The Silver Spoon: Meat

Does your heart start beating faster when you hear the words prosciutto, porchetta and ossobuco? Then we’ve found the ideal book for you. The Silver Spoon: Meat is packed with Italian meat dishes you’ll want to make.

The Silver Spoon can be found on the bookshelf of pretty much every cooking enthusiast who loves Italian food. If you can make all the recipes from this culinary bible, you can confidently say that you’ve mastered Italian cuisine. The first edition was published back in the 1950s and has since secured its place in the world of cookbooks. Several special editions have already been published: quick & easy, for children, pasta, pizza and dolci. This time, it’s meat’s turn.

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The Italian way

Anyone who loves freshly made sausages, hams of all shapes and sizes, and charcoal-smoked steak as big as your head will feel right at home in Italy. So it’s no wonder that The Silver Spoon devotes an entire book to the subject of meat. The book is packed with recipes that explain exactly how to fry, roast and stew your meat to perfection, the Italian way.

How do you recognize good meat?

Er, but wait a minute. Shouldn’t we be eating less meat? Yes, that’s right. The book clearly explains that if you eat meat, it’s important to prepare it properly. And, of course, to choose good-quality meat. How do you do that? How can you recognize the quality of meat? The Silver Spoon: Meat explains it all. The book is organized by animal, and at the beginning of each chapter you can clearly see which cuts each animal consists of—including the Italian, Dutch and French names. If you still don’t understand how to prepare meat after this, I don’t know what to tell you.

As we’ve come to expect from The Silver Spoon, there are plenty of recipes, and the descriptions are concise. No lengthy introductions or personal stories, but to the point recipes, often with two recipes per page. The instructions are clear, so you can get started right away on classic recipes and learn new techniques. Did you know, for example, that pork tenderloin can be cooked very well in milk? The milk keeps the meat tender and adds extra flavor.

Mix and match

A meal consisting solely of meat might be a bit much, so luckily the end of the book also contains plenty of vegetable dishes ‘to serve on the side’. Puntarelle (a type of Italian chicory) with Parmesan cheese and butter, for example, or pea purée with mint. Bet they’ll go wonderfully with your meatballs in beer, roasted veal in an egg-yolk sauce and chicken with pomegranate? Buon appetito!

Title: The Silver Spoon: Meat
Publisher: Unieboek Uitgeverij Het Spectrum
Price: €35,-