A Taste of Acadie

by Marielle Cormier-Boudreau

Book Overview

For A Taste of Acadie , Melvin Gallant and Marielle Cormier-Boudreau travelled all over Acadia, from the Gasp Peninsula to Cape Breton, from the tip of Prince Edward Island to the Magdalen Islands,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0864921098
• ISBN13: 9780864921093
• Release Date: January 1991
• Publisher: Goose Lane Editions
• Length: 186 Pages
• Weight: 0.76 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.8" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

"Culinary tradition, an imaginative response to the land and the sea"

There's something evocative about the food your grandmother cooked; you may not have enjoyed all of it in your childhood and you may not dare to eat it now, but when you become interested in your cultural roots, the old dishes gain flavor in your memories. I didn't learn to cook the old Acadian dishes from my memere, so I was delighted to find A Taste of Acadie while traveling in Prince Edward Island. This fascinating book by Marielle Cormier-Boudreau and Melvin Gallant is much more than recipes. The authors researched the cooking (and culture) of the Acadian people of Maritime Canada: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. The Acadians settled in this area from mid-central France in the mid-1600's and were ousted and dispersed by the British a hundred years later, civilian casualties of war between France and England. They gradually resettled up and down the Eastern seaboard, and many who had been repatriated to France eventually came back. These hardy people lived a hardscrabble life of fishing, agriculture and animal husbandry in the unyielding climate, and their cooking reflected the ups and downs of their existence--as cooking always does. The book is arranged in sections--soups, fish, shellfish, vegetables--and each section is prefaced with some general, grounding remarks and basic techniques. The recipes reflect the simple ingredients available, largely cod, potatoes, small game birds, and pork. Pork and pork fat were highly valued, and consequently, the authors note, "...pigs were raised with great care and were often a source of personal pride. Older generations of Acadians told us that a farmer's reputation rested on the thickness of the pork fat that his pigs produced." Some of the recipes hold a distinct lack of appeal; for example blood sausage and "head cheese" made by simmering the meat off a pig's head and hocks. Yet these dishes were great delicacies to my father and uncles, when their mother indulged them with a cooking spree. The family favorite among the old "recettes" (recipes) was poutines rapees, baseball-sized dumplings of grated raw potato wrapped around chunks of salt pork and simmered in salted water. There are more congenial recipes in the book by all means: the popular buckwheat pancakes (ployes), seafood fricots (chowder-like concoctions), dandelion wine, simple homemade bread, and the hearty desserts and puddings sweetened with apples, berries, molasses, honey and maple syrup. I was particularly interested in the Acadian version of pate a la viande (meat pie), since this was another family favorite from the older generation. Even though the Acadian heritage is strong throughout Maine, nowadays the Quebecois version of meat pie (tourtiere) holds sway in the area and though I make tourtiere every year, it somehow fails to fully satisfy my memory; this winter we'll have the meat pie of my childhood. I'm not sure how many dishes I'll actually make from a cookbook that lists "lard or butter" as poss

A Tast of Acadia

I have learned a whole lot about acadien cuisine in this boob,and like every reciepe that i tried.One day i made a full acadien meal for friends and they told me its was the best meal they had eaten.