OP: A Gourmet's Book of Beasts

Paul S. Eriksson, Inc., New York, 1975. Hardcover. Very Good.

Faith Medlin’s life story is a wild ride, starting with a life in advertising, which abruptly shifts into a schooner-building project (including felling the trees), homesteading in Alaska, a career jump into comparative physiology, and a book on owls in art and literature.

Medlin’s next project, inspired by unusual-to-her meats procured by friends, is an exploration of animals consumed around the world, which might surprise some but are totally common, or at least not altogether unexpected, elsewhere. Like other colorful authors who’ve allowed their intrigue to drive their writing in unsystematic but entertaining directions (think Waverley Root or Alexandre Dumas), Medlin’s profiles might reference biology, ecology, history, literature, or art in any and all combinations.

Of course, there is always a culinary angle, since that is the point. Medlin gives tasting notes, cooking suggestions, and sometimes a recipe for each beast. For iguana, which begins with a Godzilla reference, there is a recipe for the meat served in tortillas with mole. Blackbird comes with an early-16th century recipe for “pies that the birds may be alive in…and flie out when it is cut up.” And a recipe for thin slices of marinated whale meat sauteed with cauliflower and mushrooms, served over rice follows a brief history of whaling and is accompanied by the image of an Inuit ladle, on which a whale hunt is painted.

Not a definitive work on the meats of the world but an engaging one that opens the door to curious exploration. 

Very Good condition, overall.  A slight bow to book block and case and general wear to the jacket, which is also price clipped.