Steve Williams
Next Level Charcuterie
- Regular price
- £135.00
- Sale price
- £135.00
- Regular price
-
Tax included.
River Cottage alumni and top artisan charcutier Steve Williams will take your charcuterie skills to the next level.
This is the ideal follow up to the Introductory River Cottage Charcuterie at Home course, for everyone who wants to grow their skills to produce charcuterie at an advanced level. This could include professional chefs and butchers, small holders and meat producers who are looking to craft artisan charcuterie and smoked meats for sale to the public.
Ideally you will already have some knowledge of butchery (especially pork butchery), but there will be an overview of the key cuts throughout the course.
Steve will explain all the key elements of small-scale commercial charcuterie production. On this course, you’ll learn about sourcing the right pigs and achieving carcass balance.
He’ll take you step-by-step through making a variety of cured meats such as coppa, speck, pancetta, guanciale, lomo/lonzo, dried hams or culatello to a professional standard and scale.
Steve will also guide you through the professional equipment you need to get started, including smokers and drying chambers.
He’ll give you guidance on testing your products and environment to meet the standards needed for professional charcuterie creation.
Steve will also teach you how to use hot and cold smoking techniques to create things like: bresaola, pastrami, salt beef and venison ham.
You'll learn:
- equipment your'll need to create professional charcuterie
- how to source sustainable meat for your cured meats
- curing and brining
- choosing cases for sausages
- smoking meats and choosing hot and cold smokers and equipment
The course includes:
- 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 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
Independent Cookery Schools Association approved
This course has been approved by the Independent Cookery Schools Association (ICSA), recognising the highest standards of training.
Time to complete the next level charcuterie course:
Every student is different but in general we think the whole course will take around 15 hours to complete including:
- Video lessons: 3 hours in total
- Course notes: 30 minutes per lesson
- Your gut health recipe assignments: at least 2 hours per lesson
- Interactive classroom time: 15 minutes per lesson
- Tutor feedback review (Expert level): 15 minutes per lesson
You'll need:
Your lesson notes will include the full details of the ingredients you'll need, but you will be making charcuterie so you'll need standard kitchen equipment.
Ready to get started?
Just add the course to your basket above - choose the 'Expert' option for personal feedback from Steve on your charcuterie assignments.
If you know someone who'd love this course then give it as a gift - just tick "This is a gift" at the checkout.
Any questions? Contact us by clicking on the orange speech symbol - we'd love to hear from you.
Lessons
What You’ll Learn
Explore the lessons and topics covered across the course.
In this lesson, Steve will teach you how to source the best pork – not only for quality but also which cuts you need to make professional quality charcuterie in the most sustainable and natural way.
Steve discusses different breeds and slow-bred pigs. He also looks at all the different cuts and what can be produced to maximise margin on the pig and to balance carcass. He’ll also advises on working with other producers to get non-prime cuts or buying in collars or by products from bacon producers.
Steve then covers butchery for charcuterie production. You’ll learn to work with a whole (split) pig and head for this course. Steve will show you how to cut the primals off the side of pork, as well as how to harvest these cuts – Coppa, Spec from shoulder, Lomo, Pancetta (rolled), tenderloin, chump, and Culatello.
Steve looks at the different types of curing salt and options available. PDV Salt, Sea Salt, Continental curing salt, salami curing salt, prague powders and salt petre. He discusses pre-mixes and training staff to cure without making mistakes.
To round this extensive lesson off, Steve tackles equipment, demonstrating what you need for commercial charcuterie making.
Steve will take you through the various types of cures in this lesson, including commercial cure mixes, rough curing and the 3% cure method.
He discusses both types of curing for traditional charcuterie and continental style charcuterie. He then looks at the 3% dry cure method, as well as an EQ curing method and brines.
Steve then shows you how to make up a dry cure mix for the Coppa, Lomo, Pancetta, Culatello, and Guanciale.
A key aspect to making your own cured meats evolves around casings for sausage, salami and whole muscle meats. Steve looks at the different options and formats for production.
You’ll then learn how to removing meat from cure, wash, wrap and hang the charcuterie from previous lessons.
Steve will walk you through making chorizo and fermented sausage.
You’ll use your casing skills to house chorizo into a hog casing, salami into a fibre casing.
Steve will show you how to tie, label and hang the sausages in fermenter, while discussing the fermentation process and hanging up of these meats.
Steve will delve into the pros and cons of hot vs cold smoking. He looks at smoking equipment.
You’ll learn how to cold smoke chorizo and hot smoke pastrami.
Learning options
Choose How You Want to Learn
Recommended
Expert
£135.00
A guided learning experience with expert support, feedback and recognised outcomes.
Peer
£45.00
Learn alongside others with a collaborative, flexible learning experience.
COURSE TUTOR
Steve Williams
SUCCESS
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Common Questions
Answers to the most common questions about learning with us.
Our online classroom is designed to help you learn from experts in a collaborative, social environment alongside a small group of learners.
Each lesson combines expert-led videos with optional assignments, giving you the opportunity to apply what you’ve learned and share your work with others. You can take part in ongoing discussions, ask questions, exchange feedback, and learn from a community of like-minded people from around the world.
By learning together in a small, supportive group, you benefit not only from expert guidance but also from shared ideas, perspectives, and experiences—helping you stay engaged and retain what you learn.
You can start your course at any time within 12 months of purchase. Once you begin, you’ll have lifetime access, so you can revisit lesson videos and notes whenever you like.
Courses are designed to fit around your schedule, allowing you to learn at your own pace. Each lesson video is typically 30–40 minutes, and we recommend around an hour for each assignment.
Both Peer and Expert options give you full access to the course content, including lesson videos, downloadable notes, assignments, and a collaborative online classroom with up to 20 learners. You’ll also have lifetime access to revisit the material at any time.
The Expert option includes everything in Peer, plus personalised assignment feedback, direct messaging with your expert tutor, and a certificate of completion.
With the Expert option, you can interact directly with your tutor throughout the course. You’ll typically have one week per lesson to ask questions and receive feedback on your assignments, with as much interaction as you need during that time.
Your tutor access begins when you enter the classroom and follows the course schedule (for example, a four-lesson course usually runs over four weeks). If you need more time or support, our team is here to help.