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The River Cottage Meat Book
 
 
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The River Cottage Meat Book [Hardcover]

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (70 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 544 pages
  • Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton (24 May 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0340826355
  • ISBN-13: 978-0340826355
  • Product Dimensions: 26.6 x 20.2 x 4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (70 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,808 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk 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

'Unflinching respect for the animal and commitment to the truth sets Fearnley-Whittingstall apart from the rest of the food-writing mob. This is the most honest cookbook I have found, reeking with helpful, hands-on wisdom. It is everything it should be and more ... deliciously funny, well written and neither macho nor sanctimonious. If you eat meat, you will buy, prepare and cook it better having read this book.' (Jill Dupleix, The Times )

'Thumpingly enormous, extremely good, and manages to be at once a recipe collection, a series of tutorials on the principles of cooking, a directory of organic suppliers, a philosophical essay, a timely report on the state of intensive farming and a forceful polemic' (Sam Leith, Daily Telegraph )

'The sheer wealth of information is amazing and it is truly one of the most informative and passionate books you will ever read on the subject. It should be bought by every meat-eating household, as well as every butcher and supermarket manager throughout the land' (Martin Koerner, Waterstones Books Quarterly )

'I have been unable to put it down ... I urge all meat lovers to go and buy it. It is excellent' (Mervyn Hancock, Western Daily Press )

'Carefully researched, revelatory and powerful... The technical bits of the book are especially good and equip you with an understanding that is all too often absent from celebrity chef offerings ... delivered with lively writing and endearingly corny puns' (Felicity Lawrence, Guardian )

'A tome as heavy as a newborn piglet ... brave and deeply challenging stuff... a refreshing and triumphant antidote to dumbed-down recipe writing... positively incendiary' (Joanna Blythman, Sunday Herald )

'The solitary TV regular who can write a decent cookbook ... the enthusiastic carnivore will relish all 550 pages' (Christopher Hirst, The Independent )

'The best new book of the year without a shadow of a doubt, a serious treatise, a meat cookery bible and a supremely appetising recipe collection. Fearnley-Whittingstall is our most important and eloquent food writer today. His finger is always on the pulse. He tells it as it is without pulling punches and without wagging a moralising finger. This is the work of a thoughtful and caring omnivore. Everyone who eats meat should have a copy, and some who have stopped eating meat may find reasons in it to reconsider meat-eating in a fresh light' (Philippa Davenport, Financial Times )

Inside This Book (Learn More)
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews

70 Reviews
5 star:
 (62)
4 star:
 (7)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
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Average Customer Review
4.9 out of 5 stars (70 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

91 of 92 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Great cooking, deep thinking, 6 July 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: The River Cottage Meat Book (Hardcover)
This is not just a cookbook, but an almost poetic expression of a passionately-held philosophy about food.

First the bit you would expect: tons of great recipes, covering both the more familiar cuts of meat (roasts, pies, casseroles) and weirder ones (innovative ways with liver, sweetbreads, brains and more). So far so good: a really solid meat cook-books

But now comes the good bit: the book is also a sensitive and educational exploration of why we should eat meat, how farm animals should be treated, and how to select meat so that it tastes good. The author argues passionately that it is both our moral and our culinary duty to buy good meat: animals that have been well treated taste better. He also includes a very well thought-out section on the ethics of meat-eating, which far from being the standard diatribe against vegetarians is subtle, educated and immensely convincing.

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102 of 104 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding, Inspiring and Useful, 21 Jun 2004
This review is from: The River Cottage Meat Book (Hardcover)
The man with the most appealing sounding lifestyle in Britain, carries on his real-food campaign with panache in this immensely usable and useful volume. I often scour stacks of cook-books looking for a recipe or instructions for a particular cut and type of meat, now there's a single volume to answer that need. He's always going to make enemies in the Vegan sector, but who could fail to be moved by his passion for quality and standards in food and especially meat. It's also a clarion call to us as consumers to think before we buy and to act on our ethics. He makes you believe you can contribute to ending the stranglehold of intensive chicken rearing for instance.

To top it all, the book is well written, beautifully designed and lvishly illustrated. What more could you ask from a cook book - oh, yes recipes! Well, those are excellent, reliable and oh-so tasty. He make's me re-think my hostility to TV-based food programmes. Hugh, you are a good thing indeed.

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61 of 62 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Heaven knows I'm carnivorous now., 24 May 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: The River Cottage Meat Book (Hardcover)
It seems a little ironic that a pilgrimage to Manchester to see arch-vegetarian Morrissey's home-coming show should give me the opportunity to notice this book but a cursory flick through the pages confirmed my hope that it would take me to the next rung on the hobbyist cook ladder.

Most cookery books answer the "how?" questions with varying degrees of success but I suspect that after the third or fourth Recipe Collection Christmas Stocking-Filler, many people would like to have a few basic "why?" questions answered to satisfy the need to be able to improvise when ingredients (or even equipment) aren't available or simply to satisfy their creative urges.

The book is therefore split into two so that Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall can first deal with what you should know about meat before he deals with how you can best cook it. HF-W's combination of concise facts about the meat industry and cutting - sometimes very comedic - observations will give any reader the armoury and terminology to be more intelligent about what they buy (how many people really have more than a rudimentary knowledge about which part of an animal provides which kind of meat and what it's good for?) but as he appears to agree himself, this book is only a starting point and you'll have to establish a good relationship with a good butcher to really get the best ingredients and the best use of what you do buy.

Once you do all this, the rewards are the recipes in the second half of the book. HF-W runs through a number of well-known meat dishes and as usual, some are more adventurous than others. His easy going style and his refreshing honesty about when "the right way" is simply his own opinion makes you realise how accessible good cooking and good ingredients actually are.

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