Home Production of Quality Meats and Sausages

Book excerpt: There has been a need for a comprehensive one-volume reference on the manufacture of meats and sausages at home. There are many cookbooks loaded with recipes which do not build any foundation for the serious hobbyist to follow. This leaves him with little understanding of the sausage making process and afraid to introduce his own ideas. There are professional books that are written for meat plant managers or graduate students, unfortunately, these works are written in such difficult technical terms, that most of them are beyond the comprehension of an average person. Home Production of Quality Meats and Sausages bridges the gap that exists between highly technical textbooks and the requirements of the typical hobbyist. In order to simplify this gap to the absolute minimum, technical terms were substituted with their equivalent but simpler terms and many photographs, drawings and tables were included. The book covers topics such as curing and making brines, smoking meats and sausages, U.S. Standards, making fresh, smoked, emulsified, fermented and air dried products, making special sausages such as head cheeses, blood and liver sausages, low salt, low fat and Kosher products, hams, bacon, butts and loins, poultry, fish and game, creating your own recipes and much more... To get the reader started 172 recipes are provided which were chosen for their originality and historical value. They carry an enormous value as a study material and as a valuable resource on making meat products and sausages. Although recipes play an important role in these products, it is the process that ultimately decides the sausage quality. It is perfectly clear that the authors don't want the reader to copy the recipes only: "We want him to understand the sausage making process and we want him to create his own recipes. We want him to be the sausage maker."