"Curing & Smoking Made at Home" Dick & James Strawbridge

[JLPicard]

Has anyone seen this book? My wife recently got it for me from the library, I have glanced thru it and so no trace of any recipe using any nitrates. The Strawbridges make everything from bacon and hams to salami, all without a trace of any Nitrates. Their 'cure' is simply salt and sugar, as far as I can tell. I haven't done a thorough reading yet, but I am surprised that someone would publish a well written book suggesting air drying with nothing but salt as a preservative. Sounds very risky.

Anyway just wondering if anyone has seen this book, published 2012?

[onewheeler]

Yes, on the basis of flicking through it in a book shop that pretty much sums it up. I wouldn't trust it for any of the cured recipes that I saw. Some of the other recipes sounded quite good though.

Martin/

[GUS]

Thanks to a heads up elsewhere, as a recommendation to grab the cheese based book (same authors) from Jenny H. (via Aldi currently) I must confess I was flicking through this book & bought it, It was a rush in & out because the ice cream was melting & I realised I hadn't actually bought the kilo's of bone in pork for a quick turn around of bacon, ..having been offered discount on it too, because I was after some free-range, but was going to have to settle for some german pork Ah well.

& reading whilst wandering at a pace in a supermarket not really a good idea.

Where it is handy (vs the internet) I can get my nipper to flick through it & get more of an understanding & some project ideas out of her as to what she might like to try the end result of, she is a real proscuttio ham fiend at the tender age of 11, ..which is what the wife would really love to be to hand n the kitchen.

You are bang on though with regard to the total lack of nitrite degree of chemical inclusion, nor vit supplement et al, ok, there was a time without it, but now is not the time to mess around, gifting someone your product only to have them in a legal quandry should you poison them (we live in a litigious society thanks to ambbulance chasers.com & plain stupidity of people, & a modern court would crucify you if you had not used commonplace, recognised & accepted modern technique.

It isn't going to be me caught out because dick & jimbo strawbridge don't use it in their books.

...& there is a disclaimer a few pages in, sadly it focuses much of the text on the subject of nut allergy type shenanigans.

But my main reason for purchase on the cheap @ £2.99 per book is that as a brain damaged fool I get very addled running through internet based pages (my memory is totally stuffed) so the layout is practical & helps the assurance that between here & there (the book) I'm doing it right (even though I'll write some notes inside the cover.

seems part of it is bunkum (the 1-2 hours in smoke for a boiled egg for instance to impart a smokey taste upon a creamy yolk) ...yeah right)