We Use and Love the Beef It Up! Book

(Gerry Furth-Sides) Any conversation with me about beef always used to start with my mother’s entire family of 15 all being meat brokers. Now the story is Jessica Formicola’s new, authoritative, illustrated, comprehensive and compact book, Beef It Up! //www.storey.com/books/beef-it-up/

The extensive, current information by non-profit Certified Angus Beef Brand Ambassador, Formicola, may be found elsewhere. But not in one source . Examples are below. Amy is the “Julia” and the Amy Riolo of beef.

Formicola’s Beef It Up! easily qualifies as a “must-have” reference Book. While the recipes feel commercially fashionable, Jessica’s serving tips, butters, sauces and condiments are a book in themselves.

Her “insider’s take” balsamic glaze notes are “pure Julia” on how to make pricy store-bought items for pennies. And no wonder. Jessica is also the creator of the 4 S philosophy: salt, seasoning, sauce and substitution, helping you create easy restaurant-quality meals.

Visuals connect perfectly organized information “at-a-glance.” Helpful, illustrated charts accompany describe beef cut descriptions, alone with their best cooking methods and uses, for example. And they are ingeniously organized to instantly give you a gestalt-like understanding. I love this book.

Recipes throughout the book correspond with the cuts that Formicola describes.  There is an entire section of clearly written and often illustrated helpful tips for beef shopping, storage, safe handling, and even how to defrost properly.

Cooking methods are analyzed.  There are two-page overviews of what to look for when purchasing and new ways of preparing the cuts, and how to correct the dish when it is not perfect.

Jessica answered my own questions about cooking NY strip steak in a cast-iron pan – finish it off in the oven if isn’t cooked inside enough when fully seared. We did not have to use the oven.

The one thing I learned during this NY Strip Steak experience is that I prefer a ribeye. The Beef It Up! book explains why: the “large rib section comes form the center be highly marbled, naturally juicy, and superbly flavored.” NY Strips are primarily marbled around the edge.

I even prefer a burger, which also deserved respect. Did you know, as Jessica rhetorically asks, ” that up to 100 people and almost two years are dedicated to raising one cow. This is not to say that we loved an accompaniment of red cabbage slaw, salad greens, Hatch sweet onions and cherry tomatoes, courtesy Melissa’s Produce, who introduced us to the book.

There are so many other choices: Fifty recipes in the book range from comfort food, such as American meatloaf to ethnic fusion, such as beefy white queso, bacon cheeseburger in a bowl, to classics like Vietnamese beef and rice noodles. Jessica’s enticing promise is “Dinner in 15 minutes flat.”

How to get the best burger tips: beef no leaner than 80 percent; use a press or make a well with your fingers in the middle of the patty to prevent mounding during cooking.

Freezing patties for an hour before cooking helps them set.  It will also get them to be the same temperature throughout. This is key, according to Jessica.

Jessica Formicola is a TV Personality, cookbook author, small business coach, recipe developer, freelance writer, brand ambassador, travel and food writer blogger, photographer, social media expert, professional eater and a psychotherapist on the side.

Read our story about the historic Piedmontese Beef at: //localfoodeater.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=28687&action=edit

Read our story about Bone-in-Butcher, the Fourth Generation Restaurant Supplier who became a Personal Shopper //localfoodeater.com/how-dallas-based-bone-in-butcher-became-personal-shoppers/