Next Level Charcuterie

Course outline

• Sourcing pork and equipment for professional charcuterie

  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.

• Curing – Dry cure, brining and EQ cures

  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 River Cottage free style curing of bacon as well as 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, Speck, Lomo, Pancetta, Chump, Culatello, Gunachalle.

  You’ll learn to harvest the trim and fat to make a batch for Salami, Chorizo and Nduja.

• Cases - options and sourcing

  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 and nduja into 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.

• Other meats and smoking

  Steve will delve into the pros and cons of hot vs cold smoking. He looks at smoking equipment and will show you how to make your own smoker.

  Looking at cold smokers and safety of temperature, you’ll learn how to cold smoke ham and cured sausages.

  In this lesson, Steve also covers Salt Beef and Corned Beef, before demonstrating how to cure and Hot Smoked Pastrami.