Field Guide to Meat: How to Identify, Select, and Prepare Virtually Every Meat, Poultry, and Game Cut

by Aliza Green

At last, a field guide to identifying and selecting more than 200 different cuts and kinds of meat, from beef and poultry to game and cured meat!
 
An essential resource for every home cook or chef, Field Guide to Meat offers details on virtually every kind of meat available.
 
This practical guide includes more than 200 full-color photographs of cuts of beef, veal, pork, lamb, game, and poultry as well as more than 100 different kinds of cured meats and sausages. Cross-referenced with the photographs are in-depth descriptions of the cuts, including basic history, location in the animal, characteristics, information on how to choose the cut, and flavor affinities. Step-by-step preparation directions tell you whether the item is best marinated, braised, grilled, roasted, or pan-seared.
 
Trips to the butcher’s aisle will no longer be intimidating, and you’ll never end up with a cut that’s too tough for dinner.

Genres: Cooking, Cookbooks, Food, Reference

311 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2005

About the author

Aliza Green is an award-winning Philadelphia-based author, journalist, and influential chef whose books include The Fishmonger’s Apprentice (Quarry Books, 2010), Starting with Ingredients: Baking (Running Press, 2008) and Starting with Ingredients (Running Press, 2006), four Field Guides to food (Quirk, 2004-2007), Beans: More than 200 Delicious, Wholesome Recipes from Around the World (Running Press, 2004) and collaborations with famed chefs Guillermo Pernot and Georges Perrier. A former food columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News, Green now write regularly for Cooking Light, and is known for her encyclopedic knowledge of every possible ingredient, its history, culture, and use in the kitchen and bakery. Green’s books have garnered high praise from critics, readers, and culinary professionals alike, including a James Beard award for “Best Single-Subject Cookbook” in 2001 for Ceviche!: Seafood, Salads, and Cocktails with a Latino Twist (Running Press, 2001), which she co-authored with Chef Guillermo Pernot.
--bio from Making Artisan Pasta

Reviews

[Elaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully illustrated with a generous section full of color photos. I use this book for a pre-and-post dinner table game called "What is this meat?".

The small labels for each page are easily covered with one finger. Beef is the most obvious category, and is a treasure trove of knowledge by itself. My next favorite category is poultry and game birds. "It's not chicken, it's not duck. What is this"

[Marianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Only 4-stars because there are not enough color photos -- but I like a book that finally solved the mystery of Tri-Tip. Why does no one talk about tri-tip outside the state of California? Also like that it gives names of most cuts of meat (along with cooking suggestions) in French, Spanish, Italian and English. Plus, includes cold cuts/processed meats and game too.

[Manintheboat · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unlike the other Field Guide books I really didn't discover anything new and fantastic.

And Aliza, my Safeway and King Soopers sells Bison. If you go to most meat stores here you can get many cuts of bison in stock.

[Brent Barnard · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very helpful, tiny little book.