HOME & LIVING
B2 — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2021
Charcuterie boards aren’t just for meat and cheese anymore
By DANIELA SIRTORI-CORTINA
Bloomberg News
These days, charcuterie
doesn’t just mean meat.
You can thank COVID-19
for that.
Long a common fea-
ture of social gatherings,
the platters garnered fresh
attention in the past 18
months as people sought
to elevate their at-home
snacks. Sure, hungry
humans have arranged pro-
visions such as prosciutto
and cheese on boards for
centuries. But amateur
chefs aren’t just fl ocking
to salami or brie. They’re
redefi ning the term char-
cuterie itself, adding
novel ingredients to their
creations.
There are Mexican
boards featuring nachos,
while others focus on
breakfast foods and even
candy. “Barkuterie” boards
with dog treats are also a
thing.
These alternatives aren’t
exactly new, but they truly
blew up as people enter-
tained themselves during
lockdown with posts of
eye-catching designs and
odd ingredients. And it
doesn’t seem like they’re
going away: In August,
Pinterest searches for mini
charcuterie cups rose more
than 30-fold from a year
ago, the company said.
Hot cocoa and pumpkin
platters also attracted
attention.
This creative explo-
sion could be a sign of a
broader shift. In the view
of food historian Ken
Albala, the COVID-19 era
Hannah Babiak/Dreamstime-TNS
A candy and cookie charcuterie board with Easter candies. Amateur chefs are redefi ning the term charcuterie itself, adding novel ingredients
to their creations.
represented the last gasp
of a rustic, do-it-your-
self approach to eating.
As people get bored with
making their own bread,
he said interest in more
exotic, over-the-top meals
and ingredients could take
hold.
“The charcuterie board
is a kind of harbinger of
what’s about to change in
our culinary aesthetic,”
Albala said.
Before any connoisseurs
object: yes, the dessert,
brunch and vegan boards
taking over Instagram and
TikTok aren’t technically
charcuterie, a term derived
from a French phrase
meaning cooked meat. If
anything, the expanded
defi nition shows just how
much people are craving
colorful ensembles on the
dinner table.
The trend has even ben-
efi ted more traditional cre-
ators. Marissa Mullen,
a New York City-based
author and food stylist who
sticks to more conventional
elements such as cured
meat and cheese, published
a cookbook outlining her
technique in May 2020. At
fi rst, she was bracing for
disaster given lockdowns,
but the craze has brought
in more followers.
“I get all these people
who are interested in the
loose term ‘charcuterie
board,’ and I can teach
them to go a little bit fur-
ther,” Mullen said. “What
can we learn about cheese?
What can we learn about
presentation?”
The surge in interest
has also spawned a cot-
tage industry of entre-
preneurs, many of them
women. Mel Rodríguez
started making the boards
in July 2020, after being
furloughed from her job
as a case manager at a Los
Angeles law fi rm. Demand
has remained strong after
orders doubled in January,
she said.
Her fi rm, Curated
Spread, already has
requests for Halloween
(searches for charcuterie
have been particularly
popular around special
occasions, including Val-
entine’s Day and Fourth of
July).
In Detroit, Victoria
Cummings pivoted to
charcuterie after running
an events business along-
side her teaching job.
Although she works week-
ends to fi ll orders, she pre-
fers the platters to tradi-
tional catering, which can
involve days of preparation
and expensive ingredients
that cut into her margins.
Her company, Detroit
Charcuterie, off ers every-
thing from individual
snack boxes to spreads that
can span entire counter-
tops — also called grazing
tables. She’s incorporating
tacos, chocolates and
myriad other ingredients
into her products.
“I’ve never known that
you could make a rose
out of so many diff erent
things,” Cummings said
of a popular charcuterie
design. She initially
thought she might get one
or two orders a month, but
instead she’s booked every
weekend. “Cucumber
roses, salami roses, mango
roses, orange roses. It’s
crazy how creative people
get with what they display
on the board.”
The pandemic prompted
Suzanne Billings, who has
run Noble Graze in Fay-
etteville, Arkansas, since
2017, to make single-serve
snack bundles known as
“jarcuterie.” At one point,
she couldn’t get enough
mason jars for her arrange-
ments, thanks to virus-in-
duced supply chain woes.
So, she turned to boxes,
cones, plastic cups and
just about anything she
could fi nd. Billings is now
writing a cookbook on sin-
gle-serve charcuterie.
“The vessel can be
just about anything you
want,” she said. “That’s
the beauty of it. You can
just use what you have
on hand.”
The science of searing steak
By JAMES P. DeWAN
The Daily Meal
Before I talk about the
“reverse sear,” I should talk
about the regular sear.
Searing is the basic
cooking process of applying
high heat to the outside of
foods to give them a gold-
en-brown crust. Mostly we
use it on tender meats, like
steaks and roasts.
Why sear?
The reasons for searing
are many:
A golden-brown crust on
a steak or roast looks more
appealing than a damp,
gray exterior.
The toothsome tex-
ture of that crust provides
a delightful contrast to the
creamy tenderness of the
interior.
The crust’s fl avor is
decidedly diff erent from
that of the interior, off ering
a salty, charred taste that
compares to sweeter inte-
rior meat.
The rich aromas of
searing meat draw us to the
table and make our mouths
water — an important phys-
iological reaction called
trigeminal response. This
makes us experience the
meat as juicier and also aids
in digestion.
One thing searing
does not do is “seal in the
juices.” Mythical poppy-
cock notwithstanding, the
previously mentioned actual
results of searing make it
more than a worthwhile
endeavor.
How does searing
work?
Searing takes advan-
tage of chemical processes
known as the Maillard reac-
tions. The process involves
high heat and is similar to
the caramelization of sugar,
but it works on amino acids
instead. Maillard reac-
tions begin at tempera-
tures in the high 200s, well
above the boiling point of
water. That’s why we dry
meat before cooking: If
there’s water in the pan, the
temperature is below 212
degrees, the Maillard reac-
tions can’t take place and
the meat won’t brown.
When cooking meat,
most cooks sear fi rst, either
in a stovetop pan or a very
hot oven. After achieving
the crust, the meat is placed
in a lower temperature oven
until the interior reaches the
desired temperature.
The problem with
starting by searing
The problem with
searing is that you’ve
already cooked the outside
of the meat to where you
want it before the inside is
done. As you cook it, the
crust extends farther into
the meat while the center is
still coming up to tempera-
ture, which results in a band
of dry, gray meat that falls
between the crust and the
pink center.
The solution
Imagine bringing the
entire piece of meat from its
raw state up to the desired
temperature all at once.
In other words, for medi-
um-rare, imagine the entire
steak or roast at 130 degrees
Fahrenheit from end to end.
Of course, it’d still look
wan and damp on the out-
side — decidedly unap-
petizing. However, if you
took that piece of meat and
seared it quickly, you’d have
a beautiful piece of meat
that’s golden brown on the
outside while the entire
inside is exactly the done-
ness you like.
How to reverse sear
Kristen Mendiola/The Daily Meal-TNS
Reverse searing steak is a useful cooking technique to have in
your arsenal.
While any roast works
with this method, steaks
should be at least 1 1/2
inches thick. Regard-
less, preheat your oven to
275F. Line a sheet pan with
parchment paper and place
an oven-safe wire rack on
top of the lined pan. Place
the meat on the wire rack
and season it with salt and
pepper or your favorite
spice rub. Place the whole
thing in the oven and roast
it until the interior is about
15 degrees below your
desired fi nal temperature
— anywhere from 30 to 50
minutes. Start checking the
internal temperature with
an instant-read thermom-
eter after 15 minutes to get
a sense of where you are in
the process.
When the center reaches
your target temperature,
remove the meat from the
oven. If you want, you can
tent it and let it rest at room
temperature for up to 90
minutes.
• For steaks: Set a heavy
bottom pan — cast iron is
perfect — over the highest
heat you can muster. When
the pan is smoking hot, add
a touch of oil and lay in the
steak. It should take only 1
to 2 minutes per side to get
a nice sear.
• For roasts: Crank the
oven to its highest setting
— usually 500 to 550F.
Place the roast in the oven
until the outside is golden
brown, about 10 to 15
minutes.
A note about times and
temperatures: Remember,
all equipment is diff erent.
Diff erent ovens have dif-
ferent hot and cool spots.
Diff erent pans conduct
heat diff erently. Thus,
never expect perfection
your fi rst time out. Get to
know the process, learn
from your experiences, and
make adjustments to your
method.
GARLIC AND
HERB REVERSE
SEARED NEW
YORK STRIP
STEAK
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20 to 30
minutes, total
Makes 2 to 4 servings
2 boneless New York strip steaks,
1 1/2 to 2 inches thick
Salt and freshly ground black
pepper, or steak rub as needed
1 tablespoon canola oil
4 tablespoons butter
4 cloves garlic, peeled and
crushed with the side of a
chef’s knife (optional)
12 cherry or grape
tomatoes (optional)
3 sprigs fresh thyme (optional)
3 sprigs fresh rosemary (optional)
1. 30 minutes before cooking,
remove the steaks from the
refrigerator. Place on a wire rack.
2. Season 2 steaks with salt
Kristen Mendiola/The Daily Meal-TNS
Reverse seared steak.
and pepper or steak rub and
place in the center of a preheated
275F oven. For medium-rare,
cook until an instant-read ther-
mometer inserted in the center
of steaks reads 115-120 degrees
F, about 20 to 30 minutes. (See
note.)
3. Remove steaks and tent
with tin foil.
4. Set a heavy bottom pan
— cast iron is perfect — over
medium-high heat. When the
pan begins to smoke, add 1 ta-
blespoon oil to coat the bottom
of the pan.
5. Add steaks and sear one
side to golden brown, about 1-2
minutes. Flip steaks and sear for
another minute, or more if you
like your steak well-done.
6. Add 4 tablespoons butter
and optional garlic, tomatoes,
thyme and rosemary. When
butter melts, tilt pan slightly to
pool butter on one side. Baste
steaks with melted butter for 1-2
minutes, until the bottom of the
steak is golden brown.
7. Remove steaks to a cutting
board and rest for 1 minute. Slice
on a bias and serve garnished
with steak drippings, garlic and
tomatoes and serve immediately.
Note: Diff erent steaks of diff er-
ent thicknesses in diff erent ovens
can have vastly diff erent cooking
times. Start checking internal
temperature about 15 minutes
after they go into the oven.
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