Home Production of Quality Meats and Sausages

by Stanley Marianski, Adam Marianski

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 "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."

Genres: Cookbooks, Food, Cooking, Reference

708 pages, Paperback

First published April 9, 2010

About the author

Stanley Marianski, born in Poland, left the country at the age of twenty to start his never ending voyages that took him to countries like South Africa, Argentina, Chile, The Caribbean, and all of Europe, before finally settling down in 1979 in the USA. Such a lifestyle helped him master six languages and also learn a variety of methods of food preperation. One passion remained with him throughout his travels-the art of smoking meats and sausages, a skill he had learned as a child from his parents. With his sons Adam and Robert, they run the highly popular web site www.wedlinydomowe.com dedicated to smoking meats and making sausages.

Reviews

[Curtis]

This isn't really a reading book, but I did read most of the text and skimmed some of the recipes. It's more of a reference book. One thing I like about this book is that it focuses on technique and understanding the various processes and what they do.

One helpful thing for someone just starting out is to understand there are really only a few main categories of cured meats. For instance, Virginia Ham = Serrano/Iberico ham (Spain) = Proscuitto (Italy), etc. Obviously huge variations in the hogs used, optional brine/cure ingredients, dry vs. wet curing, etc. But all hams. Similarly, there are a bunch of garlic sausages for instance; they just have different names in different countries. Still mostly the same ingredients with minor variations.

This is a huge takeaway from the book because it forces you to focus on the important stuff, like sanitation, process, using the best ingredients you can and understanding chemically what is happening at various stages.

[Henry Rincon · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5

This is not a beginner's book. You need previous knowledge about food and meat science. What makes it valuable is that You learn to make sausages at home but with high safety standards. You learn to see recipes in a deeper way, so that you can modify and create ones with confidence. Not easy reading mainly at the first 10 chapters.

[Dale · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is the "how to" of all sausage books. The best of the several books i've read on teh topic.

[Stephen Simpson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marianski definitely knows his "stuff", and this is an incredibly thorough guide to sausage-making. It's not the "only book you'll ever need" on the subject, as Ruhlman's charcuterie book has a lot to offer, but this is excellent. If you're going to make sausages, you need to have this one on the shelf.

[Rob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best of its kind.