Oh Canada

I found this today while scoping out a cookbook shelf at one of my favourite antique stalls. At an amazing price of $3 I was not going to pass it up. I also picked up copies of Martin Yan's "The Chinese Chef", Pasquale's "La Cucina de Pasquale", and the quintessential Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook (revised and expanded edition). This entire haul came to $9.45 after taxes. Yes, $9.45. I'm a cookbook bargain babe.

The Northern Cookbook was published many a year ago (my copy is a reprint from 1971) with the intent to record the food and fauna of our great white north, and our great greenish north as well. It also functions as an educational text to northern cooks, putting emphasis on nutrition and meal planning early on in this amazing tome. It addresses home issues that are (or were considering the nearly 5 decades since it was published) such as saving on particular food and heating costs, in addition to educating on certain cooking and food preparation terms that northern cooks may not be acquainted with, such as baking, beating, boiling, chopping, cream, and I think you get the idea.

 From my cursory glance I have found a vast fount of information about preparation of particular northern staples such as muskrat and seal

Some prime recipes I discovered while doing a preliminary reading

• Baked seal flippers with vegetables. pg 156.

• Jugged Hare pg 283

• Canada Goose pg 103

• Ginger Prairie Chicken pg 114

 The illustration of an Inuit trying to smack ketchup out of the bottle on to a waiting whale found on page 301 was almost as amusing as the recipes themselves. It is interesting to note that the illustrations found in this book were done by the now deceased James Simpkins who was one of the first cartoonists and illustrators for the National Film Board of Canada.

 If you can grab a copy of this book, even if only for a laugh, I whole heartily encourage it.