Pork and Sons Review

Posted by Conor O'Neill on Sunday, January 11, 2009

I was given this lovely book for Christmas 2007 and finally finished it last month. What initially appears to be a coffee-table resident turned out to be one of the best books on food I’ve ever read.

The title says it all. This is a book about pork. Every single bit of the pig gets a mention and use. The author, Stéphane Reynaud is the grandson of a village butcher from the Ardeche plateau in France. He runs a restaurant near Paris that specialises in Pork. I want to eat there!

Pork and Sons

The recipes themselves are fantastic but so too are the notes, anecdotes and pictures and people. This is a book centered on the relationship between a community and its food. The way it is sectioned up is unusual but it works. The “chapters” are as follows:

  • Pig-killing time at Saint-Agreve
  • Black Pudding Recipes
  • For the love of Sausages
  • Sausage Recipes
  • Hamming it up
  • Ham Recipes
  • Pates and Terrines
  • Jacquy’s terrine
  • Granny Pig
  • Barbecued Pig
  • A piggy Party
  • Wild Boar It’s been quite a while since I’ve read a cookery book which stirred up such desire to cook but this did it. Whilst I know recession-talk is starting to wear people down, this book will hopefully be part of a return to cooking cheap tasty food with a bit of soul.

comments powered by Disqus