Charcuterie

Charcuterie is the craft of preparing meat, mostly pork, so it keeps: by salting, curing, smoking, drying or cooking it in fat. The word also means the products themselves, such as ham, salami, sausage, pâté, terrine and rillettes. Today it most often means a board of these meats served with bread and pickles.

How to use it

To build a board for a starter, plan about 50 to 75 g (2 to 3 oz) of meat per person. Double that if the board is the meal.

1. Choose three to five meats with different textures: one whole-muscle cured meat (such as dry-cured ham), one salami, and one soft spread (pâté or rillettes).
2. Slice whole salami just before serving, and fold or ripple thin slices of ham so they are easy to pick up.
3. Add something sharp to cut the fat: cornichons, pickled onions, mustard.
4. Add something sweet: fruit, dried fruit, or a fruit paste.
5. Add plain bread or crackers that do not fight the meat.
6. Take everything out of the fridge 20 to 30 minutes before serving so the fat softens and the flavor opens up.

How to store it

Keep opened and sliced meats wrapped in the fridge and eat them within a few days. A whole dry salami keeps longer, but once cut, wrap the cut end. Pâté and rillettes should be eaten within a few days of opening. Do not leave the board out for more than 2 hours.

Common mistakes

• Only buying salty meats. A board needs acid and sweetness for balance.
• Serving it straight from the fridge. Cold fat tastes waxy.
• Pre-slicing salami hours ahead. It dries out and curls.

In recipes

"Charcuterie" on a menu means a cold meat plate. People also use "charcuterie board" for any grazing board, including cheese, fruit and vegetables. The Italian version is part of an antipasto. A Swedish smörgåsbord has its own cured and smoked meats.

Where it comes from

The word is French, from chair cuite, "cooked flesh". In France a charcutier is a pork butcher, and a charcuterie is the shop that sells pork products.