Road Reads

"Pig Perfect" by Peter Kaminsky

BOOK: "Pig Perfect," by Peter Kaminsky (Hyperion, $22)

TARGET AUDIENCE: People who saw "Babe" and thought of sandwiches.

"When taste is so full, so nuanced, so layered, it can best be compared to a symphony, its aftertastes like a final grand chord. . . . " Praise for a legendary wine? No, ham. Specifically, Spanish Iberico ham, although the search for the perfect pig leads also to France, Mexico and Ossabaw Island, near Savannah, Ga.

Outdoors and food writer Kaminsky speaks of ham in terms usually reserved for great wines and cheeses. And appropriately so, for together they form a trinity of the "preciously rotten" -- things actually improved by deterioration. But the process begins with the careful breeding and feeding of the pigs, then attention to their growth and, inevitably, to their slaughter. Kaminsky's articulate text is just as much about pig farmers and pork producers as it is about the pigs themselves. But he also gives us a brief history of pigkind, some conjecture on the origins of religious restrictions on pork and blistering commentary on factory farming. Oh, and recipes.

-- Jerry V. Haines