After years of vegetarianism I have rejoined the ranks of carnivory. At around the same time I almost completely gave up dairy.
I already have a bunch of vegetarian cookbooks but I have no idea how to cook flesh.
So I need a book to teach me everything I need to know about cooking meat, from the humblest hamburger to the greatest … well, the greatest meaty meal an amateur chef like me can hope for, without too much extraneous space taken up by things I don’t eat (i.e. dairy) or already have a million recipes for (i.e. veggie things).
Any suggestions?
How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman is great. It does have vegetarian and dairy recipes in it, but it covers meat, poultry, and fish very comprehensively- how to buy them and cook them. Knowing what meats you should and shouldn’t buy is helpful to keep you from ending up in this kind of situation.
If you’re looking for meat recipes that don’t use dairy, you could look at kosher cookbooks- meat recipes in those aren’t going to also include dairy.
For someone making the move back into omnivorousness, I’m suspecting that aspects of the production of the meat, of animal welfare and so on are still important. This is one I’d highly recommend. The author has made a successful TV career out of becoming a successful small-scale organic farmer, with major emphases on care for livestock, on avoiding waste, and on the use of local produce and wild ingredients.