Game

The hunting and the consumption of game animals have been central to the development of humanity as a species, and a core part of almost all cultures, as well as the meat industry. Yet despite the fact that game is the only food that is consumed from the Amazons to the Arctic, it has never the subject of a culinary overview.§In Game, Paula Young Lee illustrates the rise and fall of bear paws, lark pie, reindeer paté and other exotic dishes enjoyed and formerly enjoyed around the world. She describes how in the past animals such as quail, oryx and dormice were so avidly pursued that they were semi-domesticated in order to grace our dining tables. The book also provides insight into the laws, customs and difficulties of hunting game for food - venison for example, long a sign of status and wealth, was once so coveted that cookbooks gave instructions as to the best way to disguise beef as a counterfeit. Always politically charged, game today ranges from a luxury foodstuff to a staple of the abjectly poor. Wide-ranging, and featuring many recipes for unusual and little-eaten animals and cuts of meat, Game will appeal to all those interested in the history of food, or who wonders what the dodo might have tasted like.