Beyond Bacon is the latest Paleo cookbook from authors, Paleo Parents. The book hit the shelves July 2nd and promised to address a variety of key concerns about the Paleo lifestyle, while also providing a plethora of delicious easy recipes to introduce newcomers to the lifestyle. I excitedly got my copy of the book because, although I am not the hugest fan of pork, the website promised to convert me. I also was hoping that the book would open my eyes to how easy the Paleo lifestyle could be.
Unfortunately, I cannot report that the book fulfilled either of these expectations for me. I wanted to like this book I really did, it’s got a beautiful layout, great pictures, engaging text and some great information. But the problem, in my eyes, is it does not convert the newcomer. Yes, the book does go into great detail about where you can buy into a meat share and how you can use every single by-product of a pig, but my question is, how is that breaking it down to basics for a newcomer who is just sticking their toe into the waters of the Paleo lifestyle? Not everyone is going to want to jump right in to a meat share and use an entire animal. And the Paleo Parents do not offer substitutions in their recipes. Almost all of the recipes I sampled called for you to make your own lard. Although I went to the butcher near me and got the best cuts of organic pork, I drew the line at making my own lard. So I was then left with trying to scramble to find a viable substitute for a key ingredient in the majority of these recipes.
Another issue with the recipes is that although the sides were interesting and contained some great flavors, the pork itself left a bit to be desired. I sampled first an avocado, zucchini pasta tossed with bacon. For starters, this was the first time I had made zucchini pasta. Although I followed the directions explicitly, it still came out quite mushy and watery. The recipe also called for the bacon to be cut into small pieces and then broiled in the oven. One of my pet peeves with pork, is the amount of fat. I am a crispy bacon girl. No matter how long I seemed to keep this mixture in the oven though, it still came out fatty. Overall, this recipe didn’t wow me.
The next recipe I tried was the ground pork burgers. This one did involve an interesting array of spices mixed into the ground pork mixture, but what was not explained was how quickly the burgers would dry out on the grill. We made these on two different occasions and both times the pork shrunk down to almost half the patties’ original size and tasted quite dry.
Now one could argue that both of these above issues were in fact due to user error, and I would even agree with that argument. However, in a book that claims to be targeting newcomers to this lifestyle, the author must take into account that the user may not be familiar with making zucchini pasta and how quickly you need to remove it from the pot of boiling water. Or the author could address the loss of moisture in the burgers and provide tips for alleviating this issue. These common mistakes should be taken into account in the writing of the step by step directions and tips for making these recipes.
Overall, I think that the Paleo Parents really need to consider who their cookbooks are meant to be targeting. If they are planning to tap into the already growing network of Paleo followers, great, however, I feel they are missing out on the potential of recruiting new followers. With some language that offers less extreme substitutions and a few additional points of instruction, they could double their potential audience. They have an interesting message to spread, however, I think some of that message is being lost in translation, by the overwhelming packaging. Perhaps instead of just focusing on the die-hard options like participating in a meat-share and making your own lard and stock they could teach you to navigate the local butcher or farmer’s market. Then they would have more people believing they could manage the constraints of a Paleo lifestyle. That would be the key to truly converting new-comers.
-JPM (Joyana)
