Bookshelf

See Michael Ruhlman and Rob Levitt Makes Some Sausage

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“As Americans, we’re told that we’re too stupid to cook,” Michael Ruhlman says, and his recent books— including Charcuterie, Ratio, and Ruhlman’s 20— are all about demonstrating that the basics of good cooking are well within the grasp of anyone who cares to learn. During a two-hour talk/sausage-making demo at The Butcher & Larder last night with owner Rob Levitt, Ruhlman talked about how he became serious about writing about food, his experiences in kitchens ranging from the Culinary Institute of America’s to Thomas Keller’s, and the sheer pleasure of good sausage when made the right way with good pork and plenty of fat.

Questions from the audience, mostly amateur charcuterie-makers selected in a contest via Twitter, ranged from how to know if your sausage is mixed sufficiently to when Thomas Keller stopped being a screamer and became such a nice, mellow guy (“He said he realized that when he screamed, it was was already too late— so now he focuses on fixing the problem before it gets to that point”).

Take a look at the whole process in our slideshow.

Eddie Lakin (Edzo’s) and Jonathan Zaragoza (Birrieria Zaragoza) listen as Michael Ruhlman describes how he went from writing to the chef program at the Culinary Institute of America.
Ruhlman and Rob Levitt (The Butcher & Larder) ask the audience for suggestions on what to put in the sausage.
“People talk about what to put in a sausage, but they don’t think about the most important question— what kind of pork is going into it.”
Ruhlman takes a question from Ellen Malloy as Levitt mixes the sausage by hand.
Levitt demonstrates a test for sufficiently mixed sausage from chef Paul Bertolli— if a patty sticks to your hand, it’s mixed enough.
Cranking out the sausage.
Levitt demonstrates the fine art of forming links.
Book signing.
The sausage goes into a flavorful broth with greens.
Late night soup at The Butcher & Larder.
See Michael Ruhlman and Rob Levitt Makes Some Sausage