Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook That Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and The... (91 page)

The flesh of bear hath a good relish, very savory and inclining nearest to that of Pork. The Fat of this Creature is least apt to rise in the Stomach of any other. The Men for the most part chose it rather than Venison. . .. And now, for the good of mankind, and for the better Peopling an Infant colony, which has no want but that of Inhabitants, I will venture to publish a Secret of Importance, which our Indian. . .disclosed to me. I asked him the reason why few or none of his Country women were barren? To which curious Question he answered with a Broad grin upon his Face, they had an infallible SECRET for that. Upon my being importunate to know what the secret might be, he informed me that, if any Indian woman did not prove with child at a decent time after Marriage, the Husband, to save his Reputation with the women, forthwith entered into a Bear-dyet for Six Weeks, which in that time makes him so vigorous that he grows exceedingly impertinent to his poor wife and 'tis great odds but he makes her a Mother in Nine Months. Col. William Byrd II, 1728

In a short time a great number of people came to the spot. . .. They stood around the lions and talked about them. . .. Pooran Singh himself appeared. . .his melliferous Indian smile shone in the midst of his thick black beard, he stuttered with delight when he spoke. He was anxious to procure for himself the fat of the lions, that with his people is held in high esteem as a medicine—from the pantomime by which he expressed himself to me, I believe against rheumatism and impotence. Isak Dinesen
Out of Africa

DUCK CURRY

Serves 8-12

3 wild ducks

3 tablespoons duck fat (
Duck Fat and Cracklings
)

2 large onions, peeled and finely chopped

2 cups finely chopped celery

4-5 tablespoons curry powder or curry paste

1 teaspoon ground cardamom

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

4 cups
duck stock

1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger

4 cloves garlic, peeled and mashed

1 cup
piima cream
or
creme fraiche

sea salt and pepper

Remove the skin and excess fat from the ducks and make duck stock from the whole birds, including the feet and heads (
Turkey stock and duck stock
). (Make cracklings from the excess fat and skin,
Duck Fat and Cracklings
.) Remove the meat from the ducks, chop coarsely and reserve in the refrigerator. Strain stock into a bowl, refrigerate until it congeals and remove fat. (Save fat for other uses.)

In a heavy skillet, saute onions and celery in duck fat until soft. Add curry powder or paste and other seasonings and cook about 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Add stock, bring to a boil and stir with a whisk to remove any lumps. Add garlic, ginger and cream. Boil vigorously until sauce reduces to about half. Season to taste. Stir in reserved duck meat and simmer until heated through.

Serve with
basic brown rice
and traditional curry accompaniments such as
fruit chutney
, raisins,
dried sweetened coconut meat
, chopped
Crispy Cashews
and chopped scallions. You may also serve with duck cracklings (
Duck Fat and Cracklings
).

Under optimal conditions, humans convert carotenes to vitamin A in the upper intestinal tract by the action of bile salts and fat-splitting enzymes. But the transformation of carotenes to retinol is rarely optimal. Diabetics and those with poor thyroid function—a group that includes at least half the adult U.S. population—cannot make the conversion at all. Children make the conversion very poorly and infants not at all—they must obtain their precious stores of vitamin A from animal fats—yet the lowfat diet is often recommended for children. Strenuous physical exercise, excessive consumption of alcohol, excessive consumption of iron (especially from "fortified" white flour and breakfast cereals), use of a number of popular drugs, excessive consumption of polyunsaturated fatty acids, zinc deficiency and even cold weather can hinder the conversion of carotenes to vitamin A. So does the lowfat diet. Carotenes are converted by the action of bile salts, and very little bile reaches the intestine when a meal is low in fat. The epicure who puts butter on his vegetables and adds cream to his soups and stews is wiser than he knows. Butterfat stimulates the secretion of bile needed to convert carotenes from vegetables into vitamin A and at the same time supplies very easily absorbed true vitamin A. Polyunsaturated oils also stimulate the secretion of bile salts but can cause rapid destruction of carotene unless antioxidants are present.
Vitamin A Vagary

DUCK WITH OLIVES

Serves 8-12

3 wild ducks

3 tablespoons duck fat (
Duck Fat and Cracklings
)

2 small onions, peeled and finely chopped

2 carrots, peeled and diced

3 cups
duck stock

1 teaspoon fresh or dried tarragon leaves

½ teaspoon dried green peppercorns, crushed

juice of 1 lemon

1 cup
piima cream
or
creme fraiche

1½ cups sliced green olives

sea salt and pepper

Remove the skin and excess fat from the ducks and make duck stock from the whole birds, including the feet and heads. (
Turkey stock and duck stock
). (Make cracklings from the excess fat and skin,
Duck Fat and Cracklings
.) Remove the meat from the ducks, chop coarsely and reserve in refrigerator. Strain stock into a bowl, refrigerate until it congeals and remove fat. (Save fat for other uses.)

In a heavy skillet saute onions and carrot in duck fat until soft. Add stock, bring to a rapid boil and skim. Add tarragon and peppercorns. Boil vigorously until stock is reduced to about 1 cup. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice, cream, olives and duck meat. Season to taste. Transfer to a casserole and warm in a 200-degree oven for about 15 minutes. Serve on triangle or
round croutons
.

Anchorage. . .has an excellent government hospital, which probably has been built around the life of one man whom many people told us was the most beloved man in all Alaska. He is Dr. Josef Romig, a surgeon of great skill and with an experience among the Eskimos and Indians, both the primitive and modernized, extending over thirty-six years. . .. He took me, for example, to several typically modernized Indian homes in the city. In one, the grandmother, who had come from the northern shore of Cook Inlet to visit her daughter, was sixty-three years of age and was entirely free from tooth decay and had lost only one of her teeth. Her son, who had accompanied her, was twenty-four years of age. He had only one tooth that had ever been attacked by tooth decay. Their diet had been principally moose and deer meat, fresh and dried fish, a few vegetables and at times some cranberries. Recently, the son had been obtaining some modern foods. Her daughter, twenty-nine years of age, had married a white man and had had eight children. She and they were living on modern foods entirely. Twenty-one of her thirty-two teeth had been wrecked by dental caries. Their diet consisted largely of white bread, syrup and potatoes. Her children whom we examined ranged from five to twelve years of age, and in that family 37 percent of all teeth have already been attacked by dental decay. . .not only was dental caries rampant, but that there were marked deformity of the dental arches and irregularity of teeth in the cases of the children. Weston Price, DDS
Nutrition and Physical Degeneration

PHEASANT WITH ORANGE SAUCE

Serves 4

2 pheasant, cut into quarters

2 cups dry white wine

grated rind from 2 oranges

4 tablespoons melted butter

sea salt and pepper

3 cups
chicken
,
turkey
or
duck stock

juice from 2 oranges

2 tablespoons arrowroot mixed with 2 tablespoons filtered water

Marinate pheasant pieces, turning occasionally, in a mixture of white wine and orange rind for several hours at room temperature or overnight in the refrigerator. Pat dry with paper towels and reserve marinade. Place pheasant pieces, skin side up, in a stainless steel roasting pan. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake at 400 degrees for about 1 hour or until pieces are golden. Transfer pheasant pieces to a flameproof casserole. Add wine marinade to the roasting pan and bring to a rapid boil, stirring with a wooden spoon to scrape up any accumulated juices. Add stock and orange juice, bring to a boil and skim. Allow liquid to reduce slightly. Pour over pheasant pieces, cover casserole and bake at 300 degrees for at least 2 hours.

Remove pheasant pieces to a heated platter and keep warm in the oven. Strain the sauce into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Add the arrowroot, spoonful by spoonful, until desired thickness is obtained. Season to taste and serve.

Teeth superior on average to those of the presidents of our largest toothpaste companies are found in the world today and have existed during past ages among people who violate every precept of current dentifrice advertising. . .. The best teeth and the healthiest mouths were found among people who never drank milk since they ceased to be suckling babes, and who never in their lives tasted or tested any of the other things which we usually recommend for sound teeth. . .. They never took any pains to cleanse their teeth or mouths. They did not visit their dentist twice a year or even once in a lifetime. . .so far as an extensive correspondence with authorities has yet been able to show, a complete absence of tooth decay from entire populations has never existed in the past and does not exist now, except where meat is either exclusively or heavily predominant in the diet. Vilhjalmur Stefansson
The Fat of the Land