Father's Day gifts.

In our house this year, Father's Day is about Father.  i.e., me.  So I'm going to smoke a brisket.  There's nothing more relaxing to me than tending a fire, and checking in on a giant slab of meat over the course of a day.  It will leave me time to have a beer (or two), to read a book (or two) and to play hockey with my 3-year old in the den.

I don't think I'm the only guy that looks forward to Father's Day as a day of meat and grilling.  So, if you don't mind, I'm going to make a few suggestions for Father's Day gifts for the meat-lover in your life that are really great resources, but that don't get the publicity of some of the more famous chefs and bbq enthusiasts.

First, up.  Pork and Sons.

This beautiful little book suggests all the fun French ways you can cook pork.  It has a particularly magical recipe for what to do with pig's feet.  I'll write about this some day, but suffice it to say, you boil the crap out of them, shred the meat, pack it into sausages with fried shallots, and pack them into sausage shapes to harden.  Broil slices of the resulting sausage, and serve slices on crackers.  And watch the faces of your loved ones (who will no doubt claim that they're not that into pig's feet) go from cautious to rapture.

Second up is my go-to bbq book.  This one has everything, and the worst recipes in here are merely good.  

I bring you Smoke & Spice.

I've already written about the beef tenderloin in here, and plan to do posts on some pulled pork and whole chicken preparations in the future.  This book is all yummy all the time.

My final meat book for you is my cured meat bible, Charcuterie.

I confess, I have experimented less with this book than with the other two.  But this book is worth it for the bacon recipe alone.  As everyone knows, bacon is pure yummy.  Home-made bacon is to grocery store bacon as a Porsche is to a Honda.  It's the stuff, and if you have a smoker, it's really very little time investment.  

All 3 of these books are fantastic references, and guaranteed to keep you in delicious meat.

Good luck with your last minute Father's Day shopping.