The River Cottage Meat Book: [A Cookbook] - Hardcover

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1580088430 ISBN 13: 9781580088435

Publisher: Ten Speed Press, 2007

Synopsis

First published in the United Kingdom, THE RIVER COTTAGE MEAT BOOK quickly became an underground hit among food cognoscenti around the world. Now tailored for American cooks, this loving, authoritative, and galvanizing ode to good meat is one part manifesto on high-quality, local, and sustainable meat production; two parts guide to choosing and storing meats and fowl; and three parts techniques and recipes for roasting, cooking, barbecuing, preserving, and processing meats and getting the most out of leftovers. With this thought-provoking and practical guide, meat eaters can knowledgeably buy and prepare meat for better health and better living, while supporting the environment, vibrant local economies, and respectful treatment of animals.

- Already a sensation in the United Kingdom, this groundbreaking treatise on choosing and preparing meat is now available in the United States for the first time.
- Includes more than 100 recipes and more than 200 full-color photographs.
- Thoughtfully Americanized, with complete information about assorted cuts (including illustrations), production standards, and sources for buying and learning about meats in the United States.
- British edition has sold 150,000 copies.

About this title

Review

As you would expect from the quirky and strong-minded Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, The River Cottage Meat Book is a quirky and strong-minded book. This arm-straining volume (weighing in at an impressive and well illustrated 543 pages) is quite the most ambitious volume yet by an author who absolutely refuses to be categorised. Is he a cookery writer? An expert on the sociology and history of food? An eccentric TV personality? Actually, of course, he's all three (and more); and all of his various skills find expression in this, his magnum opus.

The first intriguing question that The River Cottage Meat Book inspires is: what is the author's agenda? The book has so many aims it's difficult to know where to begin. First of all, this is a definitive guide to the preparation and cooking of meat, in all its various forms. Fearnley-Whittingstall deals (in assiduous detail) with such topics as roasting, grilling and preserving everything from turkey to trotters, in a variety of recipes that he obviously knows and loves. But there is far more to the book than this--fascinating sections on the many different types of meat (lamb, pork and so on) are crammed with information on the different cuts of meat and what they should be used for.

But as someone who raises and utilises his own livestock at the River Cottage, Fearnley-Whittingstall is clearly passionate about the welfare of animals bred for food, and provides some unpalatable information on widespread misdemeanours in these areas. If nothing else, this book will persuade you that it's a good idea to buy your meat from butchers who are equally passionate about these issues, or even direct from reputable farms. The concept makes sound ideological sense, but also ensures that your meat dishes will have an unrivalled depth of flavour. --Barry Forshaw

Review

James Beard Foundation 2008 Cookbook Awards: Cookbook of the Year Award!

James Beard Foundation 2008 Cookbook Awards: Single Subject Category Winner!

"Droll, learned Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has done the meat-eating world a big favor with The River Cottage Meat Book . . . The perfect book for mindful carnivores."--Boston Globe

"Fearnley-Whittingstall confronts both the moral and gustatory issues surrounding carnivorism and provides 150 excellent recipes."--New York Newsday

"Fearnley-Whittingstall asks us to take grown-up moral responsibility for the act of eating meat--certainly enough responsibility to inquire about how the animal lived and died. All this is spelled out at fervent (and deserved) length before we get near a bit of cooking instruction. Luckily, Mr. Fearnley-Whittingstall turns out to be as zealous a cook as he is a reformer, equally able to appreciate the simplicity of Irish stew or a good beefburger, or to lead people through the intricacies of pork pie or cider-cured ham."--New York Times

"Those who find that calves' livers and pig's trotters are best contemplated at a distance should keep well away from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. Those of us with the opposite problem worship him as a god. This is not a case of macho posturing over a barbecue pit: There is more cooking know-how in Fearnley-Whittingstall's little finger than you will find in the graduating class of any cooking school in the country. His book is stuffed with wit, erudition, and one slow-cooked, lovingly constructed recipe after another."--NPR.org Holiday 2007

One of the Year's Best Cookbooks: "Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is a brilliant, argumentative British cook and food writer . . . his recipes happen to be terrific."--Gourmet

#1 Cookbook of the Year--Amazon Editor's Picks in Cooking--Food & Wine

100 to Taste List--Food & Wine

"This is one to read and cook from during barbecue season--and to get inspired by the rest of the year."--Bon Appetit

"A book to help us truly understand the philosophical and pragmatic aspects of the meat on our table."--Boston Globe

"The ultimate reference for the serious carnivore."--New York Daily News

"This guy gets physical with meat . . . A trencherman's manual of meat that includes recipes--from down-home steak-and-kidney pie to more exalted fare like a salad of seared pigeon breast with pan-juice vinaigrette--and graphic how-tos on buying and butchering, plus answers to questions you maybe never asked . . . More than you can digest? No doubt. More than you want? No way. Fearnley-Whittingstall's down-in-the-trenches humor and tone of earthy authority keep you coming back for another slice."
--Forbes

"His big, impressive meat book . . . has now been Americanized . . . Fearnley-Whittingstall is passionate and opinionated but not heavy-handed, and his sense of humor is evident throughout . . . A good companion to Fergus Henderson's The Whole Beast, this unique title will be important as both a reference and a cookbook."--Library Journal Starred Review

"Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall believes that the animals we eat deserve respect, both for their sake and ours."--Conde Nast Traveler

About this edition

• Publisher: Ten Speed Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 1580088430
• ISBN 13: 9781580088435
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 544