The Foodist: Cookbook Reviews

"Frankly, we love meat." Thus spake Bruce Aidells and Denis Kelly. Their first words in The Complete Meat Cookbook. Their starter's pistol statement. "This book," these well-informed authors tell us, "is written for those who share this carnivorous inclination." Authors of Hot Links and Country Flavors, Real Beer and Good Eats, and Flying Sausages, former chefs each to each, owner/founder of Bruce Aidells Sausage Company --- these guys know meat. And their mission in life is to share what they know. With gusto. Con brio.

The divisions are obvious: Beef, Pork, Lamb, Veal. But packed into each chapter is more information that 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 sliced and on the plate the succulence and the flavor that resides in memory (it comes from a time a fattier cuts), 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.

With the butcher all but taken out of the equation when it comes to buying meat, the responsibility for being informed about all manner of cuts of meat - which cuts work best with which styles of cooking and which kinds of recipes - is now up to the consumer. Aidells and Kelly weigh in with the real information. That's why this heavily illustrated book runs over 600 pages. Read this one from cover to cover and you can open your own butcher shop.

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.

Myth busting (like, don't salt meat before cooking, it will dry it out: wrong) is highlighted throughpout 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 Euro-centric text. It is, as the title suggests, 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.