San Antonio chef Steve McHugh of Cured releasing cookbook next spring

Nationally lauded San Antonio chef Steve McHugh next spring will release a hefty cookbook focused on his specialty: making and cooking with preserved foods.

McHugh wrote Cured: Cooking with Ferments, Pickles, Preserves, & More with Austin-based writer Paula Forbes, author of The Austin Cookbook and editor of online cookbook newsletter Stained Page News. Both McHugh and Forbes shared details Thursday on social media, revealing that the book is coming out from Ten Speed Press and is scheduled for a March 26 release.

In a Thursday Stained Page News entry, Forbes called the project — which includes more than 150 recipes — “one hell of a cookbook.” 

“Cured aims to teach home cooks how to cook with preserved foods. It has recipes for sauerkraut and pickles and jams, yes. But the bulk of the recipes are not for preserved foods, they use preserved foods,” Forbes wrote. “These are dishes that can be made with store-bought mustards and salad dressings and spice blends and sundried tomatoes. Because this is a book that is less about how to make preserved foods, and more about why.”

Forbes went on to explain that the book is divided up by preservation methods: Acid, Ice, Dry, Sugar, Fat, Cure, Ferment and Smoke. Each chapter has several Base Ingredient headings plus four to five recipes that use each of those ingredients

McHugh is known for his flagship eatery Cured as well as Landrace at San Antonio’s Thompson Hotel and Luminaire inside Austin’s downtown Hyatt hotel. He’s been named a finalist for the prestigious James Beard Foundation Award six times, the most for any San Antonio chef.

For the release, McHugh and Forbes have teamed up with San Antonio independent bookstore The Twig, located adjacent to Cured at the Pearl complex. Interested foodies who preorder the cookbook through The Twig will receive a copy signed by both authors when it’s released.

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This article appears in Nov 15-28, 2023.