Rating: 
Summary: Happy ingredients, happy food, happy reading
Review: Even if I never cook a single recipe from this book, I will treasure it for Fergus Henderson's voice. "Find the happiest tomatoes you can." The writing is charming, and most encouraging for those of us who love to eat the odd bits but never cook them. And not only the odd bits -- many of the recipes for the more usual parts and for accoutrements sound wonderful, too.
Rating:
Summary: Let the gushing begin...
Review: Every chef, every foodie, everyone who EATS owes Fergus Henderson a HUGE "thank you" for this gift of a cook book!
From a working cook in a town of serious restaurants and almost unbearable foodie-ness, let me say that Chef Henderson's recipes are nearly perfect expressions of the ingredients he uses and of an underrated, unappreciated, neglected and misunderstood cuisine. His techniques are practical and his approach to each delicious recipe in "THE WHOLE BEAST" is a liberating blend of love, respect, whimsicality and quiet joy. This is perhaps the most "food-focused" cook book I've ever seen. To read it is an inspiration. To COOK from it, whether at home or in a professional kitchen, is a moment of clarity which reminds me of why I love to cook.
Speaking to you as the husband of an English woman and a certified Anglophile, let me say that I've encountered a great deal of the recipes in this book before. But Henderson's take on them provides the finesse and professional's touch which lifts them out of the corner foodshops and gastro-pubs and into the culinary limelight where they belong.
This book is full of delightful and soulful expressions of not just offal and blood and gelatinous bits, but a celebration of herbiness (Green Sauce and Its Possibilities) and "wintery lunches that are not brown and meaty" (Baked Celeriac and Eggs). There is a journey towards perfection which is the chef's chocolate ice cream (an admitted work in progress) and a wealth of recipes for condiments and sauces (including a ketchup made with apples in it!).
Just buy this book, you'll be thankful.
Rating:
Summary: real cooking in a time of focus groups
Review: fergus henderson's nose to tail eating is the most interesting and provocative cookbook i have seen in a time where the bulk of all of the cookbooks released have 75 recipes for chicken and 30 for cream cheese and pasta. This thoughtful tome starts with delicious and easy to make soups with simple ingredients like pumkpin, bacon and garlic and proceeds to reveal a zen master restaurant chef at the peak of his game. This is not a pasta and grocery store driven book for the rookie cook, but more for the cuisine enthusiast with a couple of great recipes in their repetoire, looking to expand to the slightly different and flavorful world of simple and poetic cooking of one of the great restaurants of the world.
Rating:
Summary: Great Modert Treatment of Very Old Techniques. Outstanding
Review: Fergus Henderson, the chef author of this book subtitled 'nose to tail eating' is a cult hero among foodies and among heroes of foodies such as Tony Bourdain, who writes the introduction to this new edition and Mario Batali, a major advocate himself of using the whole animal.For several reasons, this book is likely to have little to no value to the average person who cooks and who may refer to a cookbook now and then. The recipes commonly use ingredients that are simply unavailable outside better butcher shops and farmers' markets. The recipes also commonly use techniques that are the antithesis of fast cooking and low fat cooking. There are some recipes that literally require up to two weeks to complete. The true audience for this book aside from culinary professionals are those who religiously watch Alton Brown's 'Good Eats' , read John Thorne's books and newsletter as if they were gospels, and study books by Paul Bertolli, Eric Rippert, Judy Rodgers, and Jeremiah Tower for subtle new techniques to squeeze the last ounce of value from their primo materia. Just to be sure it is clear to you what this book is all about, it's primary subject is preparing in a cuisine absolutely everything but the oink, as the saying goes, from a pig and other animals. To this end, the author presents us with recipes for pig's head, pigs jowls (Mario Batali's favorite guanciale), pig's ears, pig's tail, livers, hearts, tongues, and the most beloved stomach as used in preparing the old Scottish classic, haggis. If this were the limit of the author's novelty, there would probably be little interest in the book among chefs. The author pushes this point of view to cover culinary techniques which are either not commonly used by the average chef and which are generally unknown to the average cook. The two best-known methods are brining and preserving in oil as in a comfit. Brining has probably become much better known among American foodies thanks to the efforts of Alton Brown and Shirley Corriher. It is a method of soaking meat in a solution of salt, sugar, and aromatics to impart moisture to the meat. Creating a comfit involves storing meat in fat rendered from the meat and fatty parts of the animal from which the meat was taken. The method is best known as a method for preserving duck legs, but it may be applied to many other meats. The author applies both techniques to a wide variety of foods. If any part of this book may have use to the average reader who takes cooking seriously, it would probably be the author's lessons on the creation and use of stocks. Unlike chefs at the cutting edge of American haute cuisine such as Judy Rodgers, Henderson's stock techniques are beautifully simple. He does recommend the uncommon method of creating a raft to clarify stocks. I have not seen this method used outside of Culinary Institute of America texts, but the author presents it so simply that one need have no fear that it is too complicated for them. That is not to say it does not take time. This is an example of why the nonprofessional will want to read this book. It is just chocked full of unusual techniques, some as simple as they are unexpected. The author goes against a tidal wave of preference for the Italian flat leafed parsley and chooses to use curly leafed parsley in most recipes including an utterly simple method for flavoring salt with the herb and adding it to a simple sauce. While the focus of the book is on meat, it does cover the very typical range of dishes with chapters on Stocks, Soups, Salads, Starters, Main Dishes (mostly the odd body parts are here), Birds and Game, Fish and Shellfish, Vegetables, Sauces, Puddings, and Baking. The refreshing iconoclasm extends even to the discussion of routine sauces where the author is clear to all that aioli is NOT mayonnaise with garlic, but a thing onto itself. He probably also breaks a few hearts by mixing olive oil for both mayonnaise and aioli in a food processor. The book should also be a treasure for armchair foodies who get no closer to a Garland range than a read of reviews in 'Cooks Illustrated'. This chef has a way with words. You may almost think of him as a literate Jaime Oliver who suggests you put terrines 'in the fridge for 24 hours to allow it to find itself'. I sometimes find it tedious to read even good recipes. There is no such problem with this book. Highly recommended read for all professionals and foodies. Great source of ideas, even if you never make any of the recipes.
Rating:
Summary: Great Modert Treatment of Very Old Techniques. Outstanding
Review: Fergus Henderson, the chef author of this book subtitled `nose to tail eating' is a cult hero among foodies and among heroes of foodies such as Tony Bourdain, who writes the introduction to this new edition and Mario Batali, a major advocate himself of using the whole animal. For several reasons, this book is likely to have little to no value to the average person who cooks and who may refer to a cookbook now and then. The recipes commonly use ingredients that are simply unavailable outside better butcher shops and farmers' markets. The recipes also commonly use techniques that are the antithesis of fast cooking and low fat cooking. There are some recipes that literally require up to two weeks to complete. The true audience for this book aside from culinary professionals are those who religiously watch Alton Brown's `Good Eats' , read John Thorne's books and newsletter as if they were gospels, and study books by Paul Bertolli, Eric Rippert, Judy Rodgers, and Jeremiah Tower for subtle new techniques to squeeze the last ounce of value from their primo materia. Just to be sure it is clear to you what this book is all about, it's primary subject is preparing in a cuisine absolutely everything but the oink, as the saying goes, from a pig and other animals. To this end, the author presents us with recipes for pig's head, pigs jowls (Mario Batali's favorite guanciale), pig's ears, pig's tail, livers, hearts, tongues, and the most beloved stomach as used in preparing the old Scottish classic, haggis. If this were the limit of the author's novelty, there would probably be little interest in the book among chefs. The author pushes this point of view to cover culinary techniques which are either not commonly used by the average chef and which are generally unknown to the average cook. The two best-known methods are brining and preserving in oil as in a comfit. Brining has probably become much better known among American foodies thanks to the efforts of Alton Brown and Shirley Corriher. It is a method of soaking meat in a solution of salt, sugar, and aromatics to impart moisture to the meat. Creating a comfit involves storing meat in fat rendered from the meat and fatty parts of the animal from which the meat was taken. The method is best known as a method for preserving duck legs, but it may be applied to many other meats. The author applies both techniques to a wide variety of foods. If any part of this book may have use to the average reader who takes cooking seriously, it would probably be the author's lessons on the creation and use of stocks. Unlike chefs at the cutting edge of American haute cuisine such as Judy Rodgers, Henderson's stock techniques are beautifully simple. He does recommend the uncommon method of creating a raft to clarify stocks. I have not seen this method used outside of Culinary Institute of America texts, but the author presents it so simply that one need have no fear that it is too complicated for them. That is not to say it does not take time. This is an example of why the nonprofessional will want to read this book. It is just chocked full of unusual techniques, some as simple as they are unexpected. The author goes against a tidal wave of preference for the Italian flat leafed parsley and chooses to use curly leafed parsley in most recipes including an utterly simple method for flavoring salt with the herb and adding it to a simple sauce. While the focus of the book is on meat, it does cover the very typical range of dishes with chapters on Stocks, Soups, Salads, Starters, Main Dishes (mostly the odd body parts are here), Birds and Game, Fish and Shellfish, Vegetables, Sauces, Puddings, and Baking. The refreshing iconoclasm extends even to the discussion of routine sauces where the author is clear to all that aioli is NOT mayonnaise with garlic, but a thing onto itself. He probably also breaks a few hearts by mixing olive oil for both mayonnaise and aioli in a food processor. The book should also be a treasure for armchair foodies who get no closer to a Garland range than a read of reviews in `Cooks Illustrated'. This chef has a way with words. You may almost think of him as a literate Jaime Oliver who suggests you put terrines `in the fridge for 24 hours to allow it to find itself'. I sometimes find it tedious to read even good recipes. There is no such problem with this book. Highly recommended read for all professionals and foodies. Great source of ideas, even if you never make any of the recipes.
Rating:
Summary: THE REAL THING
Review: I know, I'm the publisher. But that's just it -- I committed early here, bought into this book in a big way. Anyone can publish "the famous chefs," but as a publisher, and a reader and user of cookbooks (my 10-year-old daughter thinks I'm a talent in the kitchen), how often do you get the chance to be part of a groundbreaking movement? A style of cooking that combines soul and taste, with a nod to "economy" - waste not want not! I've been told by many along the way that this is truly a counter-intuitive enterprise. In response, I wish only to say that THE WHOLE BEAST is a book that has already given the serious food world (chefs, cookbooks writers, reviewers and discerning eaters) tremendous pleasure. It's a book that will always be part of my starting team in the kitchen. There's nothing like it - a book that proves once and for all that offal is awesome.
Rating: 
Summary: fantastic
Review: I might just be a regular old cook at a regular old restaurant, but I, too, have been a fan of St John and Fergus Henderson since I first had crispy pig's tails there. But, as great as this book is, let me encourage people to seek out Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage Cookbook. Same new-old British farmhouse fare, some very very good writing (think a british John Thorne) and he not only tells you what to do with all manner of pig parts, he tells you how to raise your own pig! Nose to tail and soup to nuts all in the same book!
Rating:
Summary: The Ultimate Healthy Diet
Review: Kudos to The Whole Beast by Fergus Henderson. This unusual cookbook is dedicated to recipes on organ meats. The delicious array includes warm pig's head, ox tongue, roast bone marrow, calf's heart, brawn (headcheese), jellied tripe, rolled pig's spleen, duck neck terrine, duck hearts on toast, many recipes for lamb's brain, sweet breads, blood cake (made with 1 quart of pig's blood), pig's cheek and tongue, gratin of tripe, haggis, deviled kidneys, lamb's kidneys and giblet stew. The one notable omission is steak and kidney pie.
The recipes are exotic (or so they seem to us-they were once standard fare for Britons) but also simple. Henderson's signature dish is Roast Bone Marrow and Parsley Salad, which calls for marrowbone, parsley, shallots and capers, with a dressing of lemon juice and olive oil-that's all. The ingredient list for Duck Hearts on Toast is minimal: duck hearts, chicken stock, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, butter and toast.
Many pages are devoted to preserving meats, including an intriguing recipe for dried salted pig's liver. Others include brine-cured pork belly, corned ox tongue, cured beef or venison, pickled herring and a variety of animal parts preserved in rendered fat.
And the book contains other treasures: many recipes for game birds, rabbit, venison, crab, eel, mussels and salt cod; creative vegetable concoctions, wonderful soups and unusual salads.
Henderson understands the value of stocks, makes pastry crust with suet and uses real butter and cream.
Henderson includes no discussion of the health benefits of the foods he serves, but with the exception of white sugar used in a few dessert recipes, and white bread crumbs in a few soups recipes, The Whole Beast is the quintessential health food cookbook; its principles will confer more beauty, strength and happiness on mankind than the thousands of fatuous lowfat tomes that lecture us about the evils of rich diets and promise the mecca of good health on a diet of skinless chicken breasts and soy smoothies.
Critics contend that Henderson's food is too extreme for Americans. Henderson replies: "My experience is that every time someone comes to the kitchen at St. John to say how much they enjoyed our Pig's Head or Rolled Spleen, they are always American, so I have no doubt that the strong gastronomic spirit of adventure in the United States will carry them through the recipes in this book."
Whether you are a timid eater or a courageous one, this book needs to be in your kitchen, and not kept pristine on the shelf, but reverently used. You'll need to find a real butcher or a farmer to obtain many of the basic ingredients, which is all the better, because as we learn to eat the whole beast, we hasten the revolution that is underway in America: the return to real food produced on real farms.
Review by Sally Fallon
Rating:
Summary: Like I said above..
Review: Review above mine.
And I meant every word.
Rating:
Summary: Happy ingredients, happy food, happy reading
Review: This book is centuries behind its time and years ahead of its time-a great book for anyone who cares about food, cooking or eating. Thank God for Henderson's work and craft. He's a marvel. More people in the United States ought to be familiar with his work. I hope this book is just the beginning.
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