Cedar & Salt: Vancouver Island Recipes from Forest, Farm, Field, and Sea

by DL Acken, Emily Lycopolus

A Globe and Mail Top 100 Book that Shaped 2019

Winner of a 2020 Gourmand World Cookbook Award in Canada

Homegrown, modern recipes that feature the most treasured local ingredients from Vancouver Island’s forests, fields, farms and sea.

Off the shore of Canada’s west coast lies a food lover’s island paradise. Vancouver Island’s temperate climate nurtures a bounty of wild foods, heritage grains, organic produce, sustainable meats and artisan-crafted edible delights. This thoughtfully curated, beautifully photographed contemporary cookbook brings Vancouver Island’s abundant food scene into the kitchens of home cooks everywhere.

Whether it’s fresh blackberries, foraged chanterelles and fiddleheads, freshly harvested spot prawns or oysters, line-caught spring salmon, grass-fed beef, or cultivated foods like heritage red fife wheat, these recipes highlight the most sought-after ingredients on the island while honouring the producers and artisans dedicated to sustainable and ethical producing and harvesting.

Try recipes like Craft Beer–Braised Island Beef Brisket, Nettle and Chèvre Ravioli, and Beetroot and Black Walnut Cake featuring Denman Island Chocolate. Divided into four sections—forest, field, farm, and sea—Cedar and Salt places the most excellent local ingredients on a pedestal—and then onto your plate.

Genres: Cookbooks, Nonfiction, Food, Cooking, Canada

320 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 24, 2019

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Acken's prose needs a little work; but the recipes are absolutely inspiring! Pages dedicated to seasonal mushroom/ oyster foraging, farmer's markets (incl. where they're located & at what time of year they run), and the division between Forest & Ocean all make this book a boon to an (aspiring) Vancouver Islandite.

I'm putting this one in my top 5 cookbooks for when I'm feeling a little blah in the kitchen. Well done.

[Lauren Tennet · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to give this cookbook five stars but first must cook from it! Everything looks simple to execute and a delight to eat. I live in the PNW, so have access to a lot of the regional foods mentioned here, and appreciate that they’ve outlined ways to make these meals in other regions. Perhaps my favorite addition to each of the recipes is how to best store them and for how long!! Genius for cooks like me who tend to make big batches of food to last me and my partner a few days. The photography is incredible — stunning, inspiring, moody. I want to go visit Vancouver Island now on extended holiday and just shop at markets, forage, cook and eat!! Until then, I’m excited to dive in and make some of these lovely recipes.

[Andrew Nierenhausen · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Desserts in this book look great, as they always do in Lycoplu's books. Most of the rest of the recipes were pretty inaccessible. If I was hosting a very fancy dinner party, I would try these, but I don't have access to many of these ingredients without making a big effort. Honestly, the food looked wonderful but I did not find this to be a useful cookbook, even in sparking inspiration for simpler dishes. 2.5/5

[Russell Berg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great local cookbook with interesting recipes and thoughtful but not overbearing commentary.

[Scott MacKenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazingly well done.

[Nada Loughead · Rating 5 out of 5]

See my review at https://canadiancookbooks.ca/cedar-sa...

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

EVERYTHING LOOKS YUMMY