Charcuterie Specialties (Prestige Des Grands Chefs) [Hardcover]

Jean-Claude Frentz (Author), Michel Poulain (Author)

Book Description

Series: Prestige Des Grands Chefs | Publication Date: August 9, 1996

Prestige des Grands Chefs Traditional charcuterie dishes have been gradually disappearing from restaurant menus in France. But as the trends of «cuisine minceur» and «nouvelle cuisine» give way to the return of the satisfying traditional cooking «du terroei » or «of the land », regional specialties including the sausages and pâtés and other traditional charcuterie specialties are being rediscovered. As the French return to their roots, charcuterie dishes made with top quality poultry, fish, meats, agan meats, vegetables and fruits are gaining popularity. Two exceptional authors have compiled a selection of 50 outstanding modern charcuterie dishes. Restaurant chefs will be inspired to include these delicious and often economical specialties on their menus and caterers, purveyors of gourmet food and talented home cooks will find new and exciting items to add to their repertoire. Well illustrated with color photographs, this book is a joy to look at as well as a useful tool for the chef. The recipes are grouped in five categories according to the main type of preparation:

1. New style terrines
2. Specialties, wrapped and poached
3. Charcuterie in pastry («en croûte»)
4. Slow-cooked meats for appetizer and main course
5. Sausages and «boudins».

Each recipe is presented over four pages with step by step photographs that reinforce the detailed text. This comprehensive volume is an indispensable reference for the recipes and techniques of modern charcuterie.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Charcuterie, traditionally the art of cooking with pork is a culinary specialty with ancient roots in French culture. In this volume, master chefs Jean-Claude Frentz and Michel Poulain provide recipes and preparation/cooking instructions for 50 exquisite charcuterie dishes, including terrines, ballotines, confits, sausages and specialties cooked in pastry.

About the Author

Jean-Claude Frentz Chef Frentz has had a distinguished career in charcuterie. He graduated from the "Ecole Supérieure des Métiers de la Viande de Paris" and holds many diplomas from specialized programs in France, United States and other countries. He is the author of the comprehensive reference "L’Encyclopédie de la Charcuterie" and a well-known international consultant. He has developed programs in Canada and elsewhere to create new charcuterie products and specialties using meats and fish. Michael Poulain Having earned the title of " Brevet Brever de Maîtrise Charcutier-Traiteur" at 22, Chef Poulain opened a charcuterie offering traditional products. He participated in many French and international competitions and ten years later he began teaching the art of charcuterie to novices and professionals and set about revising instructional manuals. Chef Poulain continues to refine the art of charcuterie in collaboration with industry research teams and prestigious gastronomic societies such as the "Confréries de Cuisine".

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (August 9, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471160636
• ISBN-13: 978-0471160632
• Product Dimensions: 12 x 8.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #527,922 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Invaluable resource, but seriously flawed edition, February 8, 2010

By 

Larbo "Nothing exceeds like excess!" (Champaign, IL USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Charcuterie Specialties (Prestige Des Grands Chefs) (Hardcover)

If you have access to professional equipment (grinders, processors, stuffers) and you want to get serious about French charcuterie, this book is invaluable. It's worth the price just for their liver terrine à la Parisienne, which has you add hot, poached fat, and then steaming milk to the meat mix in the processor. Sounds crazy, but works wonderfully.

Unfortunately, the book also suffers quite a bit in its editing and translating. There are slight problems with just about every recipe. Ingredients will be listed in the beginning that will never be mentioned again, so you just have to figure out what to do with them. Translation is sloppy and misspellings abound.

Even with these faults, I would have given in four stars, except for one really dangerous - even potentially lethal - problem. The amounts of curing salt that the authors call for have not been translated or recalculated for this book's American audience. In the final chapter, on "Information and Technical Advice," they explain that the French curing salt that they use and that their recipes assume is 0.6% sodium nitrite. But curing salt with just nitrite sold in the US (under the names Insta Cure #1 or DQ or DC Curing Salt #1) is 6.25% nitrite OR MORE THAN TEN TIMES AS MUCH! This means that if you use one of these American products and put in as much curing salt as these recipes call for (up to 25 g per kilo of meat), the pāté will contain a dose of nitrite (1.56 g) that's considered lethal for an adult. This is a lawsuit waiting to happen.