Pork & Sons

One of books Lynne Rosetto Kasper recommended to me during our interview was Stéphane Reynaud's Pork & Sons.It's a heavy, squishy book with a pink gingham cover, lovely, understated photos, and adorable, piggy graphics. Author and chef Reynaud is also a third generation butcher, and his book is both a memoir and collection of recipes; it's also an affectionate and unexpectedly engaging valentine to the pig.

As I saw on my trip to Spain this summer, in many parts of rural Europe, even today a pig can be a family's most important possession, and its slaughter is approached with ceremony and quiet celebration.  So far away here in the US, it's almost impossible for us to understand how closely people can still live with both animals and to the earth and yet remain fully engaged with the 21st century. A farmer can spend the afternoon pitching hay with a pitchfork, and might stop a moment to answer a call on his cell phone without missing a beat.  Farm animals might live downstairs while teenagers surf the Internet upstairs in a kitchen still heated by an enormous, wood-fueled stove.  The disconnect comes from our American perception of how things ought to be, not with how life is really being lived so far away from our housing developments and plans of urban renewal.

Reynaud's book is a window into that world, and the joy of his gaze is infectious and inspiring.  Although some of the recipes can be daunting because of unfamiliar ingredients like pig's cheeks or pig's tails, most are simple and straightforward, like the succulent Larded and Studded Roast (pork loin wrapped in bacon) or the Roast Pork with Sage, above.

And who (I'm assuming there aren't any vegetarians reading this anymore) doesn't love the crackle of bacon, the softly melting ooze of pork belly between their teeth, and the tender strands of barbecue that so effortlessly fill your mouth with savory nirvana?  Here's an entire book to satisfy all of those primal urges for pork we try so hard, so vainly, to suppress. For Reynaud, giving into those urges means embracing joy, and, with his book, he makes it a very difficult invitation to resist.

Comments

[Teresa]

Source: pig's cheeks & pig's tails are sometimes available at the Tan-A Market in Little Saigon (Horspen & Broad). Be sure to look them over very carefully because at times they are 'ripe'. I always ask for a smell. Also try Bodega Latina on Broad.