Pulp - by Abra Berens (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Pulp will change your mind about fruit. It's not just for eating out of hand, baking into a pie, or preserving into a jam or jelly. Roasted fruit can enhance a pork chop or add tartness and fleshy heft to grains. Apricots can be tucked into the most delicious grilled cheese, their brilliant flavor and hue the irresistible stars of the sandwich. Infinitely delicious, endlessly adaptable fruit can center a meal. Here are 95 approachable, healthful recipes for 22 fruits in sweet and savory preparations, each featuring the acidity, sweetness, color, and texture different fruits bring to the plate. Pulp, like beloved author Abra Berens's award-winning first and second cookbooks, Ruffage (on vegetables) and Grist (on grains, beans, and legumes), is written with the same highly approachable structure and recipe style. Each fruit chapter is broken into techniques-raw, roasted, and stewed, for example-with a sweet recipe and a savory recipe for each technique"--

Book Synopsis

Named a Best Cookbook of Spring 2023 by Eater, Food & Wine, and more, and a Best Cookbook of the Year by Epicurious, Vice, Library Journal, and more.

First vegetables, then grains, and now, fruit. This is the beautiful follow-up to Abra Berens's Ruffage and Grist, with more than 215 recipes and variations for using fruit in sweet and savory recipes to highlight seasonality and flavor.

Pulp is a hardworking book of recipes that focuses on all the ways fruit can enhance simple, delicious mains--for example, by elevating roasted vegetables, garnishing soup, or adding perfume to a roasted pork or brisket. Unlike Ruffage and Grist, Pulp is about regularly incorporating fruit to add variety and seasonality to main dishes.

Home cooks and bakers alike will rejoice in the alternately sweet and savory recipes such as Roast Chicken over Blueberries, Cornbread + Lemon; Melon, Cucumber + Chickpea Salad; and Rum-Plum Clafoutis. The book also features helpful reference material, a Baker's Toolkit, and more than 100 atmospheric photos, delivered with the can-do attitude and accessibility of the Midwestern United States. This next generous offering from beloved, trusted author Abra Berens is a necessary addition to any kitchen shelf alongside its predecessors and other mainstays like Plenty, Six Seasons, and Small Victories.

THIS IS THE A TO Z OF FRUIT: The content is deep and authoritative, but also wide-ranging, with information and recipes for 15 different, widely accessible fruit varieties: Apples, Apricots, Blueberries, Cherries, Drupelet Berries (blackberries, raspberries, mulberries), Grapes, Ground Cherries (a.k.a. cape gooseberries), Melons, Nectarines + Peaches, Pears, Plums, Quince, Rhubarb, Strawberries, and Tart Round Fruits (cranberries, currants, gooseberries, lingonberries + autumn olive). Pulp features only fruits that grow in the Midwestern United States, so no bananas, passion fruit, or citrus here.

CULINARY REFERENCE BOOK: Like Ruffage and Grist before it, Pulp is a truly useful reference cookbook. Organized by type of fruit, each chapter offers authoritative info and tips that the home cook can use to deepen their knowledge of ingredients and broaden their repertoire of techniques--all in the service of improving their meals. The recipes are simple, generally quick to prepare, and use ingredients that are easy to find and often already in your pantry. Plus, the many variations empower home cooks to flex their creativity and trust themselves in the kitchen.

ONGOING SUCCESS: Ruffage was named a Best Cookbook for Spring 2019 by the New York Times and Bon Appétit, was a 2020 Michigan Notable Book winner, and was nominated for a 2019 James Beard Award. Grist was named a Best Cookbook for Fall 2021 by Eater and received a starred review from Publishers Weekly. Here's some strong praise for both books:

"Things in my kitchen have changed since Ruffage arrived. This organized, easygoing guide to 29 vegetables offers a few cooking methods for each one, supplemented by several variations." --Kim Severson, New York Times

"[Ruffage] is a total classic in the making."--Christina Chaey, associate editor, Bon Appétit

"Crammed with exciting ideas that encourage creativity, this lively book will quickly become an essential item in the home cook's library."--Library Journal (starred review)

"[In Grist, ] Berens encourages readers to start with ingredients they're excited about. . . . Interspersed features highlight working farmers and their areas of specialty, serving to illustrate issues that inform Berens's ethics and worldview." --Booklist

"[In Grist, ] Berens strolls through each category with representative methods (such as boiled, fried, and sprouted) with an eye toward variety and versatility over 125 recipes."--Chicago Reader

DISTINCTIVE: In a super-chunky package (432 pages!) brimming with photos and accessible, delicious recipes, Pulp is not just a reference cookbook but a beautiful one at that. The three cookbooks are perfect for gifting together as a set to a lucky friend.

Perfect for:

• Recreational cooks of all skill levels, from beginners looking to master a few dependable techniques to seasoned cooks who want recipes and strategies for easy weeknight meals with more healthy ingredients
• Plus for bakers: One third of Pulp's content is baking recipes!
• Anyone looking for creative fruit recipes or new inspiration for whole food cooking
• Fans of Abra Berens and her previous cookbooks
• Gift selection for cookbook collectors and fans of Alice Waters, Yotam Ottolenghi, Molly Yeh, and Joshua McFadden who are looking for the next great healthy eating cookbook
• The next must-have reference cookbook for lovers of Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat

Review Quotes

A Library Journal Best Cookbooks of 2023

"Organized by fruit type, Pulp is the ultimate culinary reference book that empowers home cooks to experiment and trust themselves in the kitchen." - The Cut

"Berens is a cookbook superstar, and her innovative way of creating books, and talking about and sharing food, is a pleasure to read." - Library Journal, starred review

"Another winner from Berens, Pulp is a beautiful and necessary book for anybody who loves fruit and wants to not only find good recipes, but wants to really learn how to handle it and use it in the most efficient and delicious ways possible." - Vice

"Locally focused but widely applicable, this will have home chefs heading to the farmers market or produce aisle with renewed confidence." -Publisher's Weekly

About the Author

Abra Berens is a Michigan chef, author, and former farmer. Through every recipe written and meal served, she aims to tighten the connection between eaters and growers. She believes we can invest in a stronger, more equitable food system for everyone, from producers to grocers to consumers. She is the author of Ruffage: A Practical Guide to Vegetables, a 2020 Michigan Notable Book winner and James Beard Award nominee, and Grist: A Practical Guide to Cooking Grains, Beans, Seeds, and Legumes. Her dinners at Granor Farm in Three Oaks, Michigan, made her a James Beard semifinalist for Outstanding Chef: Great Lakes.

EE Berger is a Detroit-based photographer focused on food, lifestyle, product, and portrait work.

Lucy Engelman is an illustrator who puts pen to paper in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.