The River Cottage Meat Book
In some ways, this is one of the easiest reviews I’ve done: If you cook meat, buy The River Cottage Meat Book. Author Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall engages and entertains the reader with solid information about meat cookery, sustainable farming, and kitchen economy, all written with an oh-so-British wit and charm. My goodness, he even has pictures of meat slaughterhouses. Try finding those in other meat cookbooks.
I would stop there, save for the tiny phrase included in the marketing materials that the publishers sent me. Though this book came out in the United Kingdom 3 years ago, this edition has been, according to the leaflet, “tailored for American cooks.”
Here’s where I get twitchy. The editors at Ten Speed Press worked hard on this effort. They didn’t only drop extra u’s and adjust the recipes; they changed some of the original text.
Just not enough. Or maybe too much.
I first noticed a problem when I read Fearnley-Whittingstall’s text on rabbits. I’ve been working on a rabbit piece for a while, so my eyebrow arched when I read his advice to only buy wild rabbit from your butcher. Have fun doing that here in America, where USDA laws prevent anyone from selling wild animals: Our meat inspectors want to see the animal pre-mortem, not post. (As an aside, not all farmed rabbits are raised in conditions akin to an industrial chicken farm, as he implies.)
Want a guide to American beef cuts? No problem. Want to know the best turkey breeds to buy as an American shopper? Good luck.
I wrote the publisher and the editors referred me to the copious endnotes that, in some cases, give the correct American information. Some of the main text has been changed, but some of the new information has been placed in the endnotes. They preface the section with a note that they balanced the need to give Americans good information while retaining Fearnley-Whittingstall’s charming prose. I think I would have preferred all the new information in endnotes, and I would want the endnotes divided up and put at the ends of the chapters, rather than tucked at the back where you have to hunt them down. As it stands, the book has some relevant information where the reader expects to find it, but it also has a lot buried near the index.
I’ll return to this book over and over again, both for its prose and its recipes, but I’ll look elsewhere when I want to know my options at the store.
This book was sent to me as a review copy.
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