Steve will show you how to prepare a pig for your charcuterie. You'll learn what equipment you'll need to make charcuterie, smoke and cure meats at home and where to source the equipment, along with Steve's recommendations for sourcing meat. You'll be preparing cuts of the meat ready to cure, dry and smoke in the next lessons.
Brining & Dry curing
This lesson will give you an overview of brines and brining. Including how to make and store your own brine at home. You'll also learn the difference between brining and dry curing. You'll start to apply these techniques to the pork cuts you made in lesson 1.
Bacon & sausages
In this lesson you'll be learning to turn your pork meat into salami and chorizo. You'll look at casing options, how to mince your meat and the back fat from the pork and how to create incredible fermented sausages. Steve will show you how to hang your meat, track the meat's weight-loss as it dries and how to know when it's ready to taste.
Hot & Cold smoking
Steve will show you how to use a BBQ for hot smoking, and a cold smoker you can re-create at home. You'll learn a quick smoking recipe for chicken and venison.

Choose how you want to learn

Expert-level

Develop your learning further with marked assignments and personal tuition:

  • Start the course whenever you like
  • Tutor access for personalised assignment feedback & coaching
  • Certificate of completion and CPD learning hours
  • Online classroom with up to 20 classmates
  • Lessons with expert videos & notes
  • Group chat & direct message with tutor & classmates
  • Lifetime access to videos, notes & classroom

Peer-level

Get the most from shared knowledge and community study:

  • Start course whenever you like
  • Practise what you learn with your peers
  • Online classroom with up to 20 classmates
  • Lessons with videos & notes
  • Course assignments
  • Group chat & direct message classmates
  • Lifetime access to videos, notes & classroom
Avatar of Steve Williams

meet the expert

Steve Williams

One of the UK's most revered charcuterie makers.

Read more

Why choose Learning with Experts?

Start whenever it suits you, and immerse yourself in motivational lesson tutorials with expert guidance.
Enhance your learning and personal growth with lesson assignments. Each course includes an optional assignment at the end of every lesson.
Drop a friendly message or respond to your assignment feedback. Our world-class experts are just a click away, ready to help you!
Stay informed about your own progress and those of your peers, and take joy in celebrating achievements along the way.
Chat and share ideas with passionate communities of learners from around the world.

Frequently asked questions

What’s the difference between PEER and EXPERT levels?

At Peer and Expert level, you get access to the same core content and features:

  • Video lesson tutorials led by your expert tutor
  • Downloadable lesson notes
  • Option to practise what you learn with lesson assignments
  • Group learning within an online interactive classroom of up to 20 classmates
  • Lifetime access to videos, notes and classroom

If you choose Expert level, you get all of the above plus the following:

  • Personalised assignment feedback and coaching from your expert tutor
  • Opportunity to interact with your expert tutor through a private messaging system
  • Certificate of completion.
What is an online classroom?

Our online classroom has been developed to allow you to learn from our experts in a sociable environment alongside up to 20 other students. After each video tutorial led by your expert, you will be encouraged to practice what you have learned with optional assignments - these can be seen by the other students in your class, who are free to share their own thoughts and questions with you.

You will be encouraged to take part in an ongoing class discussion where you can discuss ideas, post images or work, and comment on each other’s assignments. It’s a great way to learn from other like-minded people who share your passion from all over the world.

This means not only do you benefit from people who are outstanding in their field, but also from a close-knit group of like-minded people whom you can learn alongside. Group learning has shown to greatly improve not just the experience of studying, but also how well you retain the knowledge, and we have built our classroom experience around this fact.

When can I start my course and how long will it take?

You can start your course any time within 12 months after receipt of your purchase confirmation email. Once you start, you’ll have lifetime access — meaning you can revisit the lesson videos and notes whenever you want.

Our courses are designed so that you can study at your own pace, some prefer to binge learn while others like to spread their studying over a longer period of time - it’s completely up to you. To give you a rough time frame, each lesson video is approximately 30-40 minutes long, and we recommend that you spend around an hour on each assignment.

How often can I speak with the Expert?

If you opt for the Expert version of your course, the time you have to interact with your tutor is limited to course length. You will have one week per lesson to chat to your tutor and to have your assignments marked, and during this period you can ask them as many questions as you would like.

To find out the length of each course, head to the product page and look at the Course outline to see how many lessons it contains. e.g. a four lesson course assumes that you will have completed the assignments within four weeks.

Your tutor interaction period will start as soon as you enter the classroom. If you find that you are struggling to complete the assignments in the allocated time or you wish to put this function on hold, just get in contact with one of the team via the support button and we will help you out.

Support and full FAQs

If you need any help with a course, be it one you’ve started already, or one you are looking to purchase, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our Support email address, or view the full FAQ’s here.

You can also use the orange speech bubble on your page to start a conversation with us.

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Awards and accreditations