cover image Meat and Potatoes Cookbook

Meat and Potatoes Cookbook

Maria Luisa, Maria L. Scott. Farrar Straus Giroux, $22.5 (352pp) ISBN 978-0-374-20517-1

These well-known cookbook authors have collected almost 400 recipes for beef, veal, lamb, pork, ham, sausages, variety meatsand potatoes. Many were contributed by a diverse group of friends, including several eminent restaurateurs. Among the meat dishes are old standbys (scalloped potatoes and ham) and more adventurous fare (Danish beef liver with watercress sauce). But it is the mouth-watering selection of potato recipes that makes the book exceptional. Persian red potato salad, spicy Pakistani potatoes and potatoes with pizzaiola sauce are only a sampling of the over 150 potato possibilities. (No fewer than 17 different methods for preparing baked potatoes are offered.) Suggested meat and potato combinations, too, are often inspired. A caveat: inexperienced cooks will need to consult more comprehensive sources before tackling such feats as stuffing sausages into casings. And in a cookbook devoted to meat and potatoes, more general information about selecting, cutting, storing and cooking meat would have been welcome. (Oct.)