With more than 300 tried-and-true recipes, this indispensable companion will boost your confidence while cooking beef, hog, lamb, and veal.

Meat Illustrated is the go-to source on meat, offering essential knowledge and techniques to empower you to explore options at the supermarket or butcher shop (affordable cuts like beef shanks instead of short ribs, lesser-known cuts like country-style ribs, leg of lamb instead of beef tenderloin for your holiday centrepiece), as well as recipes that make those cuts (72 in total) shine. Meat Illustrated is part cookbook, part handbook, and is organised by animal and its primal cuts.

Meat is a delight, and we'll teach you the best ways to prepare succulent center-of-the-plate meats. Butter-Basted Rib Steaks: The steaks are cooked on both sides by spooning them into hot butter.

The classic Crumb-Crusted Rack of Lamb and meltingly supple Chinese Barbecued Roast Pork Shoulder (cook for 6 hours so the collagen melts to moisten the meat) are two dishes that must be tried. Additionally, elevate beef above the status of the main course in full meals: Try some Fried Brown Rice with Pork and Shrimp to liven up your surf and turf. Cook lamb shoulder chops in a Sharba-style soup made with orzo and chickpeas from Libya.

Hundreds of hand-drawn illustrations, step-by-step photos, break-out tutorials, and clearly written essays take the mystery out of meat prep (tie roasts without wilderness training; sharply cut crosshatches in the fat); these illustrations cover shopping, storage, and prep pointers and techniques so you'll execute dishes as consistently as the steakhouse. Illustrated primal cut info at the beginning of each section. Discover tips like pre-roasting fatty chunks instead of searing them before braising to prevent stovetop splatters, or soaking ground meat in baking soda before cooking to tenderise it. Try your hand at some DIY curing tasks too.