Serious Pig: An American Cook in Search of His Roots

I am loving this book.

I had made it partway through another Thorne book, "Outloow Cook" I think, so I picked this one up at the book store. I ended up reading it in the aisle for about twenty minutes and promptly brought it home.

It's a mix of talk about food in the author's youthful age & place, Maine. He writes about family recipes and local recipes and the summer house where they lived and the house he rented later and where he & Matt live now and potatos and berries and beans and crab -- and always about the food. Each chapter is a single subject, and ends with a recipe or two, but they're very much subordinate to the text that wends and winds around the topic.

The gingerbread chapter, for instance, is only a few pages long but it show more includes the tale of a great gingerbread recipe, an account of tracking down the orignial author of a recipe quoted third-hand in an old cookbook, and details of Thoreau's travels and dining among Maine logging camps. (Wha..?)

Weird and wonderful, warm and homey and inspiring. show less

John Thorne has written five books, Simple Cooking, Outlaw Cook, Serious Pig, Pot on the Fire, & Mouth Wide Open, each of which is a compilation of essays about food, cooking, and cookbooks. In one sense, these five books are among the best written, best tested, and best tasting cookbooks available today. He approaches a wide variety of classic recipes or food item (Chowder, Pasta with Anchovies, French Toast) like a proverbial blood hound. Initially, he circles around the recipe, describing its origins, historical variations, and analyzing its tastes and flavors. Then he zeroes in for the kill; first deconstructing and then reconstructing it until he has perfected the recipe to his tastes.

However, these five books are far more than show more just recipes. Food and cooking are just Thorne's gateways to writings and reflections about the human condition. He takes simple, home-based, everyday events and items and unearths surprisingly savory qualities. By exploring a specific food's or recipe's history and context, Thorne reveals larger truths about the relationship between the food we eat and the values we share. All of his books are worth reading, cook or no cook.

See my full review of John Thorne's books. show less