Have you ever ordered a charcuterie board and once it landed in front of you (even after the waiter tells you everything that is on it) you have no idea what is on it? Yeah me too. Guin—what? Ndja—huh? It’s soooo confusing! Luckily it’s not all as complicated as it sounds or looks.

There are Three Categories of Charcuterie

There are just a few key categories you need to know to be able to navigate a charcuterie board like a pro. If you haven’t yet read through Charcuterie Basics Part 1. You’ll learn all about what charcuterie is and how its made. Our first category of investigation? Whole muscle charcuterie.

1. Whole Muscle
2. Sausages
3. Spreadables

Let’s Talk about Whole Muscle Charcuterie

I know, I know, this does not sound great. I tried to think of another term, but honestly, this is the most precise way to describe this category. These are pieces of meat that are cured whole and then sliced. Generally speaking, the parts of the animal used for this type of charcuterie are the belly, the jowl, the loin, the shoulder or collar, and legs. The undisputed king of this whole muscle charcuterie? HAM!

Ham Defined

A ham is basically the cured leg of a pig. There are versions of these all over the world. From France to the US and beyond, ham is beloved around the world.

Italy

Prosciutto: This is traditionally a cured pork leg, but can be from any animal. Prosciutto literally means ham in Italian, and it comes in two styles: cotto and crudo.

• Cotto: This version is brined with herbs and spices and then cooked. It is sliced thinly and light pink. It is moister than prosciutto crudo. If you grew up on American deli ham, this will seem familiar!
• Crudo: This version is dry-aged and never cooked. It is shaved paper thin, is dark red, and known for its meltingly unctuous fat. Prosciutto di Parma is aged at least a year, some go as long as two years.

Speck: Also in the ham family, unlike prosciutto, the cure for speck includes salt, bay, and juniper. Once it is rubbed down with the cure, the ham is cold smoked and aged.

Spain

Jamon Serrano: Quite similar to prosciutto, this Spanish version is differentiated by the breed of pig used for all serrano hams, the Landrace breed of white pig. The method and cure are otherwise the same.

Jamon Iberico and Jamon Iberico de Bellota: The method and cure for Jamon Iberico and Jamon Iberico de Bellota are same as that for Jamon Serrano. The critical difference is that these two use Iberico pigs and not the white pig that is used for Serrano ham. Jamon Iberico is made from pastured pigs while Jamon Iberico de Bellota, arguably the most luxurious of all the cured meats, uses pastured pigs whose feed is supplemented with acorns.

France

Jambon de Bayonne: The same as prosciutto, except FRENCH. Seriously, it’s the same. There may be microclimate differences between the two, but here in the US, they are (for all intents and purposes) the same.

United States

Country Ham: This is probably the United State’s most significant contribution to the modern charcuterie board. It is salt-cured and smoked before being hung to dry for months. Serve country ham shaved thin or thick cut.

Other Hams

• England: York ham
• China: Jinhua ham and Yunnan ham
• Germany: Westphalian ham and Black Forest ham

Other Whole Muscle Charcuterie:

American Style Bacon: Dry cured pork belly with salt and sugar. It is smoked with any type of wood, but the most common are hickory, applewood or mesquite. The belly is almost always sold sliced but is also sold as a whole belly called a “side.” It nearly always hot smoked. You may also find versions flavored with maple, black pepper, or garlic. Bacon is always cooked before serving.

Pancetta: This is an Italian style salt-cured pork belly. Also, dry cured with salt, it may be smoked but traditionally is not. The cure for pancetta includes salt, sugar, juniper, pepper, bay, and nutmeg. Once the meat is finished curing it is rolled, tied and hung to cure even further for at least two weeks. Once done, the meat is sliced or diced and used to season all sorts of dishes like spaghetti alla carbonara or to season sauteed vegetables. You won’t usually find this on your charcuterie board, but you might!

Bresaola: Almost always made from beef. The most common cut for bresaola is the eye of round, but you might also find it made with round roast or ribeye. Traditionally it is dry cured and air-dried for up-to three months. The cure will often include spices like juniper, cinnamon or nutmeg. The smoke and spiced cure give it big flavor and a darker color.

Coppa/Cappocollo: The porky sister to bresaola, coppa is flavored with wine, garlic, herbs, and spices. After salting it is stuffed into a casing and hung to cure for up to six months. The name for this Italian cut means head and neck. Not surprisingly, this is precisely where you find the muscle for this product. It runs from the base of the skull down through the shoulder.

Guanciale: Another Italian cured pork product, this time from the cheek. Salt cured and air dried for three weeks, it has a much stronger flavor than prosciutto. You might find it flavored with black pepper, garlic, red pepper, thyme or fennel.

Lardo: Yes, it is what you think it is. Salt cured pork fat. I promise you, it is delicious. Often flavored with rosemary, cinnamon, juniper, nutmeg, or sage you can spread this like butter on a piece of bread, cook with it, or just drape it over any bruschetta, flatbread or pizza.

While this isn’t a comprehensive list of every single whole muscle charcuterie in the world it should give you enough confidence to tackle that section of your charcuterie board! Next up we will dig in the wonderful world of sausages.

References: Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing and Charcuteria: The Soul of Spain

Have you ever hesitated to order charcuterie because you didn’t know what to expect? Listen, I’ve been there. I have avoided ordering charcuterie in the past. I didn’t want to mispronounce it and embarrass myself. Even when I have ordered it, I had no idea what I was eating. Even if the waiter explained the board, they ran through the list of stuff on the board too fast. It is a shame because charcuterie is fantastic. Over the next few weeks, I want to demystify all things charcuterie. Don’t be like me and miss out on all the lovely cured meats! Order with confidence and enjoy the world of charcuterie

What is Charcuterie?

Charcuterie is a whole class of foods. Usually meat, always preserved. This includes all types of hams and sausages and patés. They can be raw or cooked. Some smoked while others are air dried. The one thing they all have in common is the use of salt to preserve them.

 Let’s Talk Salt

One of the primary methods of preserving any food, but in particular meat is salting. Salt is a pretty magical little rock. When you add salt to food, it pulls out the water. This means that all those nasty little food rotting microbes have no place to grow. The salt also draws water out of the bacteria. So not only is their environment not hospitable to them, but they are also dying off. They don’t have enough water to survive. Cool huh?

Dry Curing

Salt is a miraculous ingredient. But to get something edible that won’t give you botulism you need two more things. Sugar and nitrite. You need sugar to balance out all that salt, and you need nitrite to stop bacteria from growing. No one wants a side of botulism with their meal. Nitrites are natural by the way. So don’t get scared that you are adding chemicals to your food. Nitrites are in green leafy vegetables and other foods, and you eat them every single day. In small amounts they are fine. Like all things in life, moderation is the key.

Brining

Again salt is your key ingredient, but this time it is even more potent with water. When you dry cure, you remove water but when you brine you trade plain water with brine. The result? Moist, flavorful meat! Why? Salt acts on the protein molecules of the meat. Salt not only draws out the liquid that is inside it but also changes the shape of the protein. The new form holds more liquid than before brining. These plumped up proteins make your meat even juicier than before. AND all the aromatics and flavorings you added to your brine gets drawn right into the meat. Why have all your flavor on the outside skin? Brining delivers flavor all the way to the core of the meat.

Next Level Flavor: Smoke and Fat

Smoking

Initially smoke served as another layer of protection from bacteria. When you smoke meat, the outside surface becomes acidic. This acidic environment is not a happy place for bacteria. It also adds flavor.

 “The venerable kitchen rationalist Harold McGee writes: “Smoke’s usefulness results from its chemical complexity. It contains many hundreds of compounds, some of which kill or inhibit microbes, some of which retard fat oxidation and the development of rancid flavors, and some of which add an appealing flavor of their own.’

Excerpt From: Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn. “Charcuterie.” “

These days though? Smoking is all about the flavor. There are two types of smoke, hot smoke which will cook your meat and cold smoke that will not. Canadian bacon, for example, is hot smoked, while salmon is usually cold smoked and thus raw.

Fat

If you are trying to avoid fat, charcuterie may not be your jam. Seriously, sausage without fat is a tragedy. You cannot make paté and rillettes without fat. 99.9% of charcuterie is about eaking all the love and flavor you can out of fat. Basic breakfast sausage in early America was made and saved in jars full of fat. Why? Fat preserved the sausage and protected it from microbes and bacteria. Now, we might not need to store our breakfast sausages in fat these days. But we do want them to taste like breakfast at grandma’s house. Because fat carries, you need fat for that. The technique for preserving any food with fat is confit. Sometimes people assume that confit is only for use with duck, but that is not true. You can confit pretty much anything. This is not frying; this is more akin to poaching. Cover your food in oil and cook it for hours at 200F. For meat, you need to dry cure or brine it first and then cook it. Once you have a confit, you can serve the confit as is or use it as an ingredient in something else.

Styles of Charcuterie

All these techniques are used to create the four primary forms of charcuterie.

• Whole Muscle: Any meat that is preserved whole without grinding it or mincing it first. Including ham, prosciutto, bacon pancetta, guanciale, and pastrami.
• Sausage: Any meat that is ground with fat and spices and then preserved. Often in a casing but not always. Including mortadella, salami, chorizo, kielbasa, bratwurst, merguez, boudin, knackwurst, andouille, and hot dogs.
• Spreadables: These are sausages without the casing and cooked in a mold. They can be any texture and cooked in a variety of molds including ceramic, or pastry. Including paté, ‘nduja, rillette, headcheese, and aspic.

I break them all down for you next time!

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