The River Cottage Meat Book

This book makes me so happy. I still cant decide whether Hugh is going in or out of his shed with his delightful, well marbled full crop of beef (lol, read the book) and what hes going to do with it if hes removing it, or why hes putting it in there if he is going in. It never fails to pass a bit of time musing over what hes doing with his meat today, and whether its maybe a bit personal given the coy but slightly cheeky grin on his face and the wanton toussledness of his hair. He looks ready for action in a dashing pinny and is gripping his meat firmly like he means business, and I couldnt wait to see where the story would lead me. So onwards beyond the cover.....This book is an absolute must for any keen cook and generally anyone who has any vague sort of interest in the different cuts of meat from various animals, and also the ethics behind various types of animal husbandry. The information concealed in this veritable tome will give you the knowledge and confidence to try new cuts of meat and to actually venture into a proper butchers and speak to them about what you want and about where the meat is sourced, and to be able to cook it correctly and do justice to the animal it came from. More and more this knowledge is being lost and a lot of the younger generation now know only the very basics about the cuts of meat. This book will inform and inspire and is my favourite cooking book I own, and I have quite a few! It will give you a most important foundation of knowledge by which to build your confidence and repertoir on.I requested my brother buy it for me for my birthday a few years ago, and now he has his own house and is gaining in confidence in cooking he asked for it for xmas this year, and he has already read lots of it and loves it too, and is already talking about swapping from intensively reared meat to cheaper cuts of more welfare-conscious produce.If you are lacking confident on your cuts of meat and really want to know what the crack is, you MUST buy this book. Every discerning cook should have this on their shelf, proudly displayed next to your Delia Smith Complete Cookery Course!Buy this book, Hugh deserves your patronage for this, his grand opus!

This is a very comprehensive book and lots of recipes but I hadn't realised that it was published in 2004 so doesn't take into account the more modern butchery and cuts of meat such as onglet and picanha. That said, it is a great read and lives very much up to my expectations of anything written/presented by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

The most important Hugh book.Learn about the animals, the meat and what constitutes goo and not good meat. Genuinely lots to learn. I have always known a bit more than most as the son of a butcher and having worked on farms as a teenager, but I still learned a huge amount.This is more a textbook on meat than a recipe book - though there are plenty of recipes, this is more a canon of knowledge and philosophy.Chapters on each class of meat. Then, chapters on each type of cooking - Roasting, Slow-Cooking, Barbecueing, for example.

I am unashamedly a river cottage fan, i have many of the books and DVDs, and once again i am amazed at the quality that Hugh produces. This book is almost a bible of meat. It starts off with Hugh describing the various meat production methods, how meat has changed over the years, benefits and drawbacks of where meat can be purchased and many other tidbits.What really sets it apart is how much detail he goes into about each meat. The section on beef, for instance, covers everything from how it is hung, to a diagram of each cut (and how best to cook them), and what to look for when buying.He does this for lamb & mutton, pork, poultry, venison, game and many other meats. The scope of the coverage makes any other book pale in comparison. Certainly it has changed in a nights reading my entire outlook on meat, and what i am buying. I now have a local butcher who is always happy to see me come into the shop with a new request for some obscure cut or joint for that weeks roast.And this is even before you hit the recipes, which are as per usual delicious, hearty and you can really picture Hugh slaving over a joint of meat in his kitchen as you prepare the dishes.This book is a must buy for any self respecting cook, the knowledge you will gain about your food is incredible. The only problem i have now is how am i going to fit all the meat joints that i want to cook into my fridge and freezer.Brilliant through and through.

This is a large book which is excellent value for money purely in 'pages for pound' (so make sure you have a big enough book shelf or table to put it on!). However we all know size is not everything! Content is important and this is where Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall really comes in and provides not only a series of recipes that cover pretty much all meat types and cuts but intersperses it with his own take on the process, some humorous asides and a clear direction to take.Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall also clearly lays out his stall as far as the treatment of livestock and the ethics of production. I for one agree very much with his perspective and I think that most reading when thinking about it will do so. True, most of us cannot be tucked away in a quaint small holding doing whatHugh Fearnley-Whittingstall does (although I suspect most of us would if we could!) but we can still add a bit of the thought process to our everyday lives.A definite one for the Kitchen bookshelf!