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2 tablespoons/30 grams sugar

3⁄4 teaspoon/4 grams Insta Cure #2 or DC Curing Salt #2 (see page 106)

1 1⁄2 teaspoons/5 grams freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon/6 grams chopped fresh rosemary

2 teaspoons/6 grams fresh thyme leaves

5 juniper berries, crushed with the side of a knife

One 3-pound/1.5-kilogram beef eye of the round roast, no more than 3 inches/7.5 centimeters in diameter, trimmed of all visible fat, sinew, and silverskin

1. Combine all the spice cure ingredients in a spice or coffee grinder and grind to a fine powder.

2. Rub half the spice cure all over the meat, rubbing it in well. Place in a 2-gallon/8-liter Ziploc bag or a nonreactive container and refrigerate for 7 days, turning it every couple of days.

3. Remove the beef from the liquid (discard it) and rub in the remaining spice cure. Return to the refrigerator for 7 more days.

4. Rinse the beef thoroughly under cold water to remove any remaining spices and pat dry with paper towels. Set on a rack on a baking sheet uncovered at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours.

5. Tie the beef with butcher’s twine. Hang the meat (ideally at 60 degrees F./15 degrees C. with 60 to 70 percent humidity) for about 3 weeks. The meat should feel firm on the outside and silky smooth when sliced.

Yield: 2 pounds/1 kilogram bresaola; about 30 appetizer servings

LARDO AND CURED PORK BELLY

Lardo is cured pork back fat, pure unadulterated fat. If you use belly instead, you’ll have striations of meat. Both are excellent—provided you use excellent pork, preferably from a small farmer who raises his hogs naturally. Do not use any other kind of pork; it’s simply not worth it from a flavor standpoint, and you’re likely to wonder what all the fuss is about. Either of these preparations couldn’t be easier. The fat or pork belly is simply cured with a dry rub of salt, sugar, and herbs, then hung to dry. Sliced thin, it can be eaten plain, with some olive or truffle oil and crusty bread or toast. It’s delicious cooked as well.

Because light damages fat, and because these pieces are mainly fat, it’s important to cure them in a way that prevents as much exposure to light as possible. Then store the cured lardo or belly wrapped in plastic wrap followed by foil.

1⁄2 recipe Basic Dry Cure (page 39)

31⁄2 pounds/1.5 kilograms pork back fat or pork belly in one piece (about 12 inches/30 centimeters long by 6 inches/15 centimeters wide and 11⁄4 inches/3 centimeters thick), skin removed

6 bay leaves

2 bunches fresh thyme

1⁄4 cup/40 grams black peppercorns

Cheesecloth (optional; see step 3 below)

1. Sprinkle a quarter of the dry cure mix into a nonreactive baking pan large enough to hold the pork. Place the pork on top, and sprinkle the remaining cure mix over it. Distribute the remaining ingredients on top of the pork and cover with plastic wrap, then wrap in foil to protect the pork from light.

2. Weight the pork with about 10 pounds/5 kilograms and refrigerate for 10 to 12 days, turning it and rubbing it twice to redistribute the cure. The pork is cured when it feels uniformly dense and stiff.

3. Remove the pork from the pan, rinse thoroughly under cold water, and pat dry. If you don’t have an enclosed drying box or room, wrap the pork in a few layers of cheesecloth. Poke a hole in one corner of the pork and tie a string through it to make a loop for hanging.

4. Hang the pork to dry in a cool, dark humid place (ideally about 60 degrees F./15 degrees C. with 60 to 70 percent humidity) for 18 to 24 days.

Yield: About 30 appetizer servings

6

THE CINDERELLA MEAT LOAF

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Pâtés and terrines, perhaps because they are served in elegant restaurants and sold at gourmet shops, and often look so cool, are thought to be unmercifully difficult. Some truly are (pâtés en croûte). But the basic country pâté, which can be every bit as satisfying as a fancy-pants galantine de canard, is scarcely more difficult than your average made-from-scratch meat loaf. The following recipes run the gamut from