Episode 94: Curing Meat and Making Sausage

Published: Aug. 21, 2012, 8:07 p.m.

b'Dave Arnold is heading to Colombia, but not before another episode of Cooking Issues. Dave and Nastassia Lopez start the show off talking about making and preserving cocktail cherries at cellar temperatures. Tune in to learn about the proper balance of sugar, alcohol, and calcium to maintain the structure of the cherry! Later, Dave answers a question about texture in homemade sausage, and how fat is instrumental in determining how a sausage holds up. How can a homebrewer infuse a coffee flavor into beer? Tune in to find out! Other topics include making gummy candies, knife sharpening, and how to make a proper curing room at home! This episode has been sponsored by The International Culinary Center. Fat is not just fat; fat is a mixture of fat and connective tissue. When its native, it will hold itself in place, but if its melted out its not gonna hold. The smaller a curing chamber is, the less stable its going to be over time. -- Dave Arnold on Cooking Issues'