Can you tell me the title and author of this book?

May 11, 2012 10:56 PM

Help me ID a book about food! (More below.)

Hey, folks. I'm hoping you can he me identify a book someone lent me years ago. It was NOT a cookbook, but it was a book about food--vignettes really--and was interspersed with recipes. One of the chapters discussed how the author was given an old-looking cast-iron skillet as a gift and then learned how to season and love it. Of course, there were recipes of what he made in the skillet. There was a recipe for a whole chicken with 30 cloves of garlic--or some large number like that. (But many simliar recipies exist in recent cookbooks. Again, this wasn't strictly a cookbook.) There was also a section about how (in th author's view) to properly eat an acocado. That is the part I remember best. THE way to eat an avocado, said the author (who I seem to recall was a man, but I'm not sure), is to cut it in half, put some oil and lemon juice in the cavity of the pit and scoop with a spoon--getting some of the dressing on every bite.

At any rate, can you help me to identify this book?

Thanks!

posted by laskagirl to Food & Drink (2 answers total)

I am almost positive that you are talking about Jack's Skillet: Plain Talk and Some Recipes from a Guy in the Kitchen by Jack Butler. It's a terrific book.
posted by bakerina at 12:30 AM on May 12, 2012

Waiting for Dessert, Vladimir Estragon? I remember the chicken with 40 cloves and I think the avocado, but not the skillet. It's wonderful, in any event.
posted by Cocodrillo at 6:27 AM on May 12, 2012