I bought this book as I have embarked on a slow food adventure of my own - it is a book filled with great recipes for sausage, terrine, salami and all sorts of great sounding and mouthwatering meaty tidbits - however, and this is a big however, it suffers from stagefright. Why because it only delivers one verdict in the area of food safety - that nitrites and nitrates rule - it fails to give the educated consumer a choice in approach. I fail to see how, when amongst many others the acknowledged King of hams in Parma or its moot equal Iberico can deliver such gems without the use of nitrates,the art of charchuterie can be considered complete for dismissing their non use so quickly. Many will deservedly love this book but for the adventurous among us it falls short.