The Omnivore’s Guide to Home Cooking by Judson Carroll

In this book, I will explain and describe a way of cooking that is very much a way of life. As an herbalist, I enjoy cooking with many medicinal herbs that also have culinary value. As for the foods used, they will be a mix of what one may buy from a store, grow/raise on a homestead type farm, or source from the wild. I like beef, pork and chicken, but I do not like it to the exclusion of wild game… not at all! I eat a great deal of wild caught fish and even though I live in the mountains, I am only a morning’s drive to the coast and I enjoy fresh seafood… I am oyster fanatic! I love to garden both herbs and vegetables. I also forage for many wild edible plants and mushrooms.

My culinary philosophy is to eat as seasonally as possible and to include the widest diversity of foods possible. I believe that fresh and well-handled food has more than just vitamins, protein and carbs, fat and calories. I believe that real food has a life force to it that is lost when it is shipped long distances from where it is grown to where it is sold. My goal is, through careful cultivation and harvesting and the cooking and preserving techniques I use, to preserve and even enhance that illusive quality. I firmly believe that the reason my great grandparents mostly lived to be around 100 years of age was due to that very diet. As the American diet has become more reliant on processed foods and even what we call fresh foods are shipped over thousands of miles before they reach the store, Americans have become less healthy, far more prone to diabetes, heart disease and cancer, and live shorter, less healthy and vigorous lives. Diseases that were once rare have become common. Obesity has become the norm.

This is not a recipe book, primarily. In this book, I will emphasize ingredients and seasonal options. The recipes given will be very flexible to the tastes of those who may cook them. The recipes are merely suggestions and are given for inspiration. The emphasis will be on ingredients and technique. The integrity of the ingredient is paramount.

Food should never be wasted if possible. Good technique allows us to utilize humble cuts of meat and vegetables a bit past their prime. It is a sin to waste food. I have been told that I “eat like a king.” Whether that is true or not, I do eat very well… better than I could buy in most restaurants, and at perhaps a 10th of the price of the average American who lives on fast food, prepared meals and grocery store fare. I am also stronger and healthier as a well-fed omnivore in my 40s than I was as a vegetarian in my early 20s… I’m also a lot happier and enjoy my meals far more!

What is the style of this cookbook?

Well, it is basically anything I like that is seasonal. It is not overly fancy for fanciness sake. I love an honest meatloaf as much as I do a fine pate. I have a rural southerner’s love of fish roe, and appreciation for caviar. If I catch a trout loaded with roe, I will cook some with scrambled eggs and salt cure some to eat on crackers or bagels with cream cheese. Sometimes, my meal is fried chicken and coleslaw. Sometimes, it is a pork shoulder cooked low and slow, for 10 hours minimum, over hardwood coals of hickory and oak. Sometimes I do make a classic French sauce. Other times, it is simple pasta with garlic, parm and parsley. Fancy without flavor does not impress me. The stark elegance of raw oysters with lemon juice is something I crave. But, as comedian James Gregory said, “Where I come from gravy is considered a beverage.” I am gravy fanatic!

My goal is not to instruct you how to cook like me. My goal has been to encourage you to cook like you! Cook with creativity and eat with joy. From that will come gratitude. Gratitude and love are virtues cultivated by the art of cooking and the enjoyment of eating, especially with those we love.