Complete Meat Cookery - Choosing Cooking Carving

Complete Meat Cookery — Choosing • Cooking • Carving (1980) by Carol Wright (Mayflower), ISBN: 0583132936 — Condition: Good — as sold by Crappy Old Books

For anyone who has ever stared at a butcher’s counter and thought, “Which bit becomes dinner, and how do I stop it becoming shoe leather?” — Carol Wright is here with a 1980s masterclass in meat sense. Complete Meat Cookery does exactly what it says on the tin (well, on the Mayflower paperback): teaches you how to choose, cook, and carve with the calm authority of a friendly butcher’s aunt.

Open up and you’ll find:

• Choosing: how to spot good marbling, what a proper fat-cap looks like, and why “silverside” isn’t a sci-fi villain. Beef vs. lamb vs. pork vs. poultry vs. game, plus thrifty cuts that turn glorious with time and low heat.

• Cooking: roasts that behave, braises that forgive, grills that don’t squeak. Timings charts, basting wisdom, and the sacred arts of resting and slicing against the grain. Sauces and gravies that show up on time and don’t split under pressure.

• Carving: clear, no-nonsense diagrams (this was 1980; diagrams were an Olympic sport) showing where to put the knife so slices fall like well-mannered dominoes. From a proud leg of lamb to the Sunday rib, to the elusive crown roast that makes guests gasp.

• Leftovers alchemy: shepherd’s pie, bubble-and-squeak, sandwich stratagems, and stockpots that make the kitchen smell like you planned this all week.

The tone is brisk, British, and blessedly practical: no cheffy posturing, just the kind of kitchen wisdom that stops you overcooking the joint and teaches you to introduce yourself to your knife like a professional. You’ll even pick up a pocket lexicon of old-school names—brisket, chump, haunch, shank—so you can chat to a butcher without pointing and hoping.

This copy is in Good condition: sound, square, and ready for the countertop. Expect light shelfwear, a gentle vintage tan to the pages (gravy-colored only in spirit), and crisp, legible text. No mystery splatters, no missing charts—just a reliable manual itching to boss your roast around.

Filed by Crappy Old Books, purveyors of volumes that know the difference between a carving knife and a conversation piece. If your kitchen ambitions include roasts that carve like butter and stews that make friends, this is your handbook. Apron on, oven preheating, carving fork at the ready—cook once, carve with confidence, feast happily.

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