I love exploring new foods and cultures. Pantry and Palate by Simon Thibault is a cookbook created from old family recipes, ladies auxiliary cookbooks and word of mouth of Acadian food. Now, I was not sure what Acadian was so I had to look it up.
The Acadians (French: Acadiens) are the descendants of the French settlers, and sometimes the Indigenous peoples, of parts of Acadia (French: Acadie) in the northeastern region of North America comprising what is now the Canadian Maritime Provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island.
So now it sounds like it may have a little French influence! This is sounding like it could be some tasty recipes! There are 50 recipes in all included in Pantry and Palate. If you’ve ever been curious as to how to can there’s a whole chapter on it. You’ll learn how to pickle pretty much anything you’d ever want to pickle.
There’s also a section devoted to bread. You’ll learn how to make oat bread, white bread and many more from scratch like they did back in the day.
The Soup, Sides and Staple section is one I want to spend some time in exploring. There are recipes for meat pie, scalloped cabbage and many more that look intriguing.
There’s also a complete section on desserts. No cookbook is complete without this section. You’ll learn how to make Date cakes, Molasses cookies, and many other traditional desserts.
The one thing I felt was missing from this book was a substantial section on main dishes. But that could just be the culture. It appears they ate more pies and smaller meals than bigger meals, like us Americans.
Pantry and Palate is filled with recipes to explore from the almost lost Acadian diet. You can purchase a copy online or at your local cookbook retailer.
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