Cold cuts are also known as lunch meat, cooked meat, cold meat and deli meat. These types of meat are all precooked or cured, and then sliced to your liking. There are many types of cold cuts, such as your staple turkey and ham. Today let’s think of the others like head cheese, braunschweiger, all the salamis and other culinary delights that are cold cuts. Every nationality has their favorite cold cuts, and there is something for everyone (except the vegetarians out there!).

In the past couple of years, charcuterie has become very popular, and many chefs put different items on their boards to create a statement; such as duck prosciutto. A good charcuterie board should have a variety of meat on it, such as a couple types of cured meat, terrines and forcemeat. To make a great board, I always recommend going to your local butcher to see what they have. I will usually put on a cured sausage, such as a Spanish Chorizo or soppressata; a whole-muscle cut, such as Prosciutto or Jamon de Serrano; a nice pate or terrine, such as a duck terrine or rabbit; and then garnish the board with some pickled vegetables, bread and a jam of some sort to balance the flavors.

So, grab a glass of wine and enjoy some cold cuts today!

Questions?

If you have any questions about this article or flight crew culinary training, contact me at jdetloff@airculinaire.com. For questions about in-flight catering, contact weborders@airculinaire.com.