Ultimate Companion To Meat by Anthony Puharich
I picked up this massive meat cookbook as part of a work project for a cooking website. I had no idea that the world of meat and meat cooking would be this in-depth and thorough. It was like going down a rabbit hole about a very specific culinary segment.
The book made me think of Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown episodes where he’d visit Spain or Greece or different parts of Asia, and they’d use the same livestock in completely different ways. The book does the same thing—showing all the many ways that humans have raised animal protein and the different ways it’s used across cuisines.
Take barbecue, for example. Everyone associates barbecue with the American South because pork was common livestock there. Hogs could free range and forage, and they had high reproduction rates. But as pork production skyrocketed in Asia with population growth, they developed their own barbecue traditions. In Asia, hogs are raised because you can keep them in denser conditions than cattle. So you get Korean barbecue, Japanese barbecue, and American Southern barbecue—all using the same animal, all with distinct regional techniques.
What I Liked
The photography is excellent. It’s very visually oriented and genuinely interesting to flip through.
The recipes are useful and span a wide range of techniques and traditions. You get a real sense of how meat cooking connects cultures around the world.
The book is comprehensive. If you want to understand meat from raising to cooking to regional variations, it’s all here.
What I Didn’t Like
This book is massive. Bigger and heavier than most other reference or coffee table books. I ended up selling it back to a used bookstore just because of the size and weight.
The reference value drops off once you’ve used the recipes. Unlike a travel or nature coffee table book that’s always interesting to revisit, once you have the recipes, you kind of have them.
Wrap-Up
This is a fascinating book that’s worth checking out from the library. The photography and cultural insights make it a great browse, and the recipes are solid. But I wouldn’t recommend buying it unless you’re a serious meat enthusiast with shelf space to spare. The size and weight make it impractical for most home kitchens, and the reference value doesn’t justify the real estate it demands.
A comprehensive meat cookbook with excellent photography and useful recipes spanning global traditions. The book explores how different cultures use the same livestock in distinct ways, from American Southern barbecue to Korean and Japanese techniques. While fascinating to browse and culturally insightful, the massive size and weight make it impractical for most kitchens. Better suited for library checkout than purchase.
- Excellent photography and visual presentation
- Useful recipes spanning global meat cooking traditions
- Comprehensive cultural insights on how different regions use same livestock
- Extremely large and heavy - impractical for most kitchens
- Limited reference value once recipes are used
- Better as library checkout than purchase
