Book Description
The Most Authoritative and Whimsical Look At the PigPork is the world's most widely eaten meat, the heart and soul of everycharcuterie, and many a culinarian's obsession. From head to hoof, and allthe diverse and flavorful meat cuts in between, the pig is the mostversatile and efficient animal raised for food. And no one knows more aboutthe selection, preparation and cooking of pork than French chef andrestaurateur Stephane Reynaud.Coming from a long line of pig butchers and farmers in rural France,Reynaud certainly knows his stuff. This spring Reynaud shares hisaffection, recipes and deep knowledge of the pig in PORK SONS. The winnerof the 2005 French Gourmand Cookbook Award, PORK SONS celebrates theswine in all its forms, from slaughter to supper. The U.S. release of thisunique and remarkable cookbook introduces Americans to generations-worth ofexpertise and love of this delectable meat.Interspersed with humorous hand-drawn sketches and over 200 evocative colorphotographs, PORK SONS provides insight into the history of the pig,those who raise them, and of course how to flavor, cook and transform porkinto an array of mouth-watering dishes. With 150 simple yet flavorfulrecipes that encompass the whole hog, PORK SONS includes chapters on ham,pates and terrines, sausage, roasting, barbecuing, entertaining, and wildboar, with recipes for Warm Sausage and Puy Lentil Salad with HerbMarinade; Proscuitto, Arugula and Parmesan Crostini; Pork Chops withSaint-Marcellin Cheese; Parfait of Pig's Liver and Muscatel; BarbecuedSuckling Pig and many other delectable creations. Also provided arecomplete lexicons of sausage and ham, top sources of pork in the U.S., anda helpful list of alternative ingredients to those readily available inEurope, so cooks can use PORK SONS wherever they live.While this quintessential "pig" cookbook celebrates the delicious qualitiesof pork in all its myriad forms, it also offers a rare, personal glimpseinto a day-in-the-life of a small family business in rural France. Partcookbook and part scrapbook, PORK SONS spills over with warmth andplayful charm in its celebration of community, family and food. Reynaudintroduces us to the people in his village, including Eric the Pig Farmer,Aime the Butcher, Bibi the Bistro Owner, among the cast of characters. Heeven takes us to a traditional pig killing ceremony in Saint-Agrave.PORK SONS, an affectionate tribute to all things porcine, is the perfectrelease in this "year of the pig."
Customer Reviews:
Most beautiful cookbook........2007-06-01
I have over a thousand cookbooks and I can categorically state that this is probably the most beautiful cookbook in my collection. The book's excellent graphic design and captivating pictures transport you to a totally different place. Its a place where you know by name the people who bring the food to your table. A place where meals are thought of and not expedited. A place where more effort is used in bringing food to the table and that effort is appreciated. The overall design is so successful that the reader forgets that certain portions are about slaughtering an animal or that there is a large amount of recipes about offal. I enjoy dishes made from offal but in my experience most people don't. My only disappointment in the book is that it does not have any recipes for making the sausages. Then again, any frenchman will tell you that a toulouse sausage is not a toulouse sausage unless it was produced in Toulouse. I highly recommend this book.
fabulous.......2007-05-31
The fabulous pig in all its glory, a photo on every page of the dish, photos that make you drool at the thought of the food, a witty and intimate text - just perfection even with American measures. The US got rid of King George, why not ditch the Imperial system for weights and measures?
What's not to love about an all-pork cookbook?.......2007-05-29
This book celebrates the swine in a way it deserves. Absolutely gorgeous and delicious.
pork and sons.......2007-05-13
all the recipes are long and involved and generally the book is not user friendly
WOW! Trust me - BUY THIS BOOK........2007-04-18
This book is the most inclusive, insightful, and casual cookbook I own - from the 80+ books that occupy shelves and shelves. It is worth every cent, if not actually under priced. The sketches of the cartoons are great. There are too many strengths to mention. Reynaud covers practically every use of the pig from snout to tail and does so from primitive / traditional recipes to gourmet presentations with Pork, Pork, and Pork included in every dish.
Strongly recommended.
Craig Adcock
Belly Up Bar-B-Que.
Average customer rating:
- bought it based on review in Saveur
- As the title implies, for meat lovers
- Meat Buyers Guide
|
The Meat Buyers Guide : Meat, Lamb, Veal, Pork and Poultry
NAMP North American Meat Processors Association
Manufacturer: Wiley
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Seafood Handbook
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Field Guide To Meat: How To Identify, Select, and Prepare Virtually Every Meat, Poultry, and Game Cut
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Accessories:
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North American Meat Processors Chicken Notebook Guides, Revised - SET of 5
ASIN: 0471747211 |
Book Description
For well over sixty years, the North American Meat Processors Association (NAMP) has provided the foodservice industry with reliable guidelines for purchasing meat. The Meat Buyer's Guide: Beef, Lamb, Veal, Pork, and Poultry maintains the authoritative information professionals expect, and by including information from The Poultry Buyer's Guide in this new edition, it offers a complete, single-source reference for every facility's meat-buying needs.
This new edition of The Meat Buyer's Guide features:
- New uses for muscles in meat carcasses
- New trim, cut, and processing options
- More than 60 new photographs
NORTH AMERICAN MEAT PROCESSORS ASSOCIATION is a nonprofit trade association comprised of meat processing companies and associates who share a continuing commitment to provide their customers with reliable and consistent high-quality meat, poultry, seafood, game, and other food products.
NAMP Member Companies provide unparalleled service to their customers through their unique meat product offerings and premium distribution systems. They are meat experts who satisfy their customer's needs with quality products, professionalism and realiabity. Look for the NAMP symbol when deciding on a meat and food supplier.
To find a NAMP Meat Specialist near you, visit www.namp.com
Customer Reviews:
bought it based on review in Saveur.......2007-02-09
I bought this book based on a review in Saveur. It did not give me the information that I wanted and at $50+, I thought that it was very overpriced.
As the title implies, for meat lovers.......2006-08-21
At $65.00, this book is primarily intended for libraries, but also for those who often buy and cook meat. It is an encyclopedia with lots of color illustrations of the various animals, and cuts of meat.
Meat Buyers Guide.......2006-07-05
The guide is easy to follow and logical. The pages are laminated so that the guide can be used in kitchen environments
Average customer rating:
- Professional charuterie: Sauasage making, Curing, terrines, pates
- Other suggestions
- Good Enough, In all fairness
- A Commericial Text
- Good looking book but.
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Professional Charcuterie: Sausage Making, Curing, Terrines, and Pâtés
John Kinsella , and
David T. Harvey
Manufacturer: Wiley
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Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing
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Cold-Smoking & Salt-Curing Meat, Fish, & Game
ASIN: 0471122378 |
Book Description
The complete, contemporary guide to preparing sausages, cured and smoked meats, pâtés and terrines, and cured and smoked fish of the highest quality
Centuries of skill and imagination have earned charcuterie a revered place in the world of gastronomy, and Professional Charcuterie honors that proud tradition. This working manual and treasury of recipes covers the selection and assembly of ingredients, the most effective use of equipment, and the indispensable basics of food safety. Incorporating a wide variety of meats, seafood, fowl, and game, its range of over 200 enticing, culinary classroom-tested recipes includes all the classics of charcuterie, as well as exceptional contemporary favorites. Step-by-step instructions for smoking and curing are clearly presented, as well as illustrated procedures for preparing and stuffing sausages.
Designed for professionals and culinary students as well as home cooks, Professional Charcuterie allows readers to produce superior products upon the very first effort, and to develop their skills to even higher levels.
Customer Reviews:
Professional charuterie: Sauasage making, Curing, terrines, pates.......2006-10-14
Oh my god I just read Thomas kellers book it's the Best!! This book on the other hand, is mediocrity at best. The author takes up countless pages of out dated equipment and definitions of things like what a crushed red pepper is. I can only say that as a Professional chef this book is a total disappointment. Don't spend your money on the Rytek book either the only book is Thomas Kellers
Other suggestions.......2003-10-25
This is quite an advanced book. If you are looking for something suitable for the home kitchen, see if you can locate a copy of Jane Grigson's
<
>. It's out of print, but readily available used at Amazon.com.
Good Enough, In all fairness.......2003-01-28
I particularly like the spice combinations presented in the different recipes. It covers sausages from around our planet. Procedure-wise, methods can change depending on where we are in the globe but this book is an effective guide to charcuterie-making as a whole !!
... I really do not know what the other reviewers were looking for in a charcuterie book, though !!
A Commericial Text.......2001-12-17
This book is for the professional cook in mind not for homestead sasuage makers. It is not what i was looking for.
Good looking book but........2000-08-28
This book looks good, with lots of pictures and sausage mixes. I have been making sausages for a living for twenty years, I have won many local competions including currently holding the title for supreme champion of hampshire UK. When I first started reading this book I thought these will not work and how right I was. When I changed a few things around the sausages came out ok. This book is not as it states PROFESSIONAL.
Customer Reviews:
"...European civilization...has been founded on the pig.".......2006-06-15
I am on an unholy mission to convert a few Amazonians to the pleasures of do-it-yourself charcuterie. My travels in search of gustatory ecstacy have revealed many a depressing deficiency in American food, one of the most egregious of which is the state of this country's meats. Besides the much-publicized and lamented feed-lot economy that guarantees cheap and flavorless meat for all, we have forfeited the rich, varied, and highly-localized meat traditions of Europe. We have replaced flavor, texture, and local nuance with industrial products that satisfy the huge distributors but leave our tongues and bellies beggared. I am writing a series of reviews that laud a few recent books that do a great job in trying to rectify this impoverishment.
Perhaps the most thorough and comprehensive of the bunch is Jane Grigson's. Over almost 350 dense, detailed pages she covers the hows and whys of charcuterie. Everything from tools and methods to the meat itself is presented in lucid prose, with a fine eye to determining what, exactly, the reader needs to know to make good meat products at home. Sausages of every kind and description, pates, terrines, puddings, saltings, fresh pork preparations, sauces, gallantines... the scope of this book approaches the scope of knowledge a Franch charcutier might possess. Few details escaped Grigson's attention, for her purpose was no humbler than to revive charcuterie in Britain. If she accomplished nothing more than to inspire Fergus Henderson to become the greatest meat-man of his generation, she should rest in peace.
The book has many virtues, readability and enthusiasm not least among them. But its real gift is its comprehensiveness and its almost unique ability to guide the reader through unfamiliar territory. This is a real, fundamental, primary cookbook. Anything more basic would be a farming manual. Which brings me to the point I started to make at the beginning of this screed: our American meat situation is bad because we allow much too much mediation between live meat animals and what we put in our mouths. What Grigson proposes is a hands-on, direct, sensory, real involvement with the raw materials. This, as the great French and Italian food traditions demonstrate so unasailably, is fundamental to great food. When you give up the cheap pleasures of supermarket hamburger and try your hand at basic charcuterie, you will enter a world of memorable pleasures and perhaps rekindle that most basic human value: respect for the sources of what we eat.
You may find my review of Fergus Henderson's The Whole Beast useful in your education as a carnivore.
Enjoy.
Excellent Scholarship and Foodie Read. Buy It!.......2006-03-21
`Charcuterie and French Pork Cookery' is the prominent 20th century English culinary writer, Jane Grigson's first book, first published in 1967. Like her last book, `English Food' and unlike many of her intermediate books, this is a very scholarly book that may not have much appeal to the average amateur cook. It is much closer to a technical book on how to make and cook with forcemeats and cured pork products than a source for the home cook. As I will discuss later, that doesn't mean it has no value for the amateur cook, especially those for whom cooking has become a hobby or avocation.
Grigson is one of the most prominent disciples of the great English culinary writer, Elizabeth David, who, through Grigson, Alan Davidson, Jill Norman, Claudia Roden and American, Richard Olney has influenced a large share of a generation of English language culinary writers and restaurateurs. David is a palpable presence throughout this book with references to her works and her London cookware shop sprinkled liberally throughout the text. In a sense, this book is an extension to David's own `French Provincial Cooking', as Grigson picks up on one of the most important specialities of French home and commercial cooking.
I sense an increased interest in `charcuterie' throughout the American culinary reading public. Of course, the Food Network has not yet come out with a show on `charcuterie' but I have seen on DVD an episode on sausage making done by Julia Child and at least two of Alton Brown's `Good Eats' shows have been dedicated to these subjects. The most convincing evidence is the publication of the recent book, `Charcuterie' by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Poleyn and certainly the easily satirized Emeril Lagasse exclamation that `pork fat rules'. Although it sounds like a gimmick, it is certain, confirmed by millennia of practice, that pork fat (lard) is by far the most useful animal fat, far more useful than beef s suet, chicken fat, or lamb fat. It has the finest consistency and by far the best taste, as evidenced by the high value placed on bacon fat as a flavoring throughout the European cuisines, most especially in the cuisine of the southern United States. As Grigson so neatly summarizes at the end of her book, pork fat is to ambient temperature meat preservation what sugar and acid is to fruit and vegetable preservation (pickling and preserves).
For those with no sense of what `charcuterie' is, let me identify the most common examples. These are ham, breakfast sausage, `Italian' sausage', meat loaf, pates, and scrapple. As this book includes recipes for things to do with `charcuterie' products, I recommend this as a source of recipes for things to do with ham. Outside of the thousands of uses for the famous dried hams such as Italian procuitto, German Westphalian Ham, Spanish Serrano ham, and Bayonne hams, I am often at a loss when looking for something to do with a small ham dish for one or two people. I will also recommend this book to all those who are fond of brining techniques. I can't say this with any authority, but I suspect the current wisdom about brining springs from Grigson's writings, as interpreted by writers such as Shirley Corriher.
Even if you have no intention whatsoever to invest in sausage making equipment or a grinder attachment to your Kitchen-aid, this is a great foodie read. And, that is not only for entertainment. The recipes for the dozens of sausages, pates, and other forcemeats can offer a wealth of ideas on making new stuffings for things like cabbage, peppers, and tomatoes.
The only problem one may experience with the procedures in this book is with the scarcity of fat on our new pig. One can only gasp at the comparison between the average American pork chop and the richly fatted chop exhibited on an `Oliver's Twist' show by Jamie Oliver, harvested from an artisinally raised porker in rural England.
In many ways, this is actually a better book than the much more recent Ruhlman / Poleyn book, as it covers a much broader range of procedures and recipes and takes a more critical attitude towards the subject. It is immensely reassuring to find an informed writer say that the Italian sausage, mortadella is really a bit on the bland side. And here, I thought my taste had not refined enough to appreciate this famous Italian product. And yet, for the casual reader, Ruhlman is probably a better choice as all his sources and references are modern, while Grigson often refers to sources which are nothing more than a find memory.
Book Description
George Carlins legendary irreverence and iconoclasm are on full display in When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? as he vainly scours the American landscape for signs of intelligence in his third national bestseller. Ranging from his absurdist side (Message from a Cockroach; TV News: The Death of Humpty Dumpty; Tips for Serial Killers) to his unerring ear for American speech (Politician Talk; Societal Clichs; Euphemisms: 13 sections) to his unsparing views on America and its values (War, God, Stuff Like That; Zero Tolerance; Tired of the Handi-crap), Carlin delivers everything that his fans expect, and then adds a few surprises.
Customer Reviews:
Hilarious.......2007-09-28
I read this book on my deployment to Iraq and it was great. It's great if you want to take a break from the things that go on around you. This book is very entertaining, lot's of adult humor in it, and a lot of cursing. You know, classic George Carlin stuff.
Booooring.......2007-09-24
Wow, I expected this book to full of witty little anecdotes and social commentary going in, and that's probably what some people got from it. For me, this was just an endless parade of whining, whining, and more whining. Maybe it was the fact that I wasn't hearing him read it out loud in his own gravelly voice, but I don't think I even smiled once, and none of those knowing nods either. Who gives a crap if someone uses the phrase "moving on"? Seriously do you have to write a whole chapter about how much it irritates you? I think he should stick to the movies...
When Will Carlin Resume Being Funny Again?.......2007-09-18
The answer to both my question AND the question asked in the book title is apparently never...
Years ago George Carlin was hilarious,and he was so without all of the obscene language,and,perhaps more importantly,without all of the nasty editorial comments..I used to own an L.P.(long playing)record on which Carlin did routines such as"wonderful wino radio"and sang nonsense doo-wop songs such as"Jenny",all of which he accomplished without once using a"curse"word..Then along came the 1980s,and Carlin introduced the world to all of the obscene words that could not THEN be said on teevee,and his new reputation was made..He had exchanged comedy for trash talk and had succeeded wildly with a new audience that was no longer content with jokes that did not include curse words,descriptions of bodily functions not usually practiced in public,and other low class humour...Not that some of this material wasn't funny...no...some of it was very funny,but a lot of it could have been just as funny without all of the expletives included..
In"When will Jesus bring the pork chops"Carlin apparently has put away a lot of the graphic language and exchanged it for editorial opinion...Apparently Carlin does not like religion,government,commerce,or "american values"..In this he is,of course,not alone,but rather than to poke fun at these topics,Carlin instead has decided to use a meat axe to bludgeon them,the result being material that is,for the most part,nasty rather than funny...Carlin does not go after what is "wrong"with religion but instead goes after religion,period..the same for government,industry,and so forth...To make matters even worse,Carlin more or less states that those who believe in some denominational religious system are idiots,and that "God"is just a device used by sharpsters to take advantage of fools...He indicates that government employees,especially politicians,are all frauds and potential criminals,and that the only thing that industry does"right"is to devise new ways to sell what Carlin deems"crap"to stupid american consumers..This sort of thing is just NOT FUNNY !
Being as how Carlin has become a best selling author writing this sort of twaddle there is apparently a large audience out there composed entirely of disillusioned cynical people who associate with such themes..This alone is tragic,but the fact that Carlin thinks that feeding into this disenchantment with his negative humour is somehow funny serves only to underscore what is wrong with our world today..
I bought this book in the expectation that at least some of the "old"Carlin would be on display..How WRONG I was!
Not funny...........2007-09-18
The picture on the cover is the funniest part of this book. I love George Carlin, but the best way to enjoy him is to watch him do a live performance. I even got the audio cd version of this book and .... not funny.
The book starts off pretty well then quickly gets dull. There are WAY too many sections on euphemisms! Then he will do a commercial spot in between his many, many sections on even more euphemisms. The commercial spots he does didn't make me laugh one time and they got very redundant.
If you want to enjoy Carlin, go for the live performance dvds.
Save your money to see his old performances on video........2007-09-11
I own "Brain Droppings" and checked this one out at the library, and lets just say that George's comedy doesn't work as well in writing as it does when he performs it. The key to his stand-up routine is his raw energy, which you can only truly feel when watching him... or at least listening to him. Aside from that flaw, his newer material just isn't as strong as his earlier work. A lot of it just seems recycled. His performances have a much less charismatic tone. Though hell, I give him credit for staying great as long as he has. Most comedians seem to burn out as soon as they gain any success. It could be from getting older, who knows.
On the positive side, the title and cover of the book is hilarious and the new book/routine isn't horrible, it's just weak compared to his past efforts.
Book Description
What Bill Bryson did for trees and walking shoes and Mark Kurlansky did for cod, Peter Kaminsky now does for pork in Pig Perfect 'I love ham and I love this book.' -Annie Dillard o you crave a juicy pork chop? An old-time country ham? Or maybe some Southern-style barbecue? Then you'll want to join Peter Kaminsky on his pilgrimage in search of the perfect pig. Part travelogue, part cookbook, part naturalist's encounter, and part love letter, Kaminsky's book takes us from Kentucky, Burgundy, and Madrid to the Yucatn and back to Brooklyn to tell the tale of the pig. From the wondrous techniques of tailgate chefs to Mayan home cooking, competitive barbecuing, and the ancient rite of the pig killing that has bound communities together over the centuries, Pig Perfect brings together an oddball pork-loving band of chefs, farmers, and food lovers and offers a tasty history of the oft underappreciated pig.
Customer Reviews:
I couldn't put the book down.......2007-07-11
This book is brilliant. The author keeps the readers engaged from cover to cover. It is definitely a book for foodies, particularly those of us who are obsessed with pork, but it would be an entertaining read for most anyone.
Hog Wild about Pig Perfect by Peter Kaminsky.......2007-02-04
Owning a gourmet retail shop gives me the opportunity to taste more cured meats than most. Before reading this book, I had no idea how obsessed I'd become about pork! A good customer dropped off Pig Perfect and said, "I think you will like this." Now there is a picture of an Iberian pig on our store desktop and I am scheduling a ham tasting for the Slow Food Movement. If you like culinary anthropology, obsessive travel for a good meal, and great story telling, Peter brings it all together in Pig Perfect. It's a great read and for such a small book, it is packed with well researched information that will make you hop on a plane to experience authentic pata negra.
Entertainig and Absorbing.......2006-12-13
I am not much of a book reader -- I would rather read the Economist and the CS Monitor, but when I picked up this book I literral spent the weekend reading it. As owner of [...] an online source of Spanish food, I approached the boiok as an obligator task. But Peter is wonderful- what great humor and what inquisitive mind!
The section on the jamón ibérico was tops -- his desciption of the ritual "sacrifice" of the pig (that's the beautful word the Spaniards use -- not slaughter) in the farming communities could not be better. His discussion of the taboos of Jews and Muslims were fascinating and imaginative. They are described above in another review.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough -- for the scholar, the gourmet, the curious. Pigs are all around you (four legged ones) so why not learn and chuckle at the same time?
Excellent Foodie agenda and read. Buy it now!.......2006-07-05
`Pig Perfect' by culinary and fishing journalist, Peter Kaminsky is almost like the flip side of Eric Schlosser's 'Fast Food Nation', in that Kaminsky is in search of the very antithesis of modern American industrial pig husbandry. One very important note is that while the title of the book brings the whole pig to mind, Kaminsky really spends over half his book dedicated to the ham, and more specifically the hams created from the `iberico' black pig of Spain and southwestern France.
I really have to love a book that engenders connections between widely dissimilar areas such as the opening scene of the movie `2001 A Space Odyssey', Jewish and Muslem dietary laws, and analysis of linguistic usage. The first of this triad arises when Kaminsky discusses the speculation that the origin of the large brained arthropod in Africa came about when a particular tribe developed a taste for animal fat and protein, thereby scoring the nutrients which fed a larger brain. As you remember, the great epithany in the first scenes of `2001' was the teaching of tool usage to proto-hominids, who used the tools to kill their piggy looking competitors for scarce grass on the veldt. This brings up the third leg of this triad, where Kaminsky rapsodises over the `humane' language of the Spanish farmers who `sacrifice' their pigs, in contrast to the American usage where pigs and other food animals are `slaughtered'. Kaminsky imagines the first word establishes a stronger connection between the two levels of the food chain, the humans, and their meat animals. I will offer the thought that Kaminsky is reading far too much into this difference in wording, as my consulting Webster's confirms that both words are simply two different words for killing animals. The first is for killing them simply for food, the second is for killing them as an offering to the gods. Both words are intimately connected with animals, just as the German verb `fressen' means an animal's eating. But then, I'm really just playing Kaminsky's game here, as both of us are simply `playing with words'.
Kaminsky's review of explanations for why middle eastern cultures such as the Jews and the Arab Muslims both forbade eating pork or any other meat from an animal with cloven hooves.
The first reason is traced back to Egypt, where pigs are hardly ever mentioned because, as Kaminsky speculates, they were raised by individual families, as it was very inexpensive to support a pig or two, in contrast to cattle, sheep, and goats, which required state supported resources. It also meant that cattle, sheep, and goats were a lot easier to tax, as their husbandry was more involved and required larger establishments. Thus, states preferred endorsing those animals whose herds produced better tax income.
The second reason is the fact that pigs are major competitors with humans for the major Middle Eastern grains, wheat and barley. So, the pigs had to go.
The third reason was always my favorite. It is based on the fact that historically, the Arabs and Jews both arose from nomadic tribes, and pigs are a lot harder to herd than cattle, sheep, or goats.
Kaminsky's favorite expert has a fourth reason. He theorizes that with everything else going against pigs, they were immediately replaced by chickens which were even cheaper to raise in small homesteads, did not compete for wheat and barley, and could be easily slung over the mules when the tribe travelled from place to place.
The point of all this theorizing is to strengthen the picture for those cultures in Spain and France where the pig had exactly the opposite reception and was treated as the mainstay of the culture's animal protein. This brings us to Kaminsky's central venue, western Spain and its oak forests, where pigs can happily grow fat on its abundance of chestnuts. From Spain, Kaminsky takes the story to colonies of the black `iberico' pig in the United States and how superior the fatty meat is in these animals compared to the commercially raised white pigs.
Kaminsky also reviews all the facts which back up Emeril Lagasse's famous explamation that `pork fat rules'. It is well known to me by now that lard is superior to butter and to all other common animal fats in its level of unsaturated lipids. This advantage has been bred out of American pigs to create `the other white meat' which seems to be a pale shadow of its more active and more fatty `artisinally raised' porkers.
I delight in the prospect that this book may add another pebble to the movement to return to a better source of pork, just as Julia Child was able to change supermarket stocking habits by demanding on `The French Chef' that she needed her shallots and leeks!
Good luck, Peter, for all of us who look forward to a better porky future.
This is a great culinary read, with a worthwhile agenda to consider. Not exactly `Silent Spring', but not chopped liver either!
Hamthropology.......2006-01-30
A self-described "hamthropologist," Peter Kaminsky takes us from Andalusia to ancient Mesopotamia to modern-day North Carolina hog farms as he shares his quest for delectable pork in the book Pig Perfect: Encounters with Remarkable Swine and Some Great Ways to Cook Them (2005, Hyperion).
"Cooking" might not be strictly accurate, as it's cured pork in all its forms that really fuels Kaminsky's fire. Although there are a few recipes, they're not the point of the book. I haven't tried any; they look tasty, but some are not for everyday use, such as the recipe for cocido. It's an incredibly hearty Spanish stew with an ingredient list almost 2 pages long. We've had it in Madrid and it's delicious, but it took me hours to eat, all day to digest, and from the looks of it, a mighty long time to prepare.
No, read this for the story of the pig. Kaminsky delves into history, and produces fascinating economic reasons why pork is forbidden to the Jewish and Muslim faiths. He discusses the role pigs and their ancestors may have played in shaping our landscape. He travels to Spain, where the famed jamon iberico rules, and learns about black pigs and pasturing. Rare in North America, where they're a "heritage" type, these breeds are also very well suited to being farmed using time-tested methods. Allowed to forage for a traditional diet of acorns, they are actually healthier to eat because their fat is monounsaturated. They're also tastier because pigs take on the flavours of their feed, and the meat is more thoroughly marbled with fat as the pig exercises as it forages.
These methods date from before pigs were mass-produced as "the other white meat." Pork is white because the pens in most modern farm systems don't allow pigs to move, and because they're slaughtered so young (just 6 months of age). Kaminsky observes: pork can be deeply coloured, with a corresponding increase in flavour, when the pigs have had a chance to exercise. In contrast, a modern sow might bear and suckle multiple litters of piglets and never ever see them because she can't turn around in her pen. When you think that pigs are at least as smart as dogs, indignation is natural. However, Kaminsky never dips into sentimentalism. He describes the huge factory-like plants in North Carolina where millions of pigs are slaughtered, called CAFOs or Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, but his arguments against them are logical and based on a wide variety of interviews. As Kaminsky convincingly portrays them, they are bad for the environment with their acres of untreated lagoons of chemical-laced sewage; bad for the farmers economically and for the neighbours healthwise; bad for the pigs themselves; and ultimately, bad for the consumer because the final product just doesn't taste that great. He mentions that a lot of award-winning barbecue is made with pork from Sam's Club, but what kind of pork ambrosia would result if those techniques were applied to high-quality meat?
One of this book's real strengths is Kaminsky's rapport with people and his ability to capture their unique voices. He interviews a number of them, all diverse - competitive barbecuers in the American South, anthropologists, Spanish cooks and farmers, an energetic elderly woman living alone on an island filled with Ossabaw pigs (the descendants of the very first pigs brought over by Spanish explorers), food activists, French cheesemakers and gourmands - and their personalities keep an already lively writing style hopping.
The other great asset Kaminsky brings to the table, so to speak, is his undiluted enthusiasm for piggy eating experiences. He actually ends up facilitating a network of like-minded pig aficionados, and connecting heritage-minded farmers with suppliers of Ossabaws, transporting some of the meat up to New York to meet with the hands of Italian-based ham-makers and the tastebuds of chef Daniel Boulud. Overall, his book is not only a great read with a mouth-watering topic, but a thought-provoking look at how our food interacts with the world around it, and how it can bring people together.
Amazon.com
With such past triumphs as Hot Links and Country Flavor, Real Beer and Good Eats and The Complete Meat Cookbook Bruce Aidells has established himself as a god-like carnivore among mere mortals. His taste buds know no bounds, his thirst for the next best recipe absolutely unquenchable. "I am a restless cook and adventurous eater," he says in the beginning of Bruce Aidells's Complete Book of Pork, perhaps his greatest cookbook yet.
Maybe the dog has been hooked up with humankind longer than the pig, and has wandered into regions pigs knowingly eschew, like the Arctic. But pigs and people share a long, delicious history the dog can only sniff at, and longingly at that; an intimacy, if you will, unmatched in any other cross-species relationship. Aidells celebrates this connection. He gives the reader a brief history of the pig, then delivers definitive instructions on how to select great pork, and, in a general overview, how the flavor it and cook it to best advantage. He honors his subject and elevates his reader.
The recipes that follow have only one thing in common: Bruce Aidells loves them. They come from all corners of the world, from friends and from professionals, and from deep personal experience. They cover breakfasts treats, hors d'oeuvres, appetizers, and salads (Chopped Grilled Vegetable Salad with Grilled Pork Medallions); chops and steaks, scallops and cutlets (Smoked Pork Chops with Sour Cherry Sauce); kebabs and ribs (North African Marinated Pork kebabs on Couscous with Apricot Sauce); roasts, ham, pot roasts, stews, baked pastas, and casseroles (Grill-Roasted Pork Shoulder Cuban Style).
In each shift among the pork primals Aidells discusses the fitting master recipe, the umbrella technique beneath which truth and beauty unfold. He's a champion of flavor brining and his instructions eliminate any possible confusion. But he saves his soul for the last section, which is given over to some of the best material in print on preserving pork, the making of sausages, pâtés and terrines, bacon and salamis. It's at this point in the book that poignancy kicks in. This final word has the feeling of last word as well. --Schuyler Ingle
Book Description
Long the world's favorite meat, pork has surged in popularity in American kitchens thanks in part to high-protein diets, but mostly because of its adaptability to just about every taste. Whether you like spicy Asian flavors, flavorful pan braises, or light and healthy grills, pork fills the bill. Now Bruce Aidells, America's leading meat expert, presents a guide to pork's endless versatility, with 160 international recipes and cooking and shopping tips.
This comprehensive collection contains everything cooks need to know about pork, including how to choose from the many cuts available, how to serve a crowd with ease, and how to ensure moist pork chops and succulent roasts every time. Aidells offers temperature charts for perfect grilling, roasting, and braising, as well as a landmark chapter with step-by-step instructions for home curing. With Bruce Aidells as your guide, you will be making your own bacon, salami, and breakfast sausages with ease. If you are looking to enhance everyday dining, there are recipes here for quick after-work meals, as well as dramatic centerpiece main courses that are sure to impress guests. Bruce Aidells's Complete Book of Pork is a matchless all-in-one guide that will become a kitchen classic.
Customer Reviews:
An excellent book, with a few minor flaws.......2007-08-18
This is an excellent book, with a few minor shortcomings.
STRENGTHS:
* This is a solid book, written by an expert on the topic - a butcher and an acclaimed expert sausage maker. He knows his stuff, and he does a passable job of passing along some very useful information ... such as the real story about trichinoa and how to protect yourself without ruining the meat by overcooking, how to spot substandard pork that wasn't slaughtered properly and/or which is getting a bit old/off, how to grind meat without ruining it, etc. That's important stuff which most authors neglect to cover in reasonable depth, if at all.
* Good explanations, and well written head notes for all recipes.
* Tasty, well honed recipes, from around the world, and using good techniques and varied seasoings. I also like the fact that the author borrowed Julia Child's "Master Recipes" system, for covering with one swell foop many recipes at once that differ only in their seasoning/ingredient profile ... the technique is the same, so describe the technique, so that all the related recipes are just variations on a theme. It's the culinary equivalent of give a man a fish vs teach a man to fish.
COMPLAINTS:
* Once again, here is a book that's broken down by chapter, but within those individual chapters all recipes appear to be in random order ... and there's no recipe index to help you shop for, much less find in a hurry, a given recipe, even if you know what you're looking for. I mean come on ... how hard can it be to rename recipes like (this is a fictional example) "Billy-Bob's Foot Stompin Tamarind Tenderloin" into say "Tenderloin, Tamarind Marinated", and then sort the whole chapter alphabetically so that everything appear by order of cut and key ingredient/flavor ? If you wanna include a "Billy-Bob Foot Stompin ..." credit somewhere, the place for such things is in the head notes of the applicable recipe, NOT the title. In general I'm not really concerned with who "Billy-Bob" (or whoever) is ... if I want a recipe for, say, tenderloin, I want to be able to do it easily, without having to flip page by page through entire randomly ordered chapters to find it. It's a recurring peeve of mine with a lot of culinary books.
* The author includes a credit for a graphic artist / food stylist. HOWEVER, aside from a diagram of a pig (and it's basic primal cuts) in the in-leaf, there are NO PHOTOS and NO GRAPHICS anywhere in this book. I mean come on ... for a hardcover that includes a overview of meat butchery, and provides recipies for things like ribs, pates, terrines, roulades, and the like (all of which CRY OUT for full color photos) ... for a book like that not to have a single picture is ... well, words fail me. Why even bother mentioning a food stylist / graphic artist if there are no graphics in the book?
* I also wish the author had devoted much more space to basic butchery in his opening chapter, in which he covers only the basic primal cuts of pork. He could have, and should have, given information on how to do things like the following (this is just one example):
> How to buy a whole bone-in loin roast primal, ask the butcher to shave off the chine bone, and then do any number of things to it when you get it home ... such as transform it into a standing rib roast or crown roast (photos please !), break it down into nice thick chops (hence the removal of the chine bone earlier), or how to debone it entirely into a boneless loin (and butterfly and stuff it ... photos please) and make other uses of the bones. I know how to do all those things, but most readers dont - and a book claiming to be "The Complete Book of Pork" should cover such things. I also dont see any recipes for offal yet ... but {as of this writing} I'm still reading.
BOTTOM LINE: This is a great book, with solid techniques and flavors. I'm looking forward to cooking my way though it. Recommended.
Required for a cook's library.......2005-02-08
Bruce Aidell is one of my favorite cookbook writers. Every book he has written has been solid gold in its use and depth of knowledge. For people who are fans of his _complete meat cookbook_ this is the volume to have. the first book is a masterwork for those who need to not only cook meat but to understand its background and want to have substantive knowledge on every aspect of it.
Taking off and enhancing the information found in the pork section he goes truly in depth on the subject of pork. The section on brining today's industrial pork is well worth the price of the book. I am pleased to say that he does not repeat anything from his earlier book so you are definitely getting new material.
Aidell is renowned as one of the early members of the northern California cooking scene and is known to some as the chicken sausage king - yes, it is THAT Aidell who sparked the gourmet sausage movement so, trust the man on his meat.
Everyone can cook from this book since it does not use complicated cooking methods and the spices and ingredients are readily available through the supermarket or from a trusted butcher (uncommon cuts like shin or cheek) it is accessable to anyone.
Highest recommendations for the cooking library and for cooks who prepare a great meal.
Covers the oink to the tail. Very Highly recommended........2004-12-10
The author's name is not only above the title, but part of the title of `Bruce Aidells's Complete Book of Pork'. And, the book fully lives up to its title and subtitle, `A Guide to Buying, Storing, and Cooking the World's Favorite Meat'. The book includes absolutely every subject on pork I can think of, including several I did not even expect because I thought they may be too obscure for even a 320 page book on this single subject. Not only do the authors cover their territory; they do it very, very well.
As Aidells states early in the book, this work is for people who like to create their own recipes with pork. While pork may be the world's favorite meat, it may also be one of the most difficult, especially today in the United States, where so much fat has been bread out of our porkers that older James Beard and Joy of Cooking recipes for pork may simply not even work any more, in that there is not enough fat moisture in some cuts to support exposure to high heat for the time needed to get the inside of the meat up to the old standard temperature to insure that chance of trichinosis or botulism is removed. One of the greater ironies of meat cooking is that if you cook pork loin or pork tenderloin with wet heat over 160 degrees Fahrenheit for very long, you will end up with dry, stringy meat in spite of the cooking in water.
So, one of the first and most important parts of the book is how to select cuts of pork and match them to the appropriate cooking method. Regarding selecting meat, I must have been incredibly lucky or terribly inattentive, as I have never seen many of the pathologies against which Aidells warns us. Still, it is very rewarding to know of these things and feel much better prepared to select meat at unfamiliar location such as the new farmer's market or warehouse store.
One surprise in the matching of meat to method is Aidells's counting leg and shin meat among the more tender cuts. The usual rule is that the further from the hoof or the horn, the more tender the meat. Well, I guess this doesn't work for pigs, as they have no horns. But, the principle of cooking tender meat by dry methods (grilling, roasting, sautéing, frying and broiling) and tough meat by wet methods (braising, stewing, poaching and steaming) is as true for pork as it is for beef. One thing that is true of pork and other `white meat' and not true of beef is the efficacy of brining in making the final cooked product moister. Brining pork is a very popular subject which has been explored by all the usual authorities such as Shirley Corriher and Harold McGee. The virtue of Aidells's book is that the technique is discussed in great detail, in connection with all the appropriate recipes.
Aidells's range of recipes for pork is not only broad, it is also of a very high quality. One of the first recipes I examined was for a strata made from sausage meat. As I just finished making a strata recipe from Wolfgang Puck's new book, I was really unhappy that I had not seen Aidells's recipe first, as it appears to be a much more interesting preparation. I was also very pleasantly surprised to see a recipe for a Philippine pork adobo recipe that was better than the one in my Philippine cookbook. The book does not cover every conceivable recipe. There are several famous dishes such as Chinese pork Dim Sum style steamed dumplings that are not in the book, but then, this recipe is more about the technique involved in the dumpling than it is with the pork.
The very best thing I found with this book is that all recipes use relatively simple techniques and equipment. One can spend tens of thousands of dollars on expert smoking equipment, but Aidells shows us how to do it with nothing more than a $100 Weber dome grill. I definitely approve of this. Also, he gives us instructions on how to make fresh sausage using a manual meat grinder, a KitchenAid meat grinding attachment, or a food processor. While I would not want to go through the difficulties of this technique, he even describes how to stuff sausage using a piping bag. I draw the line here and I have no difficulty in investing in the proper KitchenAid apparatus.
In addition to fresh sausage, the authors cover virtually every other pork processing and preserving technique such as making bacon, hams, and cured sausage such as salami. I was especially pleased to see the authors open the chapter on terrines by associating this technique with meatloaf. This association should immediately make pate and Terrine techniques friendlier to a reader who may associate them with old school French cuisine, done by no one who is not wearing a toque. My favorite recipe in this chapter is for a Polpettone Napoletano. I have seen Mario Batali make a polpettone (Italian for large meatball), but it has never quite inspired me as well as Aidells' dish. As written, it serves 12 to 16, so it is a super entertaining dish for delivering protein economically to a buffet crowd of unknown size.
As pork curing products are not standard items even at good local butcher shops, the author provides an excellent list of suppliers including both familiar (Nieman ranch, Dean and Delucca, Penzey's) and unfamiliar sources for speciality meats and materials.
The best thing I can say about this book is that it is every bit as good as expected. And, as this is one of the most useful kinds of books for the creative chef or wannabe creative chef, I say buy it now. You will find what you need and a lot of pleasant surprises as well.
Average customer rating:
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Pork Barrel Politics; Rivers and Harbors Legislation, 1947-1968
John A. Ferejohn
Manufacturer: Stanford Univ Pr
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