"Frankly, we love meat." Thus spake Bruce Aidells and Denis Kelly, their first words in
The Complete Meat Cookbook.
"This book," these well-informed authors tell us, "is written for those
who share this carnivorous inclination." As the authors of
Hot Links and Country Flavors,
Real Beer and Good Eats, and
Flying Sausages, these guys know meat. And their mission in life is to share what they know. With gusto.
The divisions are obvious: beef, pork, lamb, veal. But packed into each
chapter is more information than any single reader might think
possible. There's history and anthropology; there's anatomy and kitchen
chemistry. And all of it is aimed at what the authors call the "new
meat." It's a leaner product--less fat than ever before. So to get the
succulence and the flavor that resides in memory (coming from a time of
fattier cuts) sliced and onto the plate, today's cook has to use a
different, more informed approach. You will find that guidance in this
book. How to select and buy, how to prep, how to intensify the flavor,
how to cook, how to store: it's all here. There is no other book like
it.
Heavily illustrated, The Complete Meat Cookbook
opens with a section on meat basics, including a little meat eating
history and a terrific doneness chart. Then there's a long section
covering all the basic cooking techniques and which cuts of which meat
work best with each technique. Once the book breaks out into sections
by kind of meat--beef, pork, lamb, veal--the depth of information
focuses and intensifies, and the recipes roll right along for more than
600 pages.
Myth busting (like, don't salt meat before cooking,
it will dry it out: wrong) is highlighted throughout the book. And each
recipe is labeled for ease, speed, budget consciousness, serve to
company, etc. The recipes take into account the world of meat eating.
This is no Eurocentric text--it is, as the title proclaims, complete.
If you are going to eat meat, do it right. This is the book to show you
how. No cookbook bookshelf is complete without a copy of
The Complete Meat Cookbook.
