Introduction: The reason for this food, this book : why we still love and need hand-preserved foods in the age of the refrigerator, the frozen dinner, Domino's pizza and the 24-hour grocery store -- Recipes for salt-cured food : salt : how the most powerful tool in your kitchen transforms the humble into the sublime -- Recipes for smoked food : smoke : the exotic seasoning -- Sausage : the power and the glory : animal fat, salt, and the pig come together in one of the oldest, divine-yet-humble, culinary creations known to humankind -- Recipes for dry-cured food : the artist and the sausage : techniques and recipes for individualistic, idiosyncratic and temperamental dry-cured meats -- Pâtés and terrines : the cinderella meat loaf -- The confit technique : fat : the perfect cooking environment -- Recipes to accompany charcuterie : sauces and condiments : not optional.