Fish and Seafood Books

"Fish On Friday: Feasting, Fasting and the Discovery of the New World" by Brian Fagan is a complex journey through cultural, political, and even culinary history, examining the role of fish in Western European diet through Medieval times to the seventeenth century, exploring how that fish was supplied to European tables, and investigating how North Atlantic fishing fostered European "discovery" of North America.

By the 14th century, meatless fasting days imposed by the Catholic Church -- not only limited to Fridays and Lent -- accounted for more than half the days of the calendar. While the common people may not have observed all such fasting with the same rigor as various monasteries, such a requirement created an enormous market for preserved fish, even beyond demands stemming from everyday eating and the need for easily transported (and reliably stored) foodstuffs to provision armies and ships' crews. Local freshwater fish supplies quickly proved inadequate and, over the centuries, the supply of fish shifted first to salted herring and, eventually and more satisfactorily, to salted and dried codfish, the latter known as "stockfish", originated by the Norse but later becoming a staple throughout Northern and Western Europe.

The story of these fish supplies and how they fared against over-exploitation and climate change, and of the evolving technologies to catch and preserve the different fishes is complicated, encompassing activities in many lands over several centuries. Not the least fascinating -- and surprisingly obscure -- part of the tale involves the development of various types of seagoing vessels suited to best harvest the fish, especially in the stormy North Atlantic. The quest for fish led men to the waters off Ireland and Iceland and, perhaps, even further west. Fagan concludes that merchants of Bristol, England, in the decade preceding Columbus's 1492 transAtlantic voyage launched expeditions in the North Atlantic to search for the fabled island of Hy Brasil. The documentary history for what these expeditions actually accomplished is at best murky, but it seems reasonable to suppose that they extended at least to the rich fishing grounds on the banks off the eastern coast of North America and perhaps to Newfoundland itself or beyond. If so, information from these voyages almost certainly lay behind John Cabot's 1497 "discovery" of the North American mainland and maybe even Columbus's 1492 voyage (Columbus previously had tried unsuccessfully to gain the backing of Henry VII of England for an attempt to reach the Spice Islands across the Atlantic).

Fagan's writing is informed by his personal experiences in sailing small craft in the very waters discussed in the text, and the text is broadened by the inclusion of various period fish recipes (Fagan strongly cautions against trying one of these recipes at home -- that for "garum", the Roman fish sauce produced by allowing spiced fish to rot to a liquid state).

The author takes a seemingly simple question, where did the Christian custom of eating fish on specfic days come from, and assembles lots of interesting historical detail to support his answer.

This book is written for a general audience, and would appeal to a range of readers. You could read this book as a sort of mystery story, as it is written in a popular and very readable style. (Actually, one of mysteries the author unravels is why haven't more people asked this question in the first place). If you are fond of history, you may find that a lot of the background information is familar to you, but it is combined in a novel way that will make you see familiar facts in a different light. If history is not your favorite subject, but you are interested in food and cooking,the book gives lots of interesting details about food production and eating habits in a variety of ancient and modern cultures.

I enjoyed reading this book, although at times the author's love of sailing and fishng lore leads to long discussions of what seem to me to be minor points. But that's just a quibble. This book was educational and fun to read, and I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in history, religion, or food.

What led Christian Europe into the Western Hemisphere? According to Brian Fagan, it wasn't spices or even empire, but the need to respond to religious dogma. Over the centuries, the Roman Catholic church added fast and saint's days to the Christian calendar. Deprived of meat, which was hardly common fare in any case, the population became increasingly dependent on fish. Freshwater fish stocks were readily depleted, and those caught often failed to accept the curing techniques of the day. Ocean fish became the mainstay of many, and even those seemingly rich waters were erratic producers. In this interesting and informative history, Fagan depicts the fish, the ships that sought them and the business of the fisheries as they expanded across the Atlantic. Only the fishermen remain undefined.

Fagan points out that many elements enter into any rendition of the fishing trade. Rising populations and increasing numbers of "fast days" were but two factors. Another was the hierarchical society emerging from the Middle Ages. The best fish, such as sturgeon and salmon, went to the aristocracy and senior church officers. The monastic orders, although declaring themselves frugal in policy, increasingly divided their population, with fish quality at meals following status. The poor were left with salt herring and coarse fish. Proper preservation was slow in developing, the author notes, and varied with the fish and location. Slow and unreliable transportation limited cartloads of fish no further than 150 kilometres from shore. Another major topic Fagan deals with is the almost minimal change in ship design over the centuries. Not until the Norsemen began to roam the eastern Atlantic did real seaworthy vessels emerge. These were fast, deep-water sailers, but had little carrying capacity. For fishing purposes, they were limited in catch size. Later ships, the buss, the dogger and the caravel, while lumbering hulks compared to the Norse knarr, could bring home a sizeable load.

Shifting fish swarms, due to mostly unknown causes, drew secretive fishers to fresh sites. Fagan notes that while we know much about ships and the market for fish, who found which location remains an enigma. Fishermen keep close counsel on where they have gone to reap the sea's harvest, and much of the chronology of new discoveries of fish stocks isn't available. The Icelandic waters brought many fishers northwest from Europe, introducing them to new locations as competition and various taxes and regulations hampered expansion into the new scene. It is government accounts and pronouncements that offer the best clues to who was fishing where. From Iceland, storms, contrary winds or shifting ice drove many fishermen to Newfoundland and the great cod fisheries. Settlement in North America was slow and hesitant, the author notes, but drying and salting the catch was a spur to establishing communities. According to Fagan, once the Grand Banks fisheries were tapped, there was more gold to be made from the silvery cod than directly from the Indies itself.

It is difficult to know whether to rate this book for its history or as a resource for innovative cooks. Along with graphics of ships, fish and useful maps, Fagan spices the text with mouth-watering recipes. Although one of the first entries warns "We recommend that you don't make this recipe", the remainder are clearly worth close further attention. The entire work, recipes, analysis and speculation alike command attention. Fagan's prose retains your attention and interest throughout. A challenging thesis, ably presented. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

I'm so glad there are copies of this available! I lost mine, and I miss it. Great recipes, most of them are dated, all of them are adaptable, and every one of them sounds delicious. If there were a restaurant that cooked only out of this book, I'd eat there every night for the rest of my life. Next time you're invited to a party, make the clam pie. Better make two -- everyone will want more!

This is a fun book to read, too -- and I'm not a "foodie." Brad (first review) -- if you re-issue this, I'll be the first to buy it!

[Review written Jan 2005]

This is a charming little book from 1939 that (as of this writing) is sadly out of print ... although you can still find copies here and there.

It has a lot of flaws - it's poorly indexed, the methods are more than a little dated and vague and poorly edited in places, but despite all that this book has some qualities that endear it to me:

* It's a local book (like the late author, I live on Long Island), and it's about old fashioned local seafood cuisine.
* It's got some wonderful bits of local historical information, on things like the shellfishing industry, etc. I grew up in close proximity to this sort of thing, and it's intimately involved with my sense of "home".
* The author was a gourmand and apparently something of a fixture in the local gourmet society of the day (which, sadly, no longer exists). He's also a man of strong opinions with a tendency to wax eloquent with little or no provocation (there's a great diatribe in there on the differences between "manhattan" and "new england" style clam chowder). I can relate to an author like that, because we share a lot in common.
* Many of the recipes are of the old fashioned variety that are rarely seen and made anymore. Clam and/or oyster pie, fish 'scraple' casseroles (pound your own crackers into meal, open a tin of evaporated milk, and melt some butter before proceeding), etc.

In any case, it's a quirky little historical book that I happen to love, despite it's many and varied flaws. I tried contacting the publisher some years back (the author died some time ago), and expressed interest in helping to re-edit and re-release it, but never got a reply.

Someday writing my own version lies deep down on my list of things to do in life. I'll get to it eventually, fate & circumstances permitting. Probably after my book on Mead though.

Very enjoyable. Add a 5th star if you love to cook, love seafood, love old cookbooks & cranky gourmands, and live near the water.

I love *good* seafood and I am very picky about taste. I have a small collection of ~15 cookbooks and I have looked at over 50+ while browsing in bookstores. I got this cook book as a gamble (you can't browse when you shop online) but because I love seafood and the book was inexpensive, I said "What the heck" and brought it. What I've tried from the book was simply delicious. It's well written, easy to follow, and for the real chefs out there, you can either read it for a skeleton for what you want to make or maybe give you thoughts of different combinations of ingredients you didn't think of or have forgotten about. I normally do not rank many things very highly but this is one of the few that made it to the top of my list. Oh yes, did I mention that the book is less expensive and has better receipes than other more expensive cookbooks out there? One thing I should mention is that it's not just a seafood cookbook. Happy Cooking!

`North Atlantic Seafood' and `Mediterranean Seafood', both by noted culinary writer Alan Davidson, the author of `The Oxford Companion to Food' are reference books which a serious cook must have in their library where time is spent deciding on what to eat rather than time spend actually cooking. These books belong to a rare breed of books in English such as Elizabeth Schneider's `Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini' or `Bruce Cost's Asian Ingredients' which thoroughly cover a broad single subject or the `Larousse Gastronomique' which gives an overview of virtually every culinary subject, at least from the point of view of French cuisine.

Both books are organized in the same way that gives primacy to information on the aquatic species and secondary coverage of recipes.

Biological family, genus, and species organize the first part on the catalog of species in order that the biological similarity of the fishes is clearly shown. Each article gives the most common English name, the two part Latin scientific name, the scientist who assigned this name (most commonly the great inventor of biological Taxonomy, Linnaeus), the biological family name, and the common name of the fish in virtually every language of the major fishing nationality bordering the relevant body of water. The North Atlantic species, for example, are named in Portuguese, Spanish, French, Dutch, German, Polish, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, and others such as Gaelic (Irish). The Mediterranean species' names are given in French, Spanish, Greek, Italian, Tunisian, Turkish, and others such as Bulgarian, Romanian, and Russian if, for example, the species is most commonly found in the Black Sea, which is included in the coverage of the Mediterranean. These names in themselves are entertaining to the linguistically inclined, as it is interesting to see the similarities and differences from country to country. For example, even though the Turks came to Asia Minor from central Asia, most of their names for fishes are very similar to the Greek name, making a lot of sense, as a traveling people is likely to name things new to them based on the names given by the indigenous population. The articles on every species also have a highly detailed black and white drawing of each animal. The great value to these is that it makes comparing the appearance of different fishes very easy, as every species is depicted in a similar style. It is too bad they could not be depicted to scale, but this would have had the sturgeon filling two pages while the anchovies would be the size of a period. Instead, the remarks on each fish give the average market length and a description of the typical color and markings.

The catalog entry also gives a paragraph or two on cuisine, which is a discussion of the culinary desirability of the species and typical ways in which the animal is prepared. For most fish, this includes methods by which the fish is butchered. The catalog entries also include a list of recipes and page numbers for these recipes in the second major section of the book.

The second major section divides recipes by country. The Mediterranean volume has chapters of recipes from Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, the Black Sea, and Northern Africa. The North Atlantic volume has recipes from Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Russia, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Canada, the United States, Scotland, England, Ireland, and Wales. France merits two sections, covering the southwest and the northwest. The US merits four sections, covering New England, the Middle Atlantic States, the Chesapeake, and the Carolinas and Georgia.

Other books, such as `Fish' by Shirley King seems to have copied this scheme, but seems to be much less successful in that not enough valuable information is packed into the catalogue to make it interesting enough reading to outweigh the annoyance of doing a two step search for a recipe on haddock, for example. The other side of the coin is that if you live in Maryland, you are much more likely to be interested in recipes from the Chesapeake than in recipes from Maine.

One is tempted to expect these recipes to be very generic and not as interesting as those you may find in books of `haute cuisine' from a fish specialist such as Eric Rippert. This is partially true. Davidson is less the great cook than he is a great writer on food. This means that while his recipes may come from common sources, he gives us much more information on the background of the recipes than the chef may do. Two perfect examples of this case are the recipes for bouillabaisse (French fish stew) and Maryland crab cakes. Davidson confesses to giving us something simpler than the `de luxe version', yet this simple treatment is entirely appropriate to the simple origins of the dish, before the gourmets got their hands on it. Similarly, the crab cake recipe has very few ingredients, mostly just crabmeat, seasonings, breadcrumbs, and enough egg to hold it all together.

The supplementary information tells much about the fish cuisine of both regions. The most interesting information is on the fact that while the Mediterranean is very shallow, it has relatively little continental shelf while the North Sea is practically all shelf, suitable to the spawning of young fish in shallow water. This does much to explain the popularity of the North Atlantic cod in peninsular Italy, virtually surrounded by water.

The bibliography shows that the author has based most of his material on local sources in native languages such as Polish, Turkish, and Portuguese. This may only help the multilingual scholar, but then it is the rare English culinary work that does this. One of the greatest things about these volumes is that all of this great material is available in trade paperbacks, which list for no more than $25.

These are must have books for devoted foodies!

All the commonly-eaten fish and shellfish of the North Atlantic are covered in this wonderful reference and cookbook. As in his Mediterranean Seafood, each animal's entry includes an old engraving (better than a photo for identification -- except for color), its scientific and common names in various languages, a description of the animals habit's and culinary qualities, and a reference to recipes.

Recipes are organized by country, and are well chosen and edited. The only criticism I might offer is that it is hard to find recipes by type. That is, it's very easy to find recipes for mackerel or recipes from Portugal, but it's hard to find all the baked-fish recipes suitable for a dark-fleshed fish.

A great book like this should never be out of print!

An unusual format for a cookery book, or for a catalog of marine life. In fact, it's both - the first half of the book is a catalog of marine species arranged by family (flatfish, molluscs, etc.), while the second half is a catalog of recipes for them, grouped by country of origin.

Although ostensibly North Atlantic in scope, the tome omits some species which occur also in the Mediterranean (the reader is referred to the author's book covering that sea's life and cuisine). However, Baltic Sea species are included, although most of them are actually freshwater types, due to the low salinity of the Baltic.

Common names for most species are supplied in several languages, according to the distribution of the creatures. Differences in regional naming are also noted. Fine sketches of each subject are accompanied by notes on distribution, habitat, etc., and pointers to appropriate recipes.

In the cookery section, there are no sketches, but many of the recipes are accompanied by anecdotes from the author's many travels. The instructions are brief, but complete enough for successful and tasty dining. In arranging dishes by geography, each nation is represented only by a fraction of its seafood, and some could easily be ascribed to several countries.

In summary, a very good book (if you can find it). It would be enhanced by use of colour instead of of black and white pictures, and addition of some pictures in the recipes section.

I enjoy dining at Roy's Restaurants. I ate there last week on the mainland, and have preferred eating the really fresh fish more "on site" at the Kauai restaurant. My favorite fish is the opa (moonfish), followed by the butterfish dishes. Roy's fresh fish are simply cooked, with tasty sauces and beautiful simple to elegantly more complex presentations.

Unfortunately, his beautiful presentations are far more easily enjoyed in his restaurants, than attempted at home via this complex, yet (presumably) accurate cook book.

There are problems/challenges in following these recipes for a beginning or average cook, that go beyond the hours spent collecting ingredients and preparing fish, sauces and stocks needed for these recipes.

These attractive, Hawaiian inspired fusion recipes require collecting the basic ingredients, which can take :

1. A trip to one Asian grocery store to get ingredients which may include dashi, kombu seaweed, dried shrimp, bonito flakes, tobiko caviar, panko crumbs, daikon, furikake, kaffir lime leaf, red Thai curry paste, pickled pink ginger, mochiko (rice flour) ground sandalwood, lemongrass, mirin, palm sugar, bok choy etc (some grocery stores in larger cities may stock some of these ingredients).

2. A second trip to one or two conventional grocery stores in a larger city to collect the white truffle oil, fresh chervil , thyme and other herbs and spices, mango, clam juice, blue cheese, fresh cilantro, fresh shiitake mushrooms, etc.

3. A possible third trip to a top fish supplier to get truly fresh fish, if the local grocery's fish has that tell tale "fishiness" smell, indicating it has been improperly iced, or dead on ice for 5 days or more...

The 237 pages of text has less than 90 actual recipes of fish, a somewhat disappointing number, however as most cooks do not cook even 10 recipes out of a book. That's not a drawback for me. (There are other recipes in the back for various stocks, oils, and sauces). Obtaining the fish Roy uses , such as butterfish species, pacific threadfin, sickle pomfret, wahoo, gray snapper, jackfish, or the wonderful opah will be difficult if not impossible for mainlanders not living in say San Francisco or Vancouver, with access to such fresh delights, so Roy has kindly supplied substitutions, which are still not easy to get.. Still there are 5 salmon recipes, 5 dolphin fish/mahi-mahi, and fifteen tuna recipes, so you won't be disappointed-there really are ample recipes to try!

What is a disappointment and a drawback is that most of the recipes do not have the accompanying pictures of Roy's plating or presentation of that dish that one might hope for, especially after enjoying the beautiful pictures in Roy's 10 year old book, " Roy's Feasts from Hawaii ". Presentation to me is so important to serving an appetizing meal, and people buy Roy's books to hopefully duplicate or at least approach both the taste AND appearance of his dishes.

The recipes are of moderate to advanced complexity for most nonprofessional caliber cooks, and that's an intimidating problem for nearly all beginning or basic cooks, and some intermediate level cooks as well. I showed my copy of the book to three decent cooks, and each said variations of , "It's way too much work for a meal". A pepper sauce has 13 ingredients, a miso broth has over 10 ingredients, braised salmon has 25 ingredients, and even the crab cakes and sauce has 30 ingredients...not for the faint hearted! Even the "simple" recipes have 8-15 ingredients.

In fairness to Roy, if you want to cook like the big boys, you have to use their ingredients and techniques, which is far easier to do in a restaurant, with several assistants collecting ingredients and preparing sauces for you, than at home!

A good cook will know where to cut back on some ingredients, apply substitution, and make their own less complex version of some of these recipes, adjusting the taste as needed as they go along. Problem is, a beginner will not have such ability to "pull it off" with such simplification or substitutions, and will not like the resulting "unbalanced" variation.

I take off one point, in part, for the book having far less pictures of Roy's inspiring preparations than he could have provided; even one picture per 2 dishes would have been a better compromise, to keep down the cost of publication. With few pictures to begin with, having so many pictures of non-food scenes of fishing boats, sunsets, limpets, flags, buoys, fishermen, etc., alone are just not as helpful, as we are not here to admire limpets, boats, or look at pretty sunsets, we are here more likely to duplicate tasty and beautifully plated food as presented in Roy's restaurants, and these other "scenic" pictures have not been useful replacements for the food pictures at all!

The point is also taken off in part for complexity, as this is a serious drawback to most cooks wanting the challenge of trying to cook Roy's food at home.

If you are an advanced home cook, if you have hours for preparation, and if you are very creative in your "food styling" presentation; only then would this would be a 4 star cook book to consider adding to your collection!

Other books with similar beautiful and tasty Hawaiian fusion recipes, that are easier to prepare, include Sam Choy's tasty and much simpler "The Choy of Seafood", Jean-Marie Josselin's "A Taste of Hawaii", and Alan Wong's more complex "New Wave Luau".

I had been looking for collection of interesting seafood recipes for a while. Sorting through hundreds of recipes on web sites to find one really good recipe had become tedious and frustrating. Additionally, even great general cookbooks only contain a few solid recipes for fish. So I was very pleased to find this book. My wife and I have cooked five recipes so far and they have ranged from really good to "off the charts". The gourmet recipes usually combine Asian elements with something European and they usually include a unique sauce and an interesting side dish. Preparations are involved but you do not need to be a master chef to do a good job with the content. It does take some diligence to track down some of the ingredients and you will want access to plenty of fresh fish. If you are a passionate cook with moderate skill - and you like great seafood - I would recommend this book.

When I find a new cookbook I tend to just flip through the pages until I find something that strikes my attention. Nothing grabs my attention, then neither does the book. Once in a while I find something that I want to cook, then a page or two away something else, and then in another few pages -- well you get the idea.

That was the case with this book. First I found "grilled garlic swordfish with chipotle chile sauce and polenta." Swordfish is certainly becoming common, but I've always found it to be so mild that it had no flavor. Chili sauce on top of it, sounds really good. And polenta is just yankee talk for grits. Being a southerner anything with grits has got to be good. Tonight's dinner.

A few pages away is "seared ahi tuna with lilikoi-shrimp salsa." Just the picture was enough to attract my attention. The tuna is seared really hard, hard enough that the top looks almost well done. But this was done on a relly hot cast iron skillet. It was only cooked for a half minute on each side for rare to 1 and a half minutes for medium-rare. It's beautiful. And then the passion fruit (Lilikoi) shrimp salsa sounds like it would add a most interesting set of conflicting tastes. Next Saturday when guests are coming over.

It turns out that there are several tuna recipes, a lot of them sound good. I like tuna, and it's something that most of my guests seem to like. I'll use several of these.

As the title says, this book is on fish and seafood. There's no beef, pork, etc. in it. This is a welcome addition to the bookshelf, as even here in the desert west we are seeing a lot more variety in seafood, and more and more people are asking for it.

If you are an American, it is unlikely that you have ever eaten eel. You are more likely to have eaten eel if you are a European, and if you are Japanese, you may well eat it regularly. It is hard to figure out just why Americans now have an aversion to eating eels and other countries do not, especially since eels are part of our Pilgrim heritage, they were enjoyed by our founding fathers, and they formed an important commercial catch earlier in the last century. Itýs all very mysterious, but if you read _Consider the Eel_ (University of North Carolina Press) by Richard Schweid, you will quickly realize that almost everything connected to eels is mysterious indeed. It isnýt just that humans deal with eels in peculiar ways; the fish itself is full of paradoxes and unsolved questions.

Schweidýs topic is the Atlantic eels of two species, the European and the American. These eels reproduce in the open sea, and early development of the young takes place there, but they drift to different fresh water sources to feed and grow to adult sizes, over a period of up to twenty years. (This is opposite to the life cycle of the salmon.) Then they stop eating forever and head to sea, changing their eyes to adapt to ocean dark, and changing body chemistry to put up with salt water and the change of water pressure. It was only in 1924 that a Danish researcher found eel larvae in the Sargasso sea, the huge area of the Atlantic Ocean between Bermuda and the Azores. All the Atlantic eels go there to mate, and then they die, but no adults have ever been seen swimming there; the only two eels found there had been eaten by other fish. We can only guess at what they are up to deep below the surface. The larvae look like little oval leaves. Depending on currents, the larvae float for thousands of miles and for years until they reach estuaries and mouths of rivers. Once they find a river with a muddy bottom and food sources, they take control of their lives. They can even cross land to get to a lake or pond over a mile away. Farming eels is quite possible, and can be lucrative, but must be done under an extraordinary disadvantage which no other farm animal presents. Eels cannot be bred in captivity. No one has been able to make them forgo their trip to the Sargasso for reproduction.

American eel fishermen and dealers, many of whom Schweid talked to in preparation of this book, have a peculiar business of trading in a product that no one they know likes. Many of them have been in business for decades, although catches are declining and sales which have to be to Europe or Japan are profitable or not based on exchange rates. Many are simply revolted by the idea of eating their product. Schweid offers to fry some for supper, and a woman who has caught eels for decades replies, ýI would never eat one. Looks too much like a snake.ý Another fisherman, when Schweid brought up the long migration of the eels said, ýI know what all the scientists say about what they do, and the trip they make. It may be right, but it ainýt reasonable.ý Whether the facts are reasonable are not, this readable account of a very strange fish and the strange people who make their living from it is full of facts that are entertaining and astounding.

Sure eels are slimy and weird, but that doesn't mean you can't learn to love them!

Read this book and instead of retching at the thought of a mouthfull of broiled eel, you'll find yourself smacking your lips (at least I did).

Overall, this book seems well researched. It's well written and an overall fun read. Like an eel, it's sluggish some times. But page after page it remains fascinating.

Buy it.

The recipes in this book are out of this world. After a trip to the Amalfi Coast in Fall of 2001, I was inspired by the local cooking to find a book specifically on preparing Seafood Italian-style, and I couldn't have done better. My favorites so far are the Frutti di Mare, Gamberi Arrabiata (Angry Shrimp), Buttery Breaded Sole, and tonight I just made the Clams in White Wine. Get this book if you love Italian food, Seafood, or both. Great production values on the book: big, durable, nice paper and printing job.

In this book, Ms. Klieman provides a variety of Italian seafood recipes that are generally easy to prepare and, almost without exception, delicious and impressive. When I am entertaining I consistently return to it for recipes and ideas. My only caveats in using this book is that you make sure that you use the freshest ingredients available (it makes a big difference) and that you be prepared to search around for an ingredient or two (unless you live in a city with a sizable Italian-American population). One of my favorite recipes includes boiling the feathery tops of fennel with angel hair pasta. To my horror, I found that Seattle area produce managers regularly trimmed the tops off and threw them away.

Whenever I am in Boston, I am sure to go to Legals, with this cookbook I am able to bring some of my favorite dishes to my home. good recipes..

I once worked conveniently down the street from a Legal's Restaurant, which was a good thing, because everyone who visited me had to make a pilgrimage to the mecca of seafood restaurants.

I have to admit, their fish and chowder was excellent So if you are far from a Legal's, you can reproduce some of their famous fish recipes with this book, which I might add costs about the same as a lunch there.

Yes, the clam chowder is in here. So is important advice on how to store fish you buy. You won't be able to reproduce everything at Legal's, and if your local fishmonger has less than top quality fish, the flavor will also suffer. Still, a good book on fish and if you only could have one book on fish cooking, this is a good choice.

Since I have moved away from home, I have missed my mother's smoked salmon strips. People around SE Alaska smoke large chunks of fish. Because of the size, the fish stays moist and must be frozen to be kept for long periods of time. My mom smoked strips and made jerky out of it. We called it "Squaw candy", and it is my favorite method for eating smoked salmon. The recipes in this book are very similar to my mom's, the photo illustrations are very helpful, and with the instructions in this book building a smoke house and smoking/canning salmon are a breeze. I plan on building my own smoke house this summer and putting up fish the way my mom used to.

Below is a press release from the CIRI Foundation regarding this book (http://www.thecirifoundation.org/PressReleases.htm):

"The book is a "how-to" manual for smoking and jarring one of Alaska's most prized resources. It is also a tribute to Rika Florence Murphy, first recognized chief of the Kenaitze Indian Tribe, who lovingly passed on her precise methods to Felton, her daughter. Many of the photographs featured in the book were taken at the "fish camp," which was introduced at Cook Inlet Tribal Council's Youth Camp located on the Kenai Peninsula in Ninilchik where this technique was taught to many of the young people at the camp."

"In addition to its step-by-step instructions, the book includes detailed design plans for the constructions of an "urban smokehouse," providing city dwellers with a means to recreate these traditional techniques of processing salmon. The 96-page paperback book, 7 inches by 10 inches, contains many photos to illustrate the process, as well as historic and contemporary pictures, including a 10-page section of color photographs. It retails for $19.95, with proceeds from its sale going to The CIRI Foundation to support the foundation's cultural programs and scholarships."

"Clare Swan of Kenai, Cook Inlet Tribal Council chairperson and Kenaitze tribal member, had this to say about the book: "This book is one more happy way for me to remember my friend Rika. It's a special gift to Kenaitze tribal members and others in our community -- truly, a tribute to this resourceful, caring, thoroughly modern Dena'ina woman."
Alan Boraas, professor of anthropology at Kenai Peninsula College, also commented on the book. He said: "The Dena'ina have been catching, processing, and sharing fish from the Kenai River maybe for as long as there have been salmon to catch. In this book, Hazel Felton describes the careful, exacting way her mother, the late Rika Murphy, and other Elders taught her about the proper way to process salmon. But this is far more than a 'how-to' guide. As their ancestors did, the Dena'ina infuse the salmon with a part of themselves" through the proper execution of 'putting up fish.' Later, when people travel from house to house the words, "I have some salmon for you" take on a special meaning as the produce of the land merges with the people's bond of kinship in the sharing of salmon"" (Press Release, dated March 4, 2005 from the CIRI Foundation, http://www.thecirifoundation.org/PressReleases.htm).

I am not much of a cook, but my husband and I eat a lot of smoked oysters and tinned sardines, so instead of just eating the fish out of the tin as usual, I thought I'd give this book a try. The recipes I've tried have worked out very well, even for a mediocre cook like myself. The salmon & corn fritters came out like they were supposed to -- crispy outside, soft and hot inside. The oyster & artichoke stew was delicious; we had it with whole-grain bread on the side as recommended, but I served it over steamed mixed greens to great effect. This is a good book for people who like the health benefits of fish and keep canned fish on hand but maybe have gotten a little bored and want to try something new.

A very good book to keep around for places without refrigeration (i.e. camping, or expedition settings) or for someone single who is not likely to cook often and therefore needs to keep nonspoiling can goods around. The recipes are flexible. I made the curry salmon loaf and it was excellent in spite of not having all of the ingredients, substituting celery for parsnips (who, in the midwest, keeps parsnips around). I also subbed other canned goods for fresh, like canned diced tomatoes.
It was great!

I'll grant that Mark Kurlansky did his homework.He provides an extensive Bibliography and the narrative is filled with many, many, many facts. That's exactly the problem. The book is overflowing with details. For the first time in many years I felt I was reading a history assignment - hence the title of this Review.

I did glean many interesting facts, both big and small. Trouble is, the facts just keep coming. As other reviewers have indicated there are numerous recipes in the book but I would venture to say that most of them are for food historians, not chefs. One brief example is the following recipe: "To Roast a Leg of Lamb with Oysters. Take a Leg about two or three Days kill'd. Stuff it all over with Oysters and roast it. Garnish it with horse-raddish." Yup! That's the whole, succinct recipe.

I'll admit that the number old prints reproduced in this book are interesting. But unless you are of the scholarly type I'd save this book for a night when you have insomnia.

History, History, History. And we continue to live it. Know our past control our future.

"O oysters" said the carpenter,"you've had a pleasant run! Shall we be trotting home again?"But answer came there none-And this was scarcely odd,because They'd eaten every one.'Such was Tweedledum and Tweedledees discourse to Alice in Carrolls' well known work.They'd eaten every one, ah yes; a common lament of oyster lovers everywhere because the once abundant stock in New York waters are essentially gone forever.The Big Oyster, a work of enormity with regard to the tiny creatures history, and a good one at that, is fantastic.The greatness and economic well being,the essence of affordable sustenance for both the poor and the rich of early New York and also the world began with the bottom dwelling,succulent mollusc called by science, 'Crassostrea Virginica' the most popular variety it seems.Kurlansky has put together a comprehensive and at times a jumpy but focused history of a sometimes gritty New York as a city and its environs in relation to oysters as a leading core of its burgeoning greatness.From the first encounter by Henry Hudson to the local Delaware indians,the first New Yorkers by rights, thrived on them as evidenced by the enormous piles of shells found called middens, to the developing cultures that dominated for a time only to be replaced by yet another country and culture.These aspects right up to the revolutionary war and beyond is clearly examined and dissected.Millions,probably billions of oysters were there for the taking and we made sure we took and took and took some more, depleting a natural depository which spanned hundreds of thousands of years to develop.It seems that New York harbor and the surrounding waters were paradise for them to live,breed and provide us with an abundant, almost unlimited cheap resource.The downfall was man and his pollution,greed and population growth which unfortunately did away with this perfect food harvested in New York waters we now view as a delicacy.Everything you need to know about the oyster from its anatomy,harvesting preparation with an abundance of recipies I'd never try,shucking, promotion and distribution world wide and locally, as well as an enlightening,colorful and comprehensive history of New York is presented here.You will finish this book far more informed than you began and quite possibly know darn near everything there is to know about early New York and the Oyster that made it famous.You will be drooling for sure.I had recurring dreams of two dozen on the half shell which would not abate until I got them,wolfed them down with the pleasure only a fellow oyster eater would know after a prolonged absence from our little friends.I did have one little exception which was amusingly disturbing. Kurlansky states that George Washington's thirty four year old son Philip was placed in charge by him, to redistribute New Yorks' property following the end of the revolutionary war.George did no such thing and by that time both of Washington's adopted children were dead.He never even had a relative called Philip.What happened to the fact checking prior to publishing? Good lord, for a writer of history this could end a career as a reliable source. It can only lead to suspicion of all your other works and their accuracy. I don't have time to check other items as I hear there are other discrepancies as well.Please be carefull in the future Mark.However,aside from the above, I will still recommend this book for its novelty.It's a joy to read from an oyster lovers perspective. As a New Yorker, our city's history is also refreshingly enlightening.My home town of Staten Island is clearly represented and I can only hope that the abundance that once was will one day return to its sandy ground former glory.As a New Yorker reviewing this sometimes gritty and hardscrabble history, I'm not ashamed to say,pushed my thoughts toward the Oyster Bar and Grill for its variety and notoriety. But, to truly enjoy my treat closer to home I make a beeline to Lobster House Joe's where I can relax with a couple dozen on ice with horseradish and an ice cold beer.Nothing can match it.After reading The Big Oyster the compatriotism is quite evident and allows me to savor them even further.The book is quite thorough and worthy of purchase. If you live in New York, buy it to learn your city's history. If you like oysters, buy it to widen your knowledge. If your both, lucky you.This is just what you need after a long day at work.Keep the history alive and keep eating but not too much!To make extinct our local favorite, Bluepoints, would be too much to bear. Oysters rule!!!

I love oysters, and New York history, and was looking forward to this, but as other reviewers pointed out simply has too many mistakes to be taken seriously.

I will add to the list:
a. he claims Robert Fulton invented the submarine. False. There have been many variations of submarines hundreds of years before Fulton, and one of the first military uses was during the American revolution.
b. He claims the New York delegation didn't sign the Declaration of Independence.

That's what did me in. Anyone who let an error like that slip through shouldn't be writing history books, even about oysters. I hesitated to finish it because he lost all credibility with me and the last thing I want to do is read mis-information. I can't believe that someone published a book with so many sloppy mistakes.

..............
He also tried to impose modern new york and his cosmopolitian outlook/multiculturalism on the past, which I found inaccurate and annoying. For example he points out Stuyvesant required chapel, banned alcohol and other measures, and goes out of his way to mention that how bad it was...he skips the fact Stuyvesant was effective in turning the colony around, precisely because he took such measures.

It may offend our modern sensibilities, but reality is reality.

At first it seems curious that Mark Kurlansky would want to write a history of a city and its residents whom he so thoroughly dislikes. Then it becomes clear that the protagonists are the oysters, not the city or the people, and those oysters would still be doing just fine if it weren't for the depredations of civilization. Eventually you get caught up in the saga, but it's a little thin, so the author adds copious amounts of non-oyster New York City history. This part will seem somewhat duplicative of "The Island at the Center of the World," but it's almost as interesting the second time around. Then, just as you start taking him seriously as a historian, Kurlansky starts making the kind of egregious factual errors that throw his scholarship into question. On page 15, for instance he states that humans evolved 65 million years ago. Wow! The earliest hominid fossils date to about 2 million years ago. His disregard for science continues when he erroneously asserts that recapitulation is a "well established principal (sic) of evolutionary science." Actually it's a captivating, but long-debunked theory. Errors like these make us much less receptive to the hundreds of casual facts strewn throughout the book.

Here's a sincere tip for the prospective reader attracted to the book's subtitle, "History on the Half Shell." The entire story of the history of the oyster in New York City is contained in chapters 6 and 8. Of course if you want to read all about the gangs of New York, or the biography of Diamond Jim Brady, by all means, read the entire book. But the problem with reading the entire book is the turgid march of one colorless sentence after another. Any single page of Henry Thoreau contains more entertaining prose than Kurlansky's entire book.

Kurlansky repeatedly refers to New Yorkers' gluttony: "The two most common gastronomic observations made about nineteenth century New York were that the oysters were cheap and that the people ate enormous quantities not only of oysters, but of everything." That is Kurlansky's typical characterization of a New Yorker. Yet not one of the old photographs or pen and ink drawings illustrating the book depict a single obese person.

Overall, this is one of those badly written books about an interesting topic. If distilled to its essence, it might have made a good article in the Atlantic Monthly or The New Yorker. It will not make you thirst for Kurlansky's other books, "Salt," and "Cod."