Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall leaves his cottage in the English countryside to teach us Yanks the art of eating the “whole beast.”
by Daniel Duane
True food heroes don’t just win reality shows and run trendy restaurants; they teach the rest of us a better way to live. Meet Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, the one-man British Culinary Invasion who has emerged as the underground prophet of today’s most committed carnivores.
From his River Cottage farm in the English countryside (rivercottage.net), Fearnley-Whittingstall writes books about the ultimate King-of-Your-Own-Castle food fantasy: raising and butchering all your own livestock; catching all your fish in nearby waters; gunning down migratory birds and the odd deer; foraging for wild mushrooms; and, best of all, knowing exactly how to transform it all into kick-ass meals that you can’t wait to eat.
Fearnley-Whittingstall’s The River Cottage Meat Book, which included a “Meat Manifesto” about a carnivore’s responsibility to know where and how his food animals lived and died, was published in the U.S. in 2007 (see Cookbooks Every Man Should Own). But this year Fearnley-Whittingstall became a bona fide American food celebrity with the August release of The River Cottage Family Cookbook, aimed at bringing kids onboard early by teaching them to cure their own bacon, and the publication of The River Cottage Cookbook, a full-blown lifestyle manual. Even if you don’t plan to freak out your neighbors with a backyard pigpen and chicken coop, he offers a clear roadmap to the life of the hardcore hands-on foodie, from the idealistic philosophy down to key practicalities, such as the all-important question of how, exactly, a man can ferment his own hooch from local wild berries.
Recipe:
Roast Belly of Pork
Ingredients:
Thick end of the belly (last 6 ribs)
Fresh thyme leaves
Salt
Pepper
1. Score the skin of the belly, in slashes about 3/8-inch apart, with a sharp knife (a box cutter is surprisingly handy) and rub vigorously with salt, pepper, and thyme leaves, getting it right into the cracks.
2. Roast at 425 degrees for the first 30 minutes, then turn the temperature down to 350 and cook for another hour, until the juices run clear when the meat is pierced with a skewer and the crackling has been reduced to a golden brown.
3. Remove the crackling before carving, then cut the joint into thick slices. Serve each person one or two slices of meat with a good piece of crackling. I like to serve this roast with mashed potatoes and some simple, lightly steamed greens such as savoy cabbage or spinach.
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