The Cook & The Butcher

[OliverB]

Just picked up a copy of this neat new book at CostCo for $18, not expecting too much, but I must say, it's a really nice book! Nice production value, great photos, layout, organization. Hardcover, not too big, not too small.

Short primers about each meat they cover, beef, pork, lamb, veal. Including a drawing of the animal indicating what's from where. No poultry and the veal chapter is the shortest with 12 recipes, but I'm still glad to see veal covered at all in a mass market book (published under the Williams-Sonoma brand), as I have to go to a specialty butcher to even buy veal. Maybe this is going to change? Sure would be nice.

Each recipe has a little introduction, most have a "handwritten" note from a butcher explaining something. Clean layout, if there are things like pork and bbq sauce, each part has a headline in the ingredient list, the explanations are well done from what I read so far and easy to follow. Some really nice recipes as well! Recipes range from bbq over roasting to stews and pan fried, a nice mix of things.

Now, if you have a bunch of meat books (ahem, like me) you probably don't need this (but might want it anyway, LOL), but it would certainly make a great gift or book for somebody expanding on what they do with meat. And all the bits and pieces of meat info thrown in are certainly worth reading, I always find something new in those things, even though I owm just about any book that has the title meat in it

Check it out, lists at 29.95 but cheaper online or at CostCo right now, at least at ours here in Concord. Worth the money.

[heidih]

Here is an eGullet friendly Amazon link.