Like many people my husband and I have been staying home the past week. That has meant eating out of our refrigerator and our freezer. As a result we’ve been scouring old favorite cookbooks for dishes that we’ve made but perhaps forgotten about and dreaming about when I can get out and shop again!

So, as long as I’m thinking creatively, I pulled out Victoria Wise’s American Charcuterie. We’ve had this cookbook since soon after it was published in the mid-1980s. What fun to look through this great guide to doing classic charcuterie as well as some of the marvelous recipes for specialties like marinated mushrooms and pickled beets!

Since my husband is more the cook that I am, I took a look through the most stained pages and found more than a few favorites. One recipe we love is Charcuterie Potatoes. The dish couldn’t be simpler: potatoes, cream, butter, salt and pepper. Wise recommends serving it with honey-glazed sausage. It’s so popular with my husband and his sister that it’s become our go-to dish for holidays, both Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Another favorite is also a favorite of our friends Brian and Alice and it’s classically French: Choucroute Garnie. To make it well you need a recipe like this that details how to make the sauerkraut (warning, this takes planning because good sauerkraut must be made well ahead). Wise also details cooking the sauerkraut and what to pair it with - preferably fresh ham hocks brined for a few days, confit of duck or goose and sausage. Fortunately Wise also gives ideas on how to make a respectable version from purchased ingredients.

With recipes for some very interesting and varied dishes, I suspect we’ll be doing some serious shopping and experimenting once it’s time to go to the grocery store again!

If you’d like to do some experimenting yourself and you consider yourself a reasonably good cook with a palate that goes beyond meat and potatoes I highly recommend this cookbook to you. There’s a reason it’s still available after 30+ years.

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