Preserving Wild Foods: A Modern Forager's Recipes for Curing, Canning, Smoking, and Pickling

by Pelzel, Raquel; Weingarten, Matthew

• ISBN13: 9781603427272
• ISBN10: 1603427279
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-11-06
• Publisher: Workman Pub Co

Summary

His inspired recipes use a wide range of ingredients from the sea, fields, forest, fresh water, and gardens. Adventurous home cooks, farmers'â„¢ market fans, hunters, foragers, and preserving enthusiasts alike will delight at the chance to create these uniquely flavored preserves. Weingarten brings a sense of place to every taste with his personal stories of foraging and harvesting many of the ingredients in their natural environments. Evocative photography and narrative text communicate the specialness of each food and how to best bring out and appreciate its unique flavors. Clear instructions make small-batch preserving techniques easily accessible to the home cook, from smoking fish to putting up jam, pickling vegetables, curing meat, and making candied preserves. The results are one-of-a-kind tastes and meals that carry within them memories of the wind, water, woods, gardens, and fields.

Author Biography

Raquel Pelzel’s work has been featured in Saveur, the Wall Street Journal, Every Day with Rachael Ray, Shape, and Epicurious, among many others. Formerly an editor at Cook’s Illustrated and the senior food editor and test kitchen director for Tasting Table, Pelzel has written more than 20 cookbooks and has judged Food Network shows including Chopped Junior and Beat Bobby Flay. Pelzel lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her two sons.

 

Matthew Weingarten is the executive chef at Inside Park at St. Bart’s in New York City, where he brings a strong sense of place and seasonality to his professional cooking. He was previously chef de cuisine at Savoy and Quilty’s, both in SoHo. At Inside Park, Weingarten fosters strong relationships with the farmers and purveyors who have become part of his food family. Interested in lost culinary techniques, he practices the art of curing meats, pickling vegetables, and preserving fruits. He enjoys giving back to the community that he has helped shape by peer-mentoring in the workplace and introducing others to a world of place and season at the dining table.

Table of Contents

Preface

Preserving and Curing: How and Why

 

1 Coastline: Gifts from the Sea

Arctic Char Gravlax with Wild Fennel Pollen

Salt Cod

Salt Cod Fritters with Spicy Rum Sauce

Smoked Black Cod

Modern Garum

Instant Samphire Pickles

Irish Moss Cocktail

Kombu-Cured Red Snapper

Furikake Seaweed Salt

Garlic and Oil--Cured Anchovies

Bismarck Herring with Young Carrots and Onions

Salted Sardines, Coriander, and Thyme

Smoked Mussels

 

2 Pastures & Hedgerows: Grazing Lands and Natural Borders

Old-World Rose-Hip Jam

Stinging Nettle Cordial

Dandelion Jelly

Sloe Gin

Crab Apple Mostarda

Wild Persimmon and Ginger Jam

Clabber Cream

Ruby Red Membrillo

Speckled Tea Eggs with Star Anise and Ginger

Farmer Cheese

Lamb Prosciutto

Air-Cured Beef

 

3 Gardens & Fields: Cultivated and Harvested

Old-World/New-World Sauerkraut

Lactic-Fermented Mixed Pickles

Classic Dill Pickles

Old-Timey Watermelon Pickles

Sweet Mint and Rhubarb Pickles

Rhubarb Fool

A Peck of Pickled Peppers

Scented Geranium--Tomato Jam

Modern-Day Maraschinos

Sweet Bergamot Marmalade

Plum Lekvar

Mulberry-Rosemary Jam

Preserved Artichokes a la Grecque

Sweet-and-Sour Pearl Onions

Pickled Garlic Scapes

Smoked and Naturally Nitrate-Free Bacon

Bits, Jumbles, and Jelly

 

4 Forest & Woods: Foraged, Picked, and Plucked

Strawberry and Lemon Verbena Preserves

Blueberry-Maple Spoon Fruit

Candied Angelica Stems

Elderberry Compote

Pickled Chanterelle Mushrooms

Frutti di Bosco Compote

Black Walnut Chutney

Black Walnut Liqueur

Pecan and Fennel Seed Brittle

Spiced Venison and Cherry Summer Sausage

Little Hunter's Sausage

Garlicky Kielbasa

 

5 Banks & Wetlands: Freshwater Depths and Shores

Pickled Fiddlehead Ferns

Pink Peppercorn--Pickled Ramps

Wild Ramp and Walnut Pesto

Cossack Pickles

Hot Smoked Trout

Pheasant Rillette

Citrus-and-Spice Confit of Duck Leg

Duck Prosciutto

Goose-Neck and Whiskey Sausage

 

Resources

Acknowledgments

Index