I've got food on my mind. who can blame me, with the number of insane cookbooks, over-the-top food books, and crazy-good sounding recipes that are teetering on my desk right now. let's see... there's extreme barbecue: smokin' rigs and real good recipes (dan huntley and lisa grace lednicer, chronicle books), the exquisite pork & sons (stéphane reynaud, phaidon press), the june issue of martha stewart living, and moonshine (matthew rowley, lark books), the first food book I've seen to come with a disclaimer that it's merely an informational source, not a "how to" guide on making your own liquor still... also, a pamphlet for 1080 recipes, touted as "spain's best-selling cookbook for over 30 years," which is slated to be published by phaidon this fall, and, on my computer, an email touting an upcoming food tour sponsored by the southern foodways alliance.
why, oh why, did I pursue music writing instead of food?
last week, I did manage to catch up with lisa grace, co-author of extreme barbecue, who, as I mentioned in a memphis business journal article about the memphis in may world champion barbecue cooking contest (held last weekend in downtown memphis), logged some 30,000 miles traveling the highways and backroads of America to chronicle the grills and pits built by boundary-pushing barbecue aficionados.
“it’s my first trip to the memphis in may contest,” lednicer told me, confessing that in her new jersey childhood, barbecuing involved a weber grill and a bag of charcoal.
in her adult life, she’s hauled a butchered lamb from portland, oregon to the san juan islands in washington state to watch chefs david and yolanda stegman do their work. the trip took two days, and involved transporting the lamb from her car to a motel room to a ferry. “everything was still attached, including the head and organs,” lednicer recalls. “it had big, brown soulful eyes, and I told myself to pretend, ‘look, honey, we’re in a david lynch movie!’ I eventually christened it larry the lamb.”
such herculean feats are becoming commonplace for lovers of slow-cooked meat.
case in point: french chef stéphane reynaud, whose magnum opus pork & sons was translated into english for publication by phaidon press this month. the 350-pages plus, lavishly illustrated tome includes details of reynaud’s first slaughter (he was seven years old, and the 400-pound pig yielded six-and-a-half feet of blood sausage, 44 pounds of paté, 18 pounds of roasting pork, two hams, and an additional 200 pounds of regionally prepared sausages), beautifully photographed portraits of the villagers who partake in the process, and hundreds of recipes, running the gamut from genuine charcutier’s meatloaf to glazed pork hocks.
in pork & sons, no part of the pig goes unused. cheeks are browned and baked with fennel and olives, and ears are stuffed with carrots, leeks, sweetbreads, and foie gras. feet and tails are breaded and served with herbs. even the liver is set aflame with muscatel and then refrigerated until it becomes a porky parfait.
my favorite part of the pig? a smoky shoulder, rendered to perfectly chopped goodness by the crew at payne's bbq.
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