CURED by Chef Steve McHugh

James Beard Award Finalist, Chef Steve McHugh, Confirms His Expert Knowledge on the Art of Preserving and Curing in his first cookbook – CURED, Cooking with Ferments, Pickles, Preserves, & More

“Cured doesn’t simply serve as a guide to building an enviable and expansive larder, it goes a step further, teaching you how to put it all to use to great effect.” – David Zilbur, co-author of The Noma Guide to Fermentation

“Steve McHugh is a philosopher-chef, attuned to the rhythms of the natural world, focused on the transformative possibilities of the kitchen. His courage and keen palate, on display in Cured, remind me that recipes are acts of faith and meals are everyday sacraments.” -John T Edge, author of The Potlikker Papers

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST COOKBOOKS OF 2024 by Food and Wine and Eater

Learn the tricks of the trade from six-times James Beard Award finalist, Chef Steve McHugh, in his first cookbook – CURED, Cooking with Ferments, Pickles, Preserves, & More. . Transforming ingredients into extraordinary culinary dishes, this cookbook doesn’t just show how to preserve foods – McHugh shares the cornerstone of his cooking – elevating produce that tastes of the sun and of the fertile fields from America’s lands. McHugh tapped close friend Paula Forbes to contribute her prolific talents as an acclaimed journalist, cookbook author, and critic in crafting the language of this book.

With over 150 curated recipes, the book is a definitive guide on cooking with preserved foods, from pickles and jams to charcuterie and mustards. Discover an arsenal of techniques for curing ingredients like meat and seafood, fermenting vibrant vegetables, transforming fruit into jam, and more — all with the goal of capturing seasonal ingredients at the peak of flavor to showcase the best of the past and present.

But this book goes beyond just recipes. It empowers aspiring cooks to become a flavor alchemist in their own kitchen. Readers are encouraged to play with different herb blends, spice rubs, and brines to put a unique stamp on these preserved ingredients. Whether it’s made from scratch or purchased, these building blocks form a foundation, encouraging those to stretch their talents – whether it’s introducing strong flavors into the Spicy Fennel Kraut, or mixing a toasty, salty-sweet Miso into the preparation of the Mushrooms for the Vegetarian Reuben, or stirring in smooth or chunkier preserved Peaches, Strawberries, or Prickly Pears into a Mix-and-Match Jam Cocktail. There are endless possibilities once one masters the art of preservation.

Organized by preservation techniques – Acid, Ice, Dry, Sugar, Fat, Cure, Ferment, and Smoke – the book starts with essential base ingredients, homemade or store-bought. Then for each base, McHugh offers creative recipes to showcase varied applications – for example, making a Pumpkin Compound Butter and using it in both the batter and frosting, will accentuate warm autumnal spices in a classic, Simple Frosted Cake. Learn to amplify flavor with unique ingredient combinations – like enriching Risotto, the perfect liquid base, with the use of Oven-Dried Produce, like Mushrooms, for an umami infusion of flavor or Tomatoes for a robust, savory bite. From the familiar flavors of Spicy Honey and Kimchi to unexpected tastes in vinaigrettes like Blackberry or Warm Caramelized Onion, the cookbook stimulates experimentation while providing instruction on how to follow precise calculations. Swap in different homemade or commercial bases, tweak the applications, and suddenly 150 recipes are instantly transformed into thousands.

Unlock the layers of intoxicating flavors that nature shares on a seasonal basis, capturing its true taste through the magic of preservation.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Chef Steve McHugh perfected his craft as proprietor and chef at his critically-acclaimed restaurant – Cured in San Antonio, Texas – which propelled his development of in-depth culinary practices and a cooking philosophy of heritage ingredients. Both his cookbook and restaurant are endowed with a name that speaks to his successful battle against cancer [non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma,] as well as a prime methodology that is incorporated into his cooking.

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