Thanks, Kevin. As usual, an entertaining & enlightening essay disguised as
a book review.

On Mon, May 7, 2018, 7:01 AM Barbara Schmidt <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> The following book review was written for the Mark Twain Forum by Kevin Mac
> Donnell.
>
> ~~~~~
>
> _The Huckleberry Cookbook_. By Alex & Stephanie Hester. TwoDot, 2017.
> Second Edition. Pp. 158. Hardcover $19.95. ISBN 978-1-4930-2836-8. Ebook.
> ISBN 978-1-4930-2837-5.
>
>
> Many books reviewed on the Forum are available at discounted prices from
> the TwainWeb Bookstore, and purchases from this site generate commissions
> that benefit the Mark Twain Project. Please visit <http://www.twainweb.net
> >=
> .
>
>
> Reviewed for the Mark Twain Forum by
> Kevin Mac Donnell
>
>
> Copyright (c) 2018 Mark Twain Forum. This review may not be published or
> redistributed in any medium without permission.
>
>
>
> Huck Finn's name signifies an insignificant (huckleberry) Irish child
> (Finn). The stereotypical Irishman of the nineteenth century was a drunkard
> and thief, and Irish immigrants frequently were met by signs in shop
> windows reading "No Irish Need Apply." Although Irish women could get jobs
> as housekeepers, Irish males were more often hired as day laborers and
> rarely hired as butlers or allowed to work in a home; African-American
> males were more often hired as house-servants than Irish-American males. If
> African-Americans occupied the bottom rung of the social ladder during and
> after slavery, Irish-Americans, who flooded into the country in the 1840s
> to escape the cruelties of British rule and forced starvation (not famine),
> were only one rung up the ladder--which bred resentment and racism. Huck
> was the son of Pap Finn, the town drunk, an Irishman who need not apply,
> nor should his son.
>
>
> None of this is mentioned in this wonderful cookbook. In fact there is no
> mention of Mark Twain at all even though every page glorifies
> huckleberries. The introduction credits Henry David Thoreau as the first
> American writer to seriously study the huckleberry, tracing them back to
> 1615 when explorer Samuel de Champlain noted that Native Americans
> harvested them. Next comes Captain William Clark (of Lewis & Clark fame)
> who describes them in 1806. They were used for food, for dyes, and as
> medicine. They were mixed with meats, and also mashed and dried and made
> into cakes. Early settlers took their lead from Native Americans and
> likewise made good use of them. During the Great Depression "huckleberry
> camps" attracted eager pickers, especially in the northwest, and by 1937
> the huckleberry industry had developed enough to require regulation.
>
>
> Not all huckleberries are the same; there are three dozen species of
> huckleberries in North America, and they have been mistaken for
> blueberries, and called by other names: hurtleberries, bilberries,
> dewberries, and whortleberries. Grizzly bears love them, and no wonder: the
> aroma of huckleberries can permeate a plastic bag (NB: double bag them when
> freezing them for storage). In some regions huckleberry bushes grow barely
> two feet high, but in other climates they grow over five feet tall. They
> tend to grow best on sloping ground, but thrive at both lower elevations
> and at 6,500 feet. Most huckleberries are smaller than blueberries, and
> unlike blueberries they tend to grow further apart on the bush rather than
> in clumps like blueberries. Anyone who has tasted fresh huckleberries and
> fresh blueberries knows that huckleberries will win any flavor contest
> hands down. Huckleberries have a balanced (not too sweet, not too sour)
> lingering taste and a complex texture that makes blueberries seem dull in
> comparison. There is nothing insignificant about huckleberries.
>
>
> Recipes for huckleberries are nearly endless, and this beautifully
> illustrated book combines clear concise recipes with brilliant color
> photographs that are literally mouth-watering. For those interested in the
> lore of huckleberries, informational side-bars on huckleberry history and
> legend are sprinkled among the recipes throughout the book. Traditional
> recipes for jams, pies, and pancakes are included, but the reader is warned
> not to read this book outside of huckleberry season (which is brief, from
> late July to early September) unless there is a good stock of huckleberries
> in the freezer. Otherwise, what will you do when you see huckleberry ice
> cream, huckleberry cupcakes with lemon cream cheese frosting, huckleberry
> seafood salad, grilled rib-eye with huckleberry caramelized onions, roast
> duck with huckleberry hoisin, baby back ribs with huckleberry BBQ sauce,
> pan-seared salmon with huckleberry sauce (something any bear would love),
> baked huckleberry doughnut holes, vichyssoise with huckleberry swirl,
> huckleberry crumb cake, huckleberry cobbler, huckleberry cr=C3=A8me brulee,
> huckleberry frozen margaritas, or huckleberry banana smoothies? The variety
> of desserts, pastries, sauces, drinks, glazes, jams, spreads, appetizers,
> salads, breakfast items, breads, and main entrees is dazzling. Simply
> looking at the superb photographs without some huckleberries at the ready
> is torture.
>
>
> Gift shops in Hannibal and Hartford and elsewhere stock huckleberry
> products like jams, syrups, soaps, lotions, and drinks, and this cookbook
> deserves a place of honor alongside such huckleberry products. Twain's last
> home at Stormfield was surrounded by huckleberry fields and Twain was
> reported to have loved huckleberry pie. Too bad he didn't have this
> cookbook handy, but there's no reason any Twainian foodie should have to
> suffer today. The wild huckleberry has yet to be domesticated and raised
> commercially. One of the wonderful things about huckleberries is their
> wildness, their boldness, and their resistance to being civilized like the
> blueberry. But if that day ever comes, true Twainians will light out for
> the territory (Trout Creek, Montana, the huckleberry capital of the world,
> to be exact) to pick their own. If they're smart they'll bring along a copy
> of this book.
>