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The Encyclopedia of Fish Cookery
The authors of this book are A.J. McClane and Arie de Zinger.
511 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1977
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January 7, 2025
This book is wonderful. It's by an angler, I think of some renown. A.J. McClane wrote for outdoors magazines in Field and Stream, and wrote the Classic fishing Encyclopaedia, which is still a reference for anglers.
I am not an angler, but I do like cooking fish and this is pretty in depth, not so much because of the recipes, although they are interesting, but because of the attempt at an encyclopaedia. Each entry has the history of the fish and its culinary uses, as well as some anecdote of a time Mr. McClane was fishing for some and caught or didn't catch them.
It's also very sad. It was published in 1977, and even then he is writing sentences like "some years ago I was in "country" and the estuaries were pristine, but now the trash has killed most of the fish" or how a species that was one plentiful is now on the way out, and a cursory google tells me they are now no longer eaten. There is a lot of that, the diversity of fish we eat has seriously diminished, and one expects that of the United States, but it's a global phenomenon.
Anyway it's a great book, the recipes are of interest as time capsules into 70s style cooking. I got the vibe that McClane wrote this during his later years in Florida when he retired to leisure fish, although maybe that was his whole life, so there are plenty dinner party ideas and the fact that he loves pickled oysters really endears him to me.
I am not an angler, but I do like cooking fish and this is pretty in depth, not so much because of the recipes, although they are interesting, but because of the attempt at an encyclopaedia. Each entry has the history of the fish and its culinary uses, as well as some anecdote of a time Mr. McClane was fishing for some and caught or didn't catch them.
It's also very sad. It was published in 1977, and even then he is writing sentences like "some years ago I was in "country" and the estuaries were pristine, but now the trash has killed most of the fish" or how a species that was one plentiful is now on the way out, and a cursory google tells me they are now no longer eaten. There is a lot of that, the diversity of fish we eat has seriously diminished, and one expects that of the United States, but it's a global phenomenon.
Anyway it's a great book, the recipes are of interest as time capsules into 70s style cooking. I got the vibe that McClane wrote this during his later years in Florida when he retired to leisure fish, although maybe that was his whole life, so there are plenty dinner party ideas and the fact that he loves pickled oysters really endears him to me.
Displaying 1 of 1 review