Pig Perfect: Encounters with Remarkable Swine and Some Great Ways to Cook Them - Hardcover

Kaminsky, Peter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1401300367 ISBN 13: 9781401300364

Publisher: Hyperion, 2005

Synopsis

What Bill Bryson did for trees and walking shoes and Mark Kurlansky did for cod, Peter Kaminsky now does for pork in Pig Perfect 'I love ham and I love this book.' -Annie Dillard o you crave a juicy pork chop An old-time country ham Or maybe some Southern-style barbecue Then you'll want to join Peter Kaminsky on his pilgrimage in search of the perfect pig. Part travelogue, part cookbook, part naturalist's encounter, and part love letter, Kaminsky's book takes us from Kentucky, Burgundy, and Madrid to the Yucatn and back to Brooklyn to tell the tale of the pig. From the wondrous techniques of tailgate chefs to Mayan home cooking, competitive barbecuing, and the ancient rite of the pig killing that has bound communities together over the centuries, Pig Perfect brings together an oddball pork-loving band of chefs, farmers, and food lovers and offers a tasty history of the oft underappreciated pig.

About this title

About the Author:

Peter Kaminsky is the author of numerous books, including The Moon Pulled Up an Acre of Bass, Pig Perfect, and The Elements of Taste. He was formerly New York magazine's "Underground Gourmet," and his Outdoors column runs regularly in the New York Times. His work has appeared frequently in Food & Wine and Field & Stream, and he was managing editor of National Lampoon. He lives in Brooklyn.

From Publishers Weekly:

In this sprawling love letter to hogdom, "hamthropologist" and food and fly fishing writer Kaminsky takes readers to France and Spain as well as to such American cities as Memphis, Louisville and Des Moines to visit a broad variety of pork-related venues. He waxes ecstatic about long-aged country ham and laments today's leaner, less flavorful meat. He seeks out a pig slaughter, considers why pork is taboo to Jews and Muslims, and excoriates the brutality and environmental damage wreaked by hog factories. Kaminsky (The Moon Pulled Up an Acre of Bass) celebrates family farmers who give their pigs freedom in the field, offer them natural foods and produce a far better pork. The author's enthusiasm is infectious, but since he races all over the map, the chatty accounts of his various adventures and the people he meets along the way are often fleeting as well. The narrative is, however, generously embellished with dozens of facts about pigs (such as the staggering statistic that about 350,000 U.S. hogs are slaughtered every week). Nine recipes, ranging from Country Ham Braised in Cider and Molasses to Emile and Rachel's Roast Loin of Pork with Greens and Cantaloupe, are scattered throughout to honor the oinker itself. Agent, Lisa Queen at IMG. (May 11)
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About this edition

• Publisher: Hyperion
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1401300367
• ISBN 13: 9781401300364
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304