THE ART OF CHARCUTERIE

Probably a gourmet cookbook first, by an English woman entranced by the art of the clurcuteries, French shops which produce a tantalizing array of cooked meat delicacies mainly pork based. This is essentially the book of the pig--from snout to tail and areas within. If you cringe at recipes that gaily call for 3(apple) cups blood, and cannot quite bring yourself to read ""pig"" for ""pork,"" it's still worth a skim to extract some delicate and firm treatments of pates and gallantines, from appetizers to roast suckling pig. However, it is the skilled cook's appreciation of the properties of the animal to be transported into gloire de table, that is this book's peculiar contribution. A major consultant was Elizabeth David, and what more could one ask, in Franco-Anglo culinary alliances? Guides to seasoning, equipment, a section on picnic foods and some breezy historical notes gather in nicely the porcine palaver for those accomplished cooks who dig the pig. Special.