Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10964 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 386 pages

Synopsis
"Pork & Sons" is an authentic and intensely personal cookbook, presenting the reader with a multitude of ideas on how to cook fine and succulent pork, whilst giving a rare glimpse into a day in the life of a small family business in rural France. The recipes are wholesome and rustic, encapsulating the flavours and taste of a region. As the author Stephane Reynard delivers his recipes to us, he invites us to share his family's age-old passion for the pig and to celebrate the long delicious history between man and swine. Introducing to us, through evocative photographs, his grandfather, and a somewhat strange collection of other family members and workers on the farm in the mountainous Saint-Agreve, he creates a rich atmosphere and sense of ancestral tradition. The 150 recipes are divided between thirteen chapters, including one on black pudding, one on sausages and one on ham. Each recipe is accompanied by an enticing photograph of the dish, and between each chapter there are photographs of the region, of the faces of the region and of their daily work, and further ingeniously hand-drawn illustrations of the pig itself in all manner of poses.

This is a colourful and vivid cookbook with a huge range of possible approaches to the selection, preparation and cooking of pork. It is an affectionate tribute to the pig, an acknowledgement of its sumptuous flavour, versatility as an appetizer or main course, and great popularity around the world.

Customer Reviews

Charming, eccentric, beautiful - and porky!
Surely one of the most beautifully designed cookbooks of the year, Pork & Sons is winner of the French Cookbook of the Year 2006 and has now arrived in English here and in the US. The book is nothing short of a love story - one man's love for the way of life that encompasses everything porcine.
The book is illustrated throughout with glorious earthy photos and quite charming cartoons depicting pigs in "interesting" situations. All the chapter headings and recipe titles are handwritten. What we get from this is a general feel of well being, of a rustic, back-to-basics approach to cooking, celebrating flavour and tradition - though Reynaud isn't afraid to break a few taboos.

Pork & Sons contains some 150 recipes ranging from a chapter on black pudding through to some fairly exquisite looking 'party' dishes (read 'restaurant style'). Interestingly, Reynaud isn't afraid to cross the codes - he matches Spanish chorizo with mozerella and basil or French ham with piquillo peppers, where Iberico ham would be the obvious choice.

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Cook book of the year
Having just reared and slaughtered our second lot of pigs this book is everything I need to explore the countless possibilities with pork - beautifully presented and written, everytime I pick it up to glance at a recipe I find myself still reading it an hour later enthralled.
Check out the black pudding and autumn fruits. All in all a stunning book which should be on every pork lovers kitchen table

A real nose to tail recipe book
I came across the French version Pork & Sons whilst doing a charcuterie course at Auberge de Chassignolles in the Auvergne. As professional cook and pig lover I cannot say that I have seen a better book for range of country style pork recipes, with everything from black pudding, apple, potato & fennel tart to stuffed pigs ears and a few wild boar recipes and a dozen or more terrine besides. The sausage in brioche recipes is inspirational.
What Pork & Sons lacks is recipes to make the sausages and cured meats used in the recipes although with a bit of wit and Google you can make your own, which is probably for the best, since this is a book for the artisan cook rather than the TV dinner cook. If Reynaud writes a book about making sausages and salami then I'll be first in the queue since there is no reference of similar quality.
Pork & Sons is beautifully designed and bound so it would make an excellent present for any foodie.