Salt Smoke Time: Homesteading and Heritage Techniques for the Modern Kitchen

by Will Horowitz, Marisa Dobson, Julie Horowitz

“The man best known for creating the smoked watermelon ‘ham’ has distilled all of his knowledge of foraging, preserving, smoking, salting, and more into… a perfect gift for anyone you know who’s looking to get back to the land.” – Grubstreet A celebrated young chef hailed by the New York Times as a "fearless explorer," brings time-tested heritage techniques to the modern home kitchen. Executive chef and owner of New York City’s highly acclaimed Ducks Eatery and Harry & Ida’s, Will Horowitz is also an avid forager, fisherman, and naturalist. In Salt Smoke Time , he explores ideas of self-reliance, sustainability, and seasonality, illuminating our connection to the natural world and the importance of preserving American stories and food traditions. Drawing from the recipes and methods handed down by our ancestors, Horowitz teaches today’s home cooks a variety of invaluable techniques, including curing & brining, cold smoking, canning, pickling, and dehydration. He provides an in-depth understanding of milk products, fishing, trapping seafood, hunting, butchering meat, cooking whole animals, foraging, and harvesting, and even offers tips on wild medicine. Horowitz takes traditional foods that have been enjoyed for generations and turns them into fresh new dishes. With Salt Smoke Time , you’ll learn how to make his signature Jerky and a host of other sensational recipes, including Smoked Tomato and Black Cardamom Jam, Fermented Corn on the Cob with Duck Liver Butter, North Fork Clam Bake, Preserved Duck Breast & Mussels with Blood Orange, and Will’s Smoked Beef Brisket. Complete with step-by-step line drawings inspired by vintage Boy Scout and Field Guides and illustrated with beautiful rustic photos, Salt Smoke Time is both a nostalgic study of our roots, and a handy guide for rediscovering self-reliance and independence in our contemporary lives.

Genres: Cookbooks, Food, Cooking, Nonfiction

320 pages, Hardcover

Published March 12, 2019

Reviews

[Teddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely a specialty cookbook -- every recipe contains foraged elements, so unless you're an active forager, this book is not for you. Also, if you live outside the northeast US, many of the species discussed might not be available to you. Very excited to start using this once the weather gets warmer & things start growing again!

[Jeff · Rating 1 out of 5]

Perhaps the most execrable prose I've ever encountered in a cookbook. I have no need to know that you were stroking your beard and licking the fat off your lips while dreaming of the countryside from your apartment in Manhattan. About as deep as a puddle, this musing bit of lifestyle porn disguised as a cookbook is perhaps the largest waste of time I've encountered in a while. While there are a few interesting recipes, better versions of those exist on the interwebs and you only have to put up with crappy pop-ups, not cringeworthy prose. Wonderfully produced illustrations and great quality paper, a brilliant piece of book production available at affordable prices, but you'd be better off stroking your own beard rather than investing this one. All those expensive targeted adds that think I should purchase this one were wasted; thankfully, I picked it up (after a long waitlist) from the library and will be happy to send it on the the next unsuspecting victim.

[Ginna · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was tedious to reed - Horowitz thinks way to much of himself. The recipes are both way to exotic and also uninspiring. The book doesn't contain enough detail to be a manual on foraging, or on preserving, and there are no 'normal' recipes at all to balance out the foraged items.

I'm not clear on who the intended audience for this is, I just know I'm not it. I'm interested in preserving my harvest, not foraging for Reindeer Lichen every weekend.

[Patricia · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is a certain kind of cookbook gaining popularity right now - esoteric, obsessive and beyond fussy. This is a prime example. It's not that all the recipes are hard, but many are not practical. Perhaps a function of my age, but as much as I love to cook I will not be smoking cream to make butter anytime soon. For example. I won't be using my precious hardwood charcoal to smoke a watermelon for seven hours. (I'd love to taste it though!)

[emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you can ignore the chef's voice and tone (like when he calls steam clams - 'pissing' clams - like mate please clam up), you'll find that this is a rather brilliant cookbook filled with cozy recipes.

Personal favourites : 'Rosehip Brown Butter', 'Black Walnut Creme', 'Roasted Strawberry and Cardamom Jam', 'Grits with Pickled Oysters', and 'North Fork Clambake'.

[Iris · Rating 4 out of 5]

The preservation techniques are well explained. All seem fairly straightforward, then the recipes at the back explode into culinary flights of fancy I never would have expected. I might buy this one for reference.

[Ash · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book - if I lived closer to a place where I could utilize his tips I would. I did appreciate the black garlic explanation - I now know what I was doing wrong.

[Tessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun to look through but impractical for most home cooks.