Cookbook Review: Cured

It feels fitting to dive into the world of ferments, pickling, and curing right as spring begins. All too often, I’m known to get swept up in the folly of farmers market overhead and find my fridge filled to the brim with wilted greens, browning vegetables, and a spoiled haul. This is one of the many reasons I was drawn to Steve McHugh and Paula Forbes‘ Cured: Cooking with Ferments, Pickles, Preserves & More, leaning into a desire to strategize, plan, and, ultimately, respect the produce I obtain and transform it into a kitchen staple even during the colder months. McHugh draws from personal experience battling non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, grappling with a different concept of “cure,” and says that his experience undergoing cancer treatment impressed upon him the idea that prolonging moments with friends, family, and food was an art to be sought after. This same idea of stretching and strengthening applies to McHugh’s culinary outlook, that curing and preserving ingredients bolsters their flavors and elevates them as “secret weapons” to take a dish to the next level. Though much of his career was based in New Orleans, McHugh now resides in San Antonio, Texas, where the namesake “Cured” also arches over the historic brick building of McHugh’s restaurant. 

McHugh’s restaurant, Cured, is known for their powerhouse charcuterie boards, leaning into whole-hog butchery with housemade salami, pâtés, and sausages. As a charcuterie aficionado myself, I was excited to peruse the recipes for ways to enhance my own skills. I’m known as an intense planner, plotting deadlines, toting around my calendar, and ticking off my to do list notch by notch. Knowing full well I was tackling a cookbook on fermentation, I was prepared to plan months in advance but was pleasantly surprised to find many of the recipes required 24 hours or less of fermentation before serving. This said, my timing couldn’t have been more perfect, as I finished McHugh’s cucumber pickles, chicken liver mousse, compound butter, and grissini just as my cheese subscription box from The Cheese Shop NC arrived. This, truly, is my favorite dinner: grazing and savoring the fruits of time well-spent and flavors well-formed.