Rating: 
Summary: Delightful journey
Review: I found The Food Journal of Lewis & Clark: Recipes for an Expedition by Mary Gunderson to be a delightful read. I am not a history buff but none the less loved reading about the expedition and the food they prepared and consumed along the way. What a great way to learn about this remarkable journey. I highly recommend this handsome book to cooks and history aficionados alike.
Rating: 
Summary: I would take issue
Review: In answer to richardsimmons of Texas, I would say that my mother on numerous occasions made hominy -- which involves the use of lye. This was the classic treatment of dried corn used by the Indians (they made lye from wood ashes) and was important in releasing certain important nutritional elements in corn, making the protein available.Her inclusion of the recipe indicates that she does indeed know food history, and that is a key point in the value of this book. This is a beautiful, highly engrossing book; I love reading history, and this was thoroughly satisfying. She has linked the past through the personal diaries of Lewis and Clark with practices of the time and given us a notion of where our cuisine has gone. The content is highly accessible -- contemporary writing, writing contemporaneous with Lewis and Clark are done in parallel with the excerpts from the diaries, and the illustrations are wonderful.
Rating:
Summary: History Comes Alive
Review: Lewis and Clark are woven into the local fabric of the Pacific Northwest with the trail almost in my back yard. This book takes the historical framework and focuses on the food and eating experience of the journey. What a wonderful way to form a cultural bridge between the early days of our country and the present! Thanks to the extensive research and culinary insight, food becomes a tangible way to experience the amazing western journey of these adventurers. This book is fun as well as informative for the casual reader or for someone who enjoys 'playing in the kitchen' and wants to return to days gone by. I would recommend it for all cooks and historians of any age!
Rating:
Summary: History Comes Alive
Review: Lewis and Clark are woven into the local fabric of the Pacific Northwest with the trail almost in my back yard. This book takes the historical framework and focuses on the food and eating experience of the journey. What a wonderful way to form a cultural bridge between the early days of our country and the present! Thanks to the extensive research and culinary insight, food becomes a tangible way to experience the amazing western journey of these adventurers. This book is fun as well as informative for the casual reader or for someone who enjoys 'playing in the kitchen' and wants to return to days gone by. I would recommend it for all cooks and historians of any age!
Rating:
Summary: WOW! What a treasure! Don't miss this one
Review: Mary Gunderson has spent years researching the foods eaten on the journey made by Lewis and Clark; she has put together a remarkable book that is history lesson and cooking class combined. Even if you never go into the kitchen to try the recipes, you will gain an insight into the lives and travels of Lewis and Clark. A book to treasure not only for its information, but for its layout and design. Wow!
Rating:
Summary: Hard Work Pays Off
Review: More than a cookbook, The Food Journal of Lewis & Clark: Recipes for an Expedition by Mary Gunderson, brings the famous trek across our great nation magically back to life. Gunderson celebrates its history and early 1800s food legacy. After reading the book, I felt the author really knows (and respects) her craft. This fascinating book seems to be well documented and researchedÑand best of allÑit's a lively read. She's used authentic recipes to capture the best of early American cuisine. With intriguing tidbits and trivia, I enjoyed being served a delicious lesson in culinary history.
Rating:
Summary: History from the Kitchen
Review: Much more than a cookbook, Gunderson's book is a history lesson, sharing the words and thoughts of Lewis and Clark and how they managed their journey without the cooking conveniences we depend on today. The recipes are intriguing and easy-to-read and the journal entries make the book come alive. What a wonderful way to learn about Lewis and Clark - through cooking!
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Summary: Could History Be So Delicious?
Review: On the 4th of July, while the rest of the nation grilled hot dogs, I sat down to finally read my copy of The Food Journal of Lewis and Clark. The saliva started to flow, from page after page of Ms. Gunderson's creative, while authentic, recipes for foods served during the expedition. The author has thoroughly researched the history of the expedition, the ingredients available in the 1800's in the regions of the journey,and the taste preferences of those who travelled together. I found the historical tidbits delightful enough to read out loud to my husband. Now I know why my niece, who homeschools in North Carolina, likes to use Ms. Gunderson's books to teach history to her children! While reading the cookbook cover to cover (I couln't put it down!),I found a recipe for New Potatoes with Hazelnuts and Fennel. The simplicity and possibility of good taste in that dish compelled me off to the kitchen, on a holiday, to test it. It bailed out my 4th of July menu!
Rating:
Summary: Enchanting Reading!
Review: The Food Journal of Lewis & Clark is one of the BEST!! Gunderson integrates the authentic journals of Lewis & Clark with 'You're right there' vignettes and interesting facts and fun! As a teacher, I will certainly share this with my colleagues, as well as integrate the historical authenticity and creative story-telling in my writing courses.
Rating:
Summary: THE TRIP AND ITS SWANKY GRUB
Review: The Food Journal of
LEWIS & CLARK FOOD:
Recipes for an Expedition By Mary Gunderson If you're a history buff and into food, this book's a "gotta have." This Journal is not simply a cookbook. It's a chance to learn more about the people these explorers encountered, how they dealt with hardships, get to take a look at their provisioning and read actual quotes from Lewis and Clark, themselves. Perhaps Gunderson's chapter titles tell the most about her careful research: Jefferson's Vision, Washington, D.C.
Lewis Receives Instructions and Buys Provisions
Anticipation and Preparation, Down the Ohio to Camp Dubois
High Spirits, Up the Missouri
Buffalo! Diplomacy with the Yankton and Teton Sioux
Sacagawea, Charbonneau and Jean Baptiste Join the Expedition
Another Beginning, the Upper Missouri & Great Falls
The Journey Hangs in the Balance, Over the Mountains
Wild Roots, Elk and a Whale, Ft. Clatsop & the Pacific Coast
Down the Yellowstone - The Nez Perce Help Again Return to St. Louis & The Long Welcome The book is detailed account of their careful preparations, tools necessary, foods hunted, foods gathered and foods they traded for. A partial list of Philadelphia provisions spread the course from 32 tins, or 193 pounds of portable soup, assorted fish hooks, kettles, a corn mill, hatchets, a whetstone, gun powder and castile soap. Thomas Jefferson, widely known for his food and agricultural expertise, not only wanted detailed maps and topographical reports about the Louisiana Purchase, he asked that the explorers extend every courtesy to people they met but to record how they grew crops, fishes and hunted. He asked them to observe their "food and domestic accommodations." "As they made their way west, the pair and their trailmates sampled everything from Indian corn and buffalo tongues to camas roots and dried salmon," noted an author and filmmaker, Dayton Duncan. There is a good deal of information on Portable Soup or Pocket Soup, the fine at of making Hoe Cakes, building a special fire to cook a bear, making hominy with corn, lime and wood ashes and the making
of William Clark's Birthday Fruit Salad. Other crafts of the trail included Spoonbread, dishes like Roasted Buffalo, Turnip and Berry Ragout also Pemikan made with Juneberries and buffalo berries. Other hearty meals were Hazelnut Cornmeal Pancakes, Roasted Parsnips with Pine Nuts and Fort Clatsop Salmon Chowder with fennel and sourdough biscuits. Named the Official Cookbook for the National Council of Lewis & Clark Bicentennial, the author states, "History is as close as a bite of buffalo jerky or a taste of hominy." This attractive, well-indexed book with deckle-edged pages, helpful maps and pleasing sketches, contains over 80 authentic recipes faithfully tested and re-created for today's kitchens. Gunderson includes a generous bibliography, suggested further reading suggestions and a handy, educational website list. In her Mail-Order Sources section, she lists mail order sources for preparing her updated recipes...
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