He noted their general healthiness (and good teeth), and an absence of many of the diseases that plagued western cultures, such as scurvy, heart disease, and diabetes. Observing their dietary habits, he determined that their primary food was meat, both lean and fatty, and that their diets were very low in sugary or starchy carbohydrates. Was this meaty diet the key to their good health?The book chronicles a 1928 scientific experiment, conducted by the Russell Sage Institute of Pathology at Bellevue Hospital in New York, in which Stefansson and his colleague Dr. Karsten Andersen ate a meat-only diet for one year. The two men stayed healthy and fared very well, leading him to claim that we should reexamine our notion of what foods constitute a healthy diet.Later chapters promote the benefits of pemmican, a compact, portable, and high-energy food consisting of a concentrated mix of fat and protein made from dried lean bison meat, sometimes mixed with berries. Pemmican is like the original energy bar, and Stefansson spent considerable time and energy urging the military to adopt it for emergency rations.

    It was written in the 1950s when both Constance Spry and Rosemary Hume were among the greatest names in cookery writing at the time. Their aim was to offer a supremely practical book with chapters covering kitchen processes, soups and sauces, through vegetables, meat, poultry and game to cold dishes and pastry making. In fact everything every cook, or aspiring cook, would need to know.That the book has been so popular for over half a century is a true testament to how successfully they achieved their aim. The Constance Spry Cookery Book is now an established classic (and much requested on wedding gift lists) and a timeless treasure which stands the test of time, and is perhaps even more needed today when so many people have not been taught to cook by mothers or at school. It truly is the only cookbook you will ever need.