(Part 3) Best meat cooking books according to redditors

A few things that should be addressed, I hope this doesn't come off too negatively.

• Don't tell people they're eating veal when it's pork
  
• It would be a bad idea to use the fat-cap from the loin in sausages, there is way too much silver skin and sinew, grind it and render for lard.
  
• Braising a loin is an affront to the animal that died for it, it tastes sad, dry and stringy.
  
• DON'T TELL PEOPLE THEY'RE EATING VEAL WHEN IT'S PORK.
  
  
  I get that you want to make a Youtube tutorial series, but you need more experience in both the cutting an the cooking of meat. Take a break from making videos to spend time reading/cooking/editing videos.
  
  RESOURCES TO CHECK OUT!
  
  One of the most straight foreward books on Butchery
  
  Amazing techniques on utilizing the whole animal
  
  Great technique for the weird parts
  
  Great foundational stuff as well as a bit about ethics
  
  YOUTUBE VIDZ!
  
  A short series on cool butchery techniques
  
  A well-spring of meat knowledge, dude knows his stuff

> 10/10 Would read Bacon Bible

here you go!

http://www.amazon.com/The-Bacon-Bible-Delicious-Cookbook-ebook/dp/B00K1HTQSO

Some reading:

Butcher's Guide

Primal Cuts

Meat Buyers Guide

Polyface Farm

These books should get you started. I suggest making your club a potluck type gathering where you can discuss different cooking techniques, hold tasting comparisons between grain and grass fed animals, take field trips to local Butchers, Processors, and Farms.

Some Films:

Food Inc

Escape to River Cottage

No Reservations

Here's a good you tube video on the breakdown of a whole pig.

Enjoy, and consume responsibly!

Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:


amazon.co.uk

amazon.ca

amazon.com.au

amazon.in

amazon.com.mx

amazon.de

amazon.it

amazon.es

amazon.com.br

amazon.nl

amazon.co.jp

amazon.fr

Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, amazon.it, amazon.es, amazon.com.br, amazon.nl, amazon.co.jp, amazon.fr, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.

http://www.amazon.com/Hawaiis-Spam-Cookbook-Kondo-Corum/dp/0935848495

Prime for beef, and another one called Hog for pork.

I own this book. It's awesome.

Steve Rinella from the TV show Meat Eater is actually coming out with a fish and game cookbook. I pre-ordered mine today

https://www.amazon.com/MeatEater-Fish-Game-Cookbook-Techniques/dp/0399590072/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1542273497&sr=8-3&keywords=meat+eater

The Art of Beef Cutting is my other recommendation. It's pretty much a textbook for beef breakdown. In the margins it has different cuts and names for different regions, like Sirloin Cap/Culotte/Picanha.

Thank you for the lengthy reply, Well I have a slow cooker and an air fryer, plus I found a store today that sells all of the above (Frozen), so I look forward to trying these.

I also just purchased 2 books by Fergus Henderson.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Nose-Tail-British-Cooking/dp/1408809168

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Book-St-John-British-cooking/dp/1529103215

Fine. I have a new project anyway. I found a restaurant which specializes in "nose to tail" cuisine and now I am trying to recruit younger relatives to giving it a shot.

Also, getting this book - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062282611/

Three words: Fried Egg BLT

Or, in the great Thomas Keller's words, "The World's Greatest Sandwich".

It's very important that you not overcook the egg, else the sandwich will never come together correctly. And the bacon has to be crispy. You can vary the cheese (cheddar does very well) and the spread (dijon's pretty nice), but the egg should be runny and the bacon crispy.

Cuban sandwiches are awesome. My grandmother used to make me medianoches (Cuban made on a smaller, sweeter loaf) when I couldn't sleep as a kid. 3 Guys from Miami discuss the Cubano.

I think one of the easiest ways to kick up a sandwich is to vary your condiments. Instead of one kind of mustard, use another, that sort of thing. And proper layering. Learn to layer your sandwiches correctly, tomato then lettuce, etc...

This book is pretty good. Almost all of the sandwiches are very complex, but goddamn do they taste good. Colicchio knows how to make an amazing sandwich.

Made Asian pork belly according to the recipe here:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/006223238X/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_awdo_WSRKwb1W675QH

Made the Bahn Mi sandwich using the recipe from Tartine Bread:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0811870413/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_awdo_HVRKwb1SNPR4R

It was out of this world. So good, that we're doing a repeat of the braise today but with beef brisket instead of pork belly.

Several cans of Spam and this.

https://www.amazon.com/12-Bones-Smokehouse-Mountain-Cookbook/dp/0760347263 $16 hardcover with recipes for all their best stuff--smoked potato salad, jalapeno cheese grits, the cornbread.. mmmmmmmmmm

He should get THIS x3 SUUUURPRISE ME (Ratatouille quote) Bacon is Meat Candy

this is only .10 too short...

used books are always wonderful :)

Well to simply answer your question, no, cooking food does not necessarily mean improved flavor or texture. In fact in some instances, it will only dry the meat out.

That being said, chili is a completely different animal, and contrary, to what another has said, you're not braising chili, at least I hope you aren't. Chili is a form of stew, not a braise, although similar, very different at the same time.

We braise food because they're tough. Items that aren't great for sautee, or grill. There's a great book called braise, by one of the best Chef in the country, if not the world. However, it is possible to easily over cook all your food, so you do need to keep an eye on it.

Also, if you want to cook your chili longer, ground beef is NOT the way to go. Cube up some shoulder cut. Or turn it into a pork chili and use a picnic cut. These meats will hold up way better to long cook times.

Oh and the answer why, chili is great the next day, as the same above poster wrote, it has to due with the cooling down process. Which is why in restaurants, we rest our steaks before adding our compound butters or sauces (well there's other reasons too, but this one pertains to your question). As the food gets hot it expands, as food cools down it contracts, and therefore will absorb flavors.

I'm on my phone and can't link well, do I left a full link on the bottom, for the book, if you want to check it out.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/006223238X

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0609610511/ref=redir_mdp_mobile

Of course you don't! I do better with one, so I cleaned up my notes to myself and published them. It's free on Amazon today if you wanted to check it out for free: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07S2ZDH22

I highly recommend Steve Rinella's cookbook, MeatEater. It's all wild game recipes. You can find it here

There is a recipe in this book, which I just bought for my mom for xmas.

I follow the contemporary carnivore diet.

I am lucky in the fact I can be strict carnivore. Then go out with friends and have a Sunday Lunch and Apple Crumble and it doesn't effect me. It only hits me if I cheat for a couple of days in a row.

If you have specific goals or metabolic issues then you need to be stricter.

>I find it difficult to try other recipe sites because I know they don't put nearly the amount of time/effort/experimentation into creating a recipe

ChefSteps is pretty amazing:

• https://www.chefsteps.com/gallery?generator=chefsteps&published_status=published&difficulty=any&sort=newest&premium=everything
  
  They make the Joule sous vide machine. Their Premium membership (extra stuff, not required, but good to have!) is only $39 for a lifetime pass. They are pretty next-level about their recipes, much like Serious Eats & The Food Lab. For example, French fries:
  
  
• Finding the perfect potatoes for French fries (this is no joke!)
  
• Thin-cut French fry recipe
  
• Thick-cut French fry recipe
  
  Their sous vide Fried Chicken is also amazing:
  
  
• https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/can-t-f-it-up-fried-chicken
  
  Modernist Cuisine is a bit niche, but can get super-detailed. Their books are unbelievable (as are the prices), but if you want the authoritative texts on certain topics, they're the go-to. Their latest set is basically the bible of bread...2,642 pages with 1,200 recipes spread across five volumes. You can't even get a used set for under $500 tho:
  
  
• https://modernistcuisine.com/books/modernist-bread/
  
  America's Test Kitchen is also pretty good, although it has a paywall (pricing varies...one site, all sites, monthly, lump sum, etc.). Their books are also excellent. I just got their sous vide book & it's pretty thorough:
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Sous-Vide-Everybody-Foolproof-Technique-ebook/dp/B07F5YDPNX
  
  Two of the things I like about Serious Eats are that there's regular content with no paywall (although I'm happy to exclude them from my adblocker & always buy their books!) & Kenji is pretty friendly with the community in the comments & on social media, so it's not just an authoritative voice dictating a recipe, it's more of a discussion. To me, Serious Eats is the modern, digital version of Alton Brown's "Good Eats" TV show, where he has a passion for good food & enjoys walking you through the process of how you can achieve that consistently.
  
  Norm King's sous vide & smoking Facebook group is excellent. Note that this is a very specific group with specific rules, but if you want to learn the right way to do things, especially sous vide-related things, it's a treasure-trove of information:
  
  
• https://www.facebook.com/groups/272128179509149/
  
  Food Wishes by Chef John is not quite as detailed, but is a phenomenal resource & he also does a really good job explaining his recipes in the videos:
  
  
• https://foodwishes.blogspot.com/
  
  Among his many other delicious recipes, if you haven't tried his fondant potatoes, you're not really living:
  
  
• https://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2013/06/fondant-potatoes-creamy-crusty-blast.html
  
  >Where other resources do you use?
  
  Random list off the top of my head: (website link + a few great sample recipes to try)
  
  
• Smitten Kitchen - Leite's jumbo chocolate-chip cookies
  
• Mel's Kitchen Cafe - crispy southwest chicken wraps (variable master recipe) & also check out "the best recipe" archive
  
• Cooking Classy - amazing caramels you make in your microwave!
  
• 12 Tomatoes
  
• Minimalist Bakers
  
• Six Sisters Stuff
  
• The Fresh Loaf
  
  I have a zillion others in my bookmarks, but that should get you started!

who needs ramen noodles when you've got Spam and Spam: The Cookbook providing 45 different spamsational recipes!!!

Best cookbook ever.

Thank you for the suggestions, I especially like the idea of Henderson's but the books I find by him are called Nose to Tail Eating in two volumes and a complete version. Is this the same book to your knowledge just published differently in the UK?

Definitely getting Kent's book for myself once Uni finally ends and that high paying job (I'm sure it's in the works) comes along.

The 12 Bones cookbook is a really great, too!

http://www.amazon.com/12-Bones-Smokehouse-Mountain-Cookbook/dp/0760347263