The Art of Fermented Sausages, Revised
A few months back, I reviewed the Marianskis’ book, The Art of Fermented Sausages. Because they go deeper into the issues of chemistry, microbiology, sanitation, and equipment (for smoking, fermenting, and drying), I concluded that the book would be useful for amateur sausagemakers ready to attempt these more technically challenging sausages. But, as a hastily written and self-published effort, the book suffered from a number of problems which I belabored: poor organization, stilted prose, numerous typographical errors, no index…
So it’s heartening to see that Stanley Marianski has taken these criticisms to heart, revised this book (as well as two others), established a new publishing company to put them out, and then contacted me to ask if he could send me a review copy. Now that’s a class act!
The overall organization hasn’t changed much, but the prose has really been cleaned up. The new index is minimal but still helpful. Referring back to this book for information on molds, yeasts, and all the various bacteria present in sausages (both desirable and undesirable) is now much easier. The indexing of the recipes, however still leaves a lot to be desired. Since all the recipes are listed alphabetically in the Contents, listing them again by name in the index doesn’t offer any new help. If, instead, you want to find sausages by the kind of meat they’re based on (pork, beef, or chicken), by other ingredients they use, by the country or region they come from, or by the fermentation culture they use, the index still won’t help you.
But, all in all, this new edition is much more worthy of the wealth of knowledge and experience that Stanley Marianski brings to this subject. He is the first author to delve into the technical and scientific information on the subject that has come out in the last 60 years (some of which is only available in foreign languages), sift out what’s relevant and practical for someone working at home, and make it comprehensible and easily doable. In addition to this service provided by his own books, the recent establishment of his small publishing company (Bookmagic LLC) promises even more. Having a publishing company dedicated to bridging the gap between meat science and home hobbyists could be the key to bringing many other new books on meat curing, smoking, and sausage-making to market. For these efforts and for his dedication to this subject, all of us amateur meatheads are greatly indebted to him!
As of TODAY, the new, revised editions of his books are available through Amazon. Remember, you heard it here first!
Tags: fermented sausage, publishing
July 30th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
Thanks Larbo, good to know, have been looking for a resource like this – will have to check it out!
August 3rd, 2009 at 4:21 pm
NICE! I need something like this.
August 4th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
mochapj and AJ, so far I’ve made several of the summer-type beef sausages out of this book, as well as some of the pork sausages from his Polish Sausage book, and all of the recipes have turned out very well. I’ll be trying his recipe for Spanish chorizo later this month. I made Ruhlman and Polcyn’s version of this sausage before, but the bacterial culture they call for left a pretty sour, lactic-acid tang in the sausage that I’ve never tasted in the ones from Spain. I’m hoping the different culture Marianski calls for results in a mellower taste.
If either of you does get this book, let me know what you think!