Author: Steve McHugh
Boost the flavor of any meal with this definitive guide on cooking with pickles, jams, preserves, sauces, and more--whether you make them from scratch or use store-bought ingredients--featuring 150+ recipes for everything from quick weeknight meals to Sunday suppers.
"Insightful, brilliant, clever, and beautiful."--John Currence, James Beard Award winner and author of Tailgreat The secret to six-time James Beard Award finalist Steve McHugh's success comes down to one word: curing. To cure something is to transform it, allowing it to emerge as something new. Steve himself was transformed after battling lymphoma when he was just thirty-three; he came through that experience wanting to prolong moments of joy in everyday life. That philosophy extends to how he approaches food and cooking, sourcing the best ingredients when they are at their peak and then curing them to enjoy later. He intensifies their flavors, changing them into charcuterie, pickles, mustards, and more, making his seasonal favorites available year-round. And with
Cured, you can have access to this arsenal of flavor as well, whether it's making your own preserves from scratch or using store-bought ingredients in your daily cooking.
An invaluable guide,
Cured explains both how to easily preserve foods and why you should embrace this popular technique in your own home. Whether a beginner or seasoned preserver, you'll discover how to make preserved lemons, then use them in a bright, beautiful bowl of
Israeli Couscous with Preserved Lemon, Bacon, and Greens. Learn to use sugar as your curing method to make
Cherry Orange Marmalade, then use it later in the week to make yourself a
Mix-and-Match Jam Cocktail. Or maybe make some
Smoked Nuts to use in the
Smoked Nut Chocolate Tart. The possibilities are truly endless.
Steve leads you through how to make preserves, and also gives you recipes for when you bought a jar or bottle at the market that you can't decide how to use. Filled with bright and colorful photography,
Cured will make you want to experiment with whatever fresh produce you have on hand. Whether you dabble in making your own preserves from scratch or want to learn how to use what you already have at home, these 150+ recipes will become hundreds and thousands as you start to mix and match the ingredients with your own favorites, prolonging the joy in your everyday life and meals.
About the Author
Steve McHugh is a six-time James Beard Foundation Award--nominated chef based in San Antonio. His first restaurant, Cured, opened its doors to guests in December 2013, and since then has been joined by Landrace in San Antonio and Luminaire and Las Bis in Austin. He grew up on a farm in southern Wisconsin and spent the early part of his career in New Orleans, before he and his wife, Sylvia, settled in San Antonio.
Paula Forbes is a journalist, cookbook author and critic; her work has appeared in
Texas Monthly,
GQ, Food & Wine,
Bon Appetit, and more. She was integral to a cult favorite food Aughts website, Eat Me Daily, and has also served as an editor for Eater and Epicurious. She shares cookbook criticism, news, and ephemera in her IACP award-winning newsletter, Stained Page News, and is the author of
The Austin Cookbook: Recipes and Stories from Deep in the Heart of Texas.
