Let’s face it, meat tastes great. From steaks to chops, ribs to
roasts, it has a direct, hits-you-where-you-live appeal that cannot be
denied.
So it’s no surprise that when we think of our favorite food experiences, meat usually
played the major role. Eating that first super-flavorful fat-edged prime rib as a young boy
was a culinary rite of passage. Then there was the first spit-roasted whole pig, the cracklingcrisp
skin contrasting beautifully with the rich, buttery, smoky tendrils of the inner meat. A
roast leg of lamb, slathered with a paste of garlic, rosemary, and lemon juice, was the clearest
memory of a childhood trip to Greece. And how many times have we celebrated a gorgeous
summer day with a cold beer and a perfectly grilled double-thick T-bone steak, rich
and juicy inside and charred just right on the outside?
Obviously, we love meat. And with this book, we want to share that love with you,
to give you an even deeper appreciation of the flavor that you already savor—because red
meat is a bedrock part of our culinary heritage, a taste that is right down in our genes.
But we’re not blind to all the nutritional information that is going around today concerning
red meat. We agree that the typical American diet probably includes too much of
it. In fact, that’s how this book got started in the first place. We were concerned about our
own meat consumption and decided to try to make the meat we ate really count.