As I was milling around my mother’s kitchen while at home for Thanksgiving this week (where despite the large turkey dinner and subsequent leftovers, I’ve still somehow managed to consume a respectable amount of bacon over the last couple days – go figure), I came across a book about pork that she’s had for ages but I’ve never bothered to actually pull off the shelf and read.
It’s a cookbook that is part of a series that was produced by Time Life Books in 1980. The name of book is The Good Cook: Pork. It is clearly geared towards the average reader – there isn’t really any information in the book that any dedicated porcine lover wouldn’t already know. However, this is a very good book when it comes to the basics of understanding the history of pork and preparing basic cuts of pork in a variety of ways – it’s a great book for the novice chef. And in particular, it includes a few sections on the topic of bacon.
There are also dozens of recipes in the back of the book, a few of which include bacon that sound delicious and I will be experimenting with over the next couple weeks. But in general, The Good Cook: Pork is a good basic reference book for any cook to have on the kitchen shelf.