From nose to tail, there's a right and a wrong way to dress and cook a pig. Learn the right way.

Pork is the most consumed meat in the world. It's inexpensive and versatile, yet relatively few home cooks feel comfortable moving beyond pork chops. And the vast majority never dream of making chorizo or curing their own hams or bacon. The Complete Book of Pork Butchering, Smoking, Curing, Sausage Making, and Cooking changes all that.

For the home cook who wants to step up to the butcher block, this book is the perfect guide. Equal parts butchering handbook, cookbook, and food history book, The Complete Book of Pork Butchering, Smoking, Curing, Sausage Making, and Cooking allows food lovers to take on culinary challenges, such as making their own sausage varieties or breaking down an entire pig, start to finish. Knowing that a single, butchered market hog can produce 371 servings of pork, there's a lot of opportunity for anyone lucky enough to get their hands on a whole hog. Even the folks who buy their meat in more manageable quantities can tackle new recipes and techniques in this book.

The book offers recipes, photographs, and illustrations to turn average cooks into nose-to-tail butchering enthusiasts. It also includes information about the history of pigs, meat storage and preservation techniques, and advice on how to best use every part of the pig to its most flavorful effect.

There's only one way to enjoy this book: Pig out!

Philip Hasheider

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