Cookbook Archaeology 201
On to the second of the three cookbooks recently delivered into my hands. This one is the Wild Game Cookbook. Published in 1968 as a Remington Sportsman's Library Book, this volume consists of recipes submitted by the public to a panel of culinary experts, who chose the best of the submissions for inclusion in the book.
Now, we do like wild game. We've enjoyed some very nice elk and venison that neighbors of ours have been kind enough to give us. And there are several restaurants we like that have menus featuring wild game. I'd probably be tempted myself to go a-huntin' to fill the family pot, except that my wife feels there is a better than even chance that I'd blow my own foot (or some other appendage) off instead. Still, this cookbook does tickle my funny bone a bit because of the breadth of the offerings.
The Wild Game Cookbook is divided into four sections - Upland Game Birds, Waterfowl, Small Game, and of course Big Game. The first two sections are pretty conventional. You have your grouse and pheasant, duck and goose, quail and partridges in a pear tree, pigeons and doves. Pretty much everything but the four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie. None of the recipes really excite much interest, though Grouse with Caramel Sauce is definitely not something you'll find on an Applebee's menu.
Most of the more interesting recipes (and I mean interesting in the Chinese sense of the word) are in the small game section. Now, I'm as adventurous as the next guy when it comes to eating small critters. I've actually tried possum before, a little in the interests of science, but mostly because I was young and impressionable at the time and could be persuaded to put almost anything in my mouth. The exquisite gaminess of the meat was only enhanced by its incredible greasiness. Granted, the individual who was my culinary guide was cooking the meat in foil, in a furnace normally used for making truck axles, but I feel he was almost the equal of Bobby Flay when it comes to cooking small forest animals. If Bobby Flay were to cook woodland creatures in an industrial furnace, that is.
Anyway, even for the adventurous palate, there are some odd recipes in this cookbook. Interestingly enough there aren't any real stand out recipes for possum, but raccoon and muskrat are another story. Recipes like Beaver-Tail Soup, Woodchuck in Sauce, Raccoon Pie, and the (one would hope justifiably famous) Raccoon Feed for a Crowd. Some of the recipes raise questions, such as Creamed Squirrel on Rice, for instance. Would one serve this at a potluck, or is it suitable for a Ladies Club meeting?
Oh, there's more. I like to think that all the kids will jump up and down in excitement when Mom declares that tonight they're having Squirrel Cakes! Finally there's my all time favorite recipe, suitable, I'm sure, for hot weather dining: Molded Raccoon Salad, which is basically raccoon in a delicate aspic, or as it is more commonly known, raccoon flavored Jello. As my own personal version of the Anti-Christ, Rachel Ray, would say...Yummo!
The larger game recipes are somewhat disappointing, as inventiveness seems to have been left behind. No elk cakes here, or molded venison salad. Bear Mulligan elicits a bit of interest, but nothing to compare to the glory of Muskrat Catawba.
All in all, I enjoy the Wild Game Cookbook almost as much as the Big Boy Barbeque book, though for different reasons. While the latter book is a step back in time to a more innocent and less complicated time, the Game cookbook is a paean to Man's inventiveness. Never let it be said that there's any creature on land or sea we can't find some way of fricasseeing or deep frying.
