Joy of Cooking

[CarolPa]

Yesterday at the Goodwill store I saw someone has donated another copy of Joy of Cooking. It was the 1975 edition I think, and was not in as good condition as the one I bought...binding was not very sturdy. Only $2. I didn't buy it as I am happy with the one I have, but might have if it had been an older one.

 

[taxlady]

I have heard that the 2006 75th anniversary edition is really good and that it, again, has info about skinning critters for cooking. Here's some info on the various versions:

The Joy of Cooking - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Addie]

Somewhere in storage in a garage in Newton, I have my first husband's 1936 copy of Joy Of Cooking. For a new bride, it was my Bible.

 

[Mad Cook]

I have heard that the 2006 75th anniversary edition is really good and that it, again, has info about skinning critters for cooking. Here's some info on the various versions:

The Joy of Cooking - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I love the idea of the patron saint of cooking slaying a dragon. However, did she fit it in the oven?

 

[Mad Cook]

I love the idea of the patron saint of cooking slaying a dragon. However, did she fit it in the oven?

My machine is not only correcting my spelling, it's now putting commas where I don't want them. Please read the above without the comma after "However" (sigh!)

Ok, I give up. I've ordered a copy of the 1975 version of "JoC". Mind you I rather like the idea of the edition that tells me how to skin those critters. I have my eye on that damned grey squirrel that's doing it's best to murder my laburnam tree!

 

[taxlady]

My machine is not only correcting my spelling, it's now putting commas where I don't want them. Please read the above without the comma after "However" (sigh!)

Ok, I give up. I've ordered a copy of the 1975 version of "JoC". Mind you I rather like the idea of the edition that tells me how to skin those critters. I have my eye on that damned grey squirrel that's doing it's best to murder my laburnam tree!

I just checked my 1975 version and it does have the instructions for skinning and cooking squirrel.

 

[Andy M.]

I just checked my 1975 version and it does have the instructions for skinning and cooking squirrel.

We have enough squirrel in our backyard to feed us for a long time. I could fatten them up all summer and fall the "harvest" in the fall...

I'll have to look for a copy of that edition.

 

[taxlady]

Squirrel is a lot of work for a little meat.

 

[Mad Cook]

Squirrel is a lot of work for a little meat.

I expect he has friends

 

[Mad Cook]

6 years ago a trendy restaurant in London put grey squrrel on the menu. Don't know if it was popular but you can buy squirrel on-line dressed for cooking for £4.50 (p&p £9.50 which makes it a bit expensive especially as you'd need one per person).

Until a few weeks ago, when the law was repealed (because it was unworkable) it was an offence to allow grey squirrels in your garden. You were supposed to report it to the police - boy, I bet that made you popular with the boys in blue.

 

[TaraWildes]

I've cooked a lot of squirrel. Don't hunt them like I used to, getting soft in my dotage, but I still get donations from the members of my family who still hunt.

Squirrel and rice - cooked just like you'd do chicken and rice, or cutting them in quarters and frying them is how we mostly did it back in the last century.

Now, I usually put the critters into the crock pot with some chopped onion and celery, cook them down all day, take the meat off the bone and use the remaining broth as a soup starter. Add chopped carrrots, potatoes, some baby green limas or field peas, maybe some corn and chicken broth, thyme, and plenty of black pepper to round it out. Makes a super fall/winter soup with some cornbread on the side,

My dad will use them in his Brunswick stew along with about a hundred other ingredients - it's the best I've ever had, but I don't really think the squirrels add that much to the finished product.

 

[CarolPa]

I am usually a very adventurous eater, but I will never knowingly try squirrel. My DH used to work with a guy who said they ate ground hog growing up. I won't knowingly eat that either. Now if someone prepares it and tells me it's something else, such as rabbit, I might taste it. I've eaten rabbit before, but someone else had cleaned it before it got into my hands.

 

[Mad Cook]

I knew I was doing the right thing in ordering this book. Now that I know how to cook a bear I feel my culinary education is complete.

 

[Addie]

Do I see a bear skin rug in your future? Perhaps in the middle of the living room. The kitchen would be even better.

 

[sparrowgrass]

The 75 edition was the one I had when I was first married. Seemed to me, at the time, to have all the information I would ever need in the kitchen.

 

[Addie]

The 75 edition was the one I had when I was first married. Seemed to me, at the time, to have all the information I would ever need in the kitchen.

You would be surprised at how many professional chefs use the JOC as their go to Bible. You always hear them recommend it.

 

[taxlady]

The 75 edition was the one I had when I was first married. Seemed to me, at the time, to have all the information I would ever need in the kitchen.

I used to say that it was a cooking encyclopedia.

 

[Mad Cook]

Do I see a bear skin rug in your future? Perhaps in the middle of the living room. The kitchen would be even better.

 

[Addie]

Do you have bears in England? Do you even have enough woods in England for them?

 

[Mad Cook]

Do you have bears in England? Do you even have enough woods in England for them?

No, Bears extinct in Britain for at least 1100 years and possibly longer. There are writings from the Roman Empire (eg Martial in 81AD) which state that bears from Scotland were preferred for the spectacles in the Collosseum in Rome, but they were definitely extinct
by the 10th century .

However, there are bears in zoos, to say nothing of Paddington, Winnie the Pooh, Rupert and the bears that will eat you if you tread on the gaps in the pavement(sidewalk).

It's always worth knowing what to do with one if you find it in the garden especially if polar bears really are moving south in search of food.

On a more serious side there are people who are keen on reintroducing wolves and wild boar to Britain so it can't be long before someone decides bears would be a good idea.