Customer Reviews

Lobel's Meat Bible: All You Need to Know about Meat and Poultry from America's Master Butchers

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I usually don't write reviews, but I think this is too deceptive of a title. There are no pictures of raw meat cuts outside of the cover. No butchering , trimming, or ageing techniques. Seriously, not even a diagram of any animal that you would consider a bible containing. You get a few color pics of dishes(not enough to qualify for a coffee table book even)and some average recipes. That's all. I truly was hoping for another level of meat and butchering knowledge. I quickly compared to what books I already had: "Cooking" (Peterson), "The Way to Cook" (Child), or even Best Recipe Meat series, and they were 100 times better. I felt cheated, and it came practically free from a book club. Buyer beware. It has been gifted already.

I got this book for Christmas. My wife gave it to me, and we, who live in New York City, and know Lobels for its high quality and very stratosphericaly expensive meats, thought that they would give up some of their secrets. That's how good cookbooks are sold! Read the first pages on beef, looked for the nonexistant pictures, and gave up. What a wasteand disappointment! They are not willing to educate.

Easier to give up this meat cookbook than a good Porterhouse. They'll be selling these books to their rich customers! Or probably giving them away at next year's Chanukah with their free deliveries!

- Authors note that consumers are 'baffled' about what cuts look like - but then don't show photos. E.g. Pages 18-25
- Word descriptions need photos throughout. Black and white diagrams without word explanations are not ideal. E.g. page 184
- Wanted expert butchers who could explain in words and color pictures in a step by step fashion how to break down a chicken, prepare a certain cut of meat, etc.
- Did not need another recipe book. Will be returning it. Disappointed.
The Professional Chef (CIA) is better at showing how to trim, butterfly and prepare meats, poultry, etc.
Still searching for THE BIBLE on how to butcher and prepare meat, poultry, etc.

With the other books that are out there to purchase on the same subject I find it very hard to believe that the creators of this book ever bothered to check out their competition.
Do not buy this book if you're at all interested in learning.
Very poorly written, no instructions for any type of 'at home' butchery.
The Lobel's, while a staple in their neighborhood, clearly have no desire to promote the health and welfare of the animals they sell.
Buy the River Cottage Meat Book instead. Far better and clearly a lot of time went into it's research.

Being a professional chef, I found this book insulting. A Bible should contain everything you need to know, but this item was mislabeled and only contains recipes that are based for using meat. There is no butchering shown, no diagrams, no instruction. Not even how to break down poultry (which is insanely easy). No instruction in a meat bible... That doesn't sound like everything I need to know. Maybe they are just keeping all I need to know secret, so that they don't have more competition in the fading trade of butchering. With all the giant corporate meat packing in this country, you would think they would want to educate people, instead of retard them with this book. This book is a gimmick to get people to buy it.

This book brought me nothing but frustration. I was expecting the alpha and omega of meat, but got a picture book without any pictures.

If you are going to title your book any kind of "<fill in the blank> BIBLE: All you need to know" I want to see a meat creation story, the ten commandments of meat written by the finger of the butcher God, I want to see the friggin parting of the red meat sea. I want to see a diagram of meat cuts, the quality each cut of meat yields, what its best uses are and WHY. I want to know what types of cows are used and which are best; the flavor and texture differences between grass and grain fed, 1-year, 2-year, and 3-4 year cattle. I want to know how aging is done, how if at all possible to do it in my barn, and what it does for the quality of the meat. I want to know the different effects of slow cooking, smoking, grilling, and roasting. The pluses and minuses of a marinade over a dry rub, how to best infuse flavors into red and white meat. This is not the greatest meat story ever told; it's the interrupting cow knock, knock joke.

Now it is excessively easy to be a critic, to take apart what other people have done, and I sincerely apologize to the Lodel's for doing it. I can read through the book and see what the Lobel's wanted to do, what they started to do, and what they were steered away from doing probably by a consumer focused publisher. If you are looking for cursory knowledge about meat cuts with some alright recipes here and there, this book is helpful. But if you want redemption, if you are looking for the carnivorous connoisseurs sermon on the mount, this is not the book for you.

An interesting book with some wonderful recipes. But, when describing various meat cuts it would be very helpful if there were drawings showing exactly where the cut comes from on the animal.

This book was a present and I can say that it might make a half way good flattener. Beyond that, it'll probably just take up space on your shelf.

As other reviewers said, the last time you'll see raw meat is on the front cover. From a book that is from "Master Butchers", I at least figured we'd get the basic cow/pig diagram of what cuts come from where. I was also hopeful we'd get nice big photos of what cuts look like, especially what makes a prime cut better than it's choice and select brethren. Instead, you get wall after wall of text describing the cuts. As a final send off for the "all-need-to-know" part, they fail to educate the reader on the most basic of tasks- butterflying a chicken.

The cookbook side does better though. Every recipe gives you typically one photo of the finished dish, a complete ingredient list, and 3-4 steps. Most of the recipes look fine but the lack of photos and slightly more detailed instruction make this just another cookbook in a sea of much, much better ones.

Spend your time and beef elsewhere. This book isn't what you want.

I like the book very much. Lots of great things to do with meat without being difficult. I especially like the way the chapters start out with explanations on all the different cuts of meat. A great book.

I haven't really used this book yet, but I love having the resource available at my fingertips.