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.


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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 This review may not be published or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 crème 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.