Lobel's of New York is a family business, owned and operated by brothers Leon and Stanley Lobel, and their sons Evan, Mark, and David, where everyone is a certifiable expert in meat. It is not surprising, therefore, that they all know how to cook everything from veal to chicken and how to match it with wine. After all, once you've eaten a lot of meat, it has to be washed down with something, right? Lobel's Meat and Wine: Great Recipes for Cooking and Pairing is not necessarily about pairing a dish with the one wine that will go with it, but about learning how to match foods - meats, specifically - with wines.
The first chapter of the book explains what types of wines are food-friendly and what it is about them that makes them work. It then goes on to introduce recipes and matches for beef, pork, veal, chicken, game, pork and organ meats. The only complaint that a wine-lover could have about this crash course is that it focuses quite heavily on French and Italian wines, with only a sprinkling of those from other regions. Of course, this criticism is easily smoothed by the fact that the knowledge contained in the book will better enable you to match wines from California or New Zealand, as well as from Burgundy.
If you want to brush up on your meat knowledge before you read the book, take a look at the Guide to Meat that is on the Lobels' website.
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