The New Wildcrafted Cuisine: Exploring the Exotic Gastronomy of Local Terroir

Front Cover
Chelsea Green Publishing, 2016 - Cooking - 423 pages

With detailed recipes for ferments, infusions, spices, and other preparations

Wild foods are increasingly popular, as evidenced by the number of new books about identifying plants and foraging ingredients, as well as those written by chefs about culinary creations that incorporate wild ingredients (Noma, Faviken, Quay, Manreza, et al.). The New Wildcrafted Cuisine, however, goes well beyond both of these genres to deeply explore the flavors of local terroir, combining the research and knowledge of plants and landscape that chefs often lack with the fascinating and innovative techniques of a master food preserver and self-described "culinary alchemist."

Author Pascal Baudar views his home terrain of southern California (mountain, desert, chaparral, and seashore) as a culinary playground, full of wild plants and other edible and delicious foods (even insects) that once were gathered and used by native peoples but that have only recently begun to be re-explored and appreciated.

For instance, he uses various barks to make smoked vinegars, and combines ants, plants, and insect sugar to brew primitive beers. Stems of aromatic plants are used to make skewers. Selected rocks become grinding stones, griddles, or plates. Even fallen leaves and other natural materials from the forest floor can be utilized to impart a truly local flavor to meats and vegetables, one that captures and expresses the essence of season and place.

This beautifully photographed book offers up dozens of creative recipes and instructions for preparing a pantry full of preserved foods, including Pickled Acorns, White Sage-Lime Cider, Wild Kimchi Spice, Currant Capers, Infused Salts with Wild Herbs, Pine Needles Vinegar, and many more. And though the author's own palette of wild foods are mostly common to southern California, readers everywhere can apply Baudar's deep foraging wisdom and experience to explore their own bioregions and find an astonishing array of plants and other materials that can be used in their own kitchens.

The New Wildcrafted Cuisine is an extraordinary book by a passionate and committed student of nature, one that will inspire both chefs and adventurous eaters to get creative with their own local landscapes.

 

Contents

Tasting the Forest
9
Making Wild Cheeses
24
PreservingA Foragers Perspective
34
Discovering Acorns a Delicious Native Staple
50
Making Primitive Wild Beers
58
Cooking with Dirt Sticks Bark Leaves Sap and Stones
83
The Greens Time
101
Concocting Summer Drinks
189
Going Native
257
Collecting and Cooking with Cattails
270
Moving to the Mountains
279
Creating Wild Hot Sauces
291
Making Jams and Syrups with Wild Ingredients
303
Appendix
389
Acknowledgments
399
Index
405

Making Wild Sodas
212
Elevating Vinegar
237

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2016)

Pascal Baudar is the author of three previous books: Wildcrafted Fermentation (2020), The Wildcrafting Brewer (2018), and The New Wildcrafted Cuisine (2016). A self-described "culinary alchemist," he leads classes in traditional food preservation techniques. Through his business, Urban Outdoor Skills, he has introduced thousands of home cooks, celebrity chefs, and foodies to the flavors offered by their wild landscapes. In 2014, Baudar was named one of the most influential local tastemakers by Los Angeles Magazine.

Bibliographic information