Hunt, Gather, Cook: Finding the Forgotten Feast: A Cookbook

I really enjoyed this book. I eat mostly vegetables so the foraging section was my favorite but for those who eat meat there is probably no better way to get local and organic meat than hunting or fishing. Check it out!

At a certain point many foragers grow hungry for bounty beyond mushrooms and cattails. They seek meat - raw and wild - yet making the leap from acorn gatherer to elk killer is a daunting one that seems beyond grasp. Hank Shaw's Hunt, Gather, Cook: Finding the Forgotten Feast narrows that gap with an entertaining, informative and approachable perspective on all forms of wild dining.Hank Shaw is a true renaissance eater. Educated, well versed in ethics, smart in his approaches to gaining new skills and knowledge, yet rooted in his father's passion for the outdoors. I do not view him as the modern Grizzly Adams as others have, because I believe that diminishes the bridge that he provides to so many seeking the big step into a full table approach to wild foods.At 336 pages with sparse photos and just a sprinkling of recipes, Shaw is more focused on a mid-range canvassing of everything one would need to know to forage plants as well as fish and hunt. Whereas Connie Green's Wild Table is all about the recipes, Shaw is about the how-to. How to find the stinging nettles. How to select the gun you need to kill a deer. How to process an animal in the field. Too much for some possibly, but enough for anyone on this journey to get far enough along that you have the confidence to take the next step.The book is comprised of three sections: Foraging from coast to coast; Fishing and feasting from streams to the sea; and Hunting for food and fulfillment. Green's book focused in on California and Pacific Northwest flora, but Shaw features a more universal selection - wild greens, berries, acorns, and then present relatively easy recipes that are a step above the 70s Love Child recipes that have driven many from wild bounty. The fishing section starts with the ethics and rational for fishing and moves into shellfish, crabbing and a variety of the more common fresh and salt water fish and how to prepare them. He covers how to clean the fish and turn them into dishes such as Sicilian Grilled Fish with Oregano Oil.The hunting section is the most intricate in the book in terms of his personal ethic and journey. If you weren't raised hunting, the odds of you ever hunting are minuscule at best. But Shaw breaks down those barriers with his personal story of an adult learning to hunt. He walks the reader step-by-step on selecting the weapon, practicing and getting licensed. As a result of his book I am currently in the process of learning to hunt in hopes of actually hitting the mountains next season with confidence that I can humanely kill an animal and efficiently turn that animal into food. Naturally, deer take center stage because of their prolific nature all over the world, but Shaw also covers moose, elk, quail, rabbit and more. Swedish moose meatballs, wild boar sausage and pheasant salad with fennel are just a few of Shaw's recipes.Shaw is a bridge building for the non-indoctrinated. After reading Hunt, Gather, Cook, you will have the confidence to step out and find your wild meal, and will be able to do it ethically, efficiently and with fun - a wonderful guide on a wild foodies journey.

Those of us who check in regularly to Hank Shaw's award winning blog, Hunter, Angler, Cook ([...]) have been waiting with scant patience for the coming out of his new book Hunt, Gather, Cook; Finding the Forgotten Feast It finally hit the stands late in May, on schedule, but none too soon enough for a lot of us.The book came a couple of days ago, all 324 pages, including some great photography, and divided basically in three parts: gathering (foraging) things that grow; fishing, (including gathering shell fish) and hunting, both birds and four footed game. He includes at least a couple of recipes with each chapter, sometimes more, and they by themselves are worth the price of admission.The book is a delightful mélange of personal experiences, descriptions, and instructions. Hank's writing style is captivating. He could write a book about a shovel full of mud and I'd not be able to put it down until the very end.If he didn't' write so extremely well this book could have been a disaster, for it covers such a prodigiously wide field.For those experienced in any one of the three fields, foraging, fishing or hunting, there may not be much to learn. However, I have been fishing and hunting for more decades than I care to state, but even I found new things in each. My plant foraging has been pretty much limited to going after wild strawberries and field mushrooms (the book omits any mention of edible fungi, for the author felt it is too large and complicated a subject) so this part was very helpful. I don't see stinging nettles where I live, but we have plenty of miner's lettuce to beef up our springtime salads.Hank Shaw had scarcely touched a gun all his life until just a few years ago, but in less than a decade he has become a very accomplished wildfowler after a painful and not very fruitful introduction to duck and goose hunting. He describes whimsically shooting his first migratory bird - a moor hen -, blundering into someone else's spread, and shooting lots of mudhens before his first real duck.And, of course, Hank is an accomplished chef, and tells you how to prepare and what you have gathered, fished for, or shot. Since my wife is not a good cook - she is a superb cook - and because I manage to create a mess if I get near the kitchen, I don't get to try my hand at cooking. So I don't know how good his recipes may be. I do know that I totally agree with his philosophy on how to cook duck, though, the skin crispy, and the meat rare.While this is a how-to book that assumes the reader is brand new to the game, don't sell it short all you foragers, fishers and hunters. You'll be bound to find something new and you'll enjoy every word.

Have bought 4 copies for this book so far, for various people with various interests - a good all round informative book.

Useful and informative.

I enjoy hunting and my wife, while she does shoot and has hunted is much more into food. Being raised on a farm you have a different perspective on food and where it comes from and my wife being a city girl is changing her views. Although the book was for her, I probably got as much out of it. What the author talks about and gives voice to is that we can/should expand how we get food - it is not about just buying the latest exotic fruit that is flown 5000 miles to our grocery store - while this may be nice it is not sustainable and by supporting it, we are in many ways harming our environment and simply subsidizing big companies. Going to farmers' markets or growing more of our own food - like our parents did is part of what we need to do but there is another level that we can be active on. This book addresses this - the idea that we can "forage" locally and expand our food choices and have a greater variety of choices without having to fly food half way around the world. I found the amount of information to be great, although since it covers the USA from coast to coast it means that for Canadians, the amount of applicable information is less. What is amazing is that even taking that limitation into account, it opened my eyes in terms of options for food in Canada. It does take a while to get your head wrapped around the idea that a "weed" can be edible and actually taste good. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to become more part of the environment - not the granola munching city yuppy but someone who truly cares about the environment and is willing to experiment. Hunting and fishing are not evil and the author does give information and recipes but most of all he provides a coherent philosophical basis for why each needs to become more part of our local environment and less a cog in the corporate food machine.

Too much fancy. I was hoping for more of the recipes on Hanks blog (the various burger recipes, potstickers and his award winning chilli). This book is a wonderful piece of wildlife=food art. But isn't too useful in my practical, mostly venison, basic ingredients kitchen, with three young children swarming my feet. I would love to eat the meals from it though if someone else could prepare and cook them!On a side note: I am a big fan of Hank Shaw. He is my "go to" chef for elevating wild game to the best meat you've ever tasted, and there is next to nothing out there for tried and tested recipes that actually please the whole crowd.

This book is well written and has some great stories taken from Hank's personal life. The ideas are very interesting, and lots to learn about fishing and hunting. Not a whole lot of concrete things to go on though, if you're looking for a 'how to' book, this would not be it.