The Berry Bible: With 175 Recipes Using Cultivated and Wild, Fresh and Frozen Berries

Purchased this book this summer as a "thank you" gift, and found myself not wanting to hand it over (to the gift recipient). There are many tidbits of info sprinkled throughout the recipes, with an interesting nod toward how berries spread throughout S. America. Most recipes are manageable even for busy people (with little time to prepare, etc.), and each one that we've tried has been quite nice!

Plenty of cookbooks cover recipes for the well-known blackberry, raspberry, and blueberry - but how many discuss and provide recipes for the Jostaberry, Salmonberry, or Buffaloberry? Janie Hibler's The Berry Bible does, covering all these and more with almost two hundred recipes for using both cultivated and wild berries, fresh or frozen. The Berry Bible comes from a contributing writer to Gourmet, Food & Wine and other well-known professional food magazines, and includes a centerfold of color photos and an all-important bibliography of web sites as well as the usual index. Berry fans who until now have relied on domestic varietal coverages will appreciate having more in-depth coverage in The Berry Bible.

I have always been a devotee of berries out of hand, but because I love them so much they rarely survive long enough to make it into my cooking. The Berry Bible may change that. If you want erudition on the berry world, look no further. The health benefits of berries take center stage, and then, straight on, "The A-To-Z Berry Encyclopedia" covers this planet's offerings, from scientific nomenclature to where each berry variety is grown commercially, to picking and storage notes. The color insert of photos of berry varieties is meticulous. The recipe sections--the bulk of the book--are well organized and clearly written. There's an excellent section on "Putting Berries By" for those of you with extra berries you don't want to gobble up just yet; preserves and jellies are covered as you'd expect, but you can also try your hand at "Raspberry Pastilles" if candy-making inspires you. The book has something for everyone, but above all, it treats berries with reverence. It is as complete as any book that claims to be a "Bible" should be.Food writer Elliot Essman's other reviews and food articles are available at www.stylegourmet.com

Thirty-five years ago `The Berry Bible' by Janie Hibler may have attracted a place in a relatively small market of hippies, vegetarians, and Pacific Northwest berry boosters. Today, I suspect the book will and should attract a lot more attention with the discovery and publicizing of the health benefits of all berries, specifically cranberries and blueberries.Even though I easily qualify as a `cookbook collector', I have never given much thought to what constitutes a good book for a cookbook collection, as my primary objective in acquiring cookbooks is to review them. But, this book easily qualifies as a paradigm for an excellent member of a cookbook collection. The two most interesting types of volumes in cookbook collections, I think, would be books on specific regions such as Provence, Tuscany, Mexico, and The Philippines and books on specific ingredients such as potatoes, duck, salmon, and eggs.So, once we start collecting books on ingredients, what should they include? The most obvious answer is recipes. For these, a book on berries has much more to offer than a book on eggs or potatoes since, aside from the relatively small variations between starchy and waxy potatoes, there is not much to tell about how to make the best use of different varieties. There is also not much room to capitalize on recipes that can serve many purposes by being a stage for a wide variety of color, species, and cultivar of product. A good berry recipe can give you recipes for muffin, scone, tart, coulis, or smoothie for blackberries, raspberries, and mulberries in one fell swoop. To this end, the book contains recipes for:Coolers, Cocktails, Smoothies, and other DrinksBreadsSoups and SaladsMain CoursesSaucesPutting Berries By (jams, jellies, and preserves)Ice Creams, Sorbets, and Other Frozen TreatsPies, Tarts, Cobblers, and SuchCakesPastries, Puddings, and Other Sweet TreatsIf the book did no more than this, it would be worth its reasonable $30 list price, but it does do much more.The intellectually most attractive feature of the book is `The A-to-Z Berry Encyclopedia'. It is a revelation to see how widely dispersed in the plant kingdom the main types of berries are, and yet, how closely related other berries with distinct names actually are. I was really surprised to discover that the boysenberry is not only related to the blackberry, it IS a blackberry, simply a specially named humanly developed cultivar of naturally occurring blackberries. Another interesting aspect is distinction between two or three different species with the same common name. Both blueberries and cranberries have lowbush and highbush varieties with markedly different geographic ranges and different commercial importance. The blueberry in your local megamart will almost invariably be the highbush species, unless you happen to live in northern New England, where you may have access to Maine lowbush blueberries. Those little blue beauties you see being gathered in Maine on the Food Network are n

This beautiful book has everything going for it and tells you everything you ever wanted or needed to know about berries. Ms. Hibler discusses in great detail 35 or 40 berries-- many of which I was not familiar with-- along with color photographs of twice that many. About each berry she discusses their common names, scientific classification, habitat, history, where they are grown commercially, how to pick them, how to buy them, how to store them, along with notes for the cook. On cranberries she tells the cook: "Think of them as the lemons of the berry world. Their tartness acts as a flavor enhancer when they are mixed with other fruits or berries, bringing out the best in both." On blueberries: "They are good mixed with other fruits and nuts, especially almonds."In the author's introduction she discusses the current problems consumers face in the market. Although berries are now available the year round, we have sacrificed quality for quantity. (Do you ever wonder how growers get those tasteless strawberries bigger than a baby's fist?) She points out that many berries are picked while green and will never taste right when they do ripen. She further states that if we are willing to pay more for good berries for a shorter length of time in the market, that the sellers will do what is necessary to sell berries. But it is left up to the consumer to alleviate the problem.Ms. Hibler covers utensils, cream, dried berries, washing berries, etc., in a chapter she calls "Berry Basics." Then the recipes follow. The author says she has been collecting berry recipes for years; there are 175 here, according to the book cover: drinks, breads, soups and salads, main courses, sauces, preserving berries, ice cream and other frozen treats, pies, tarts, cobblers, cakes, pastries and puddings. What is so amazing about these recipes is that with the exception of strawberry shortcake, we don't see the ones often repeated in previously published cookbooks: blueberry muffins, berry cheesecakes, cranberry bread, etc. (The strawberry shortcake is from the 1963 MCCALL'S COOKBOOK. Ms. Hibler says it is the best ever and recommends adding blueberries for a patriotic recipe for July 4.) While I'm a basic blueberry, blackberry, raspberry and strawberry person, if your tastes go to the exotic, both in berry and recipe, you won't be disappointed. Try Mahaw Jelly or Marionberry Streusel Tart, for example. Some of the recipes that jumped out at me that I want to try are Madame Rose Blanc's Creme de Cassis, (so we can make wonderful kirs) Fozen Srawberry Yourt, Fresh Raspberry Tart, and Lemon Curd Cake.Two final notes: Ms. Hibler reminds us that eating berries is good for our health and gives us a great quote about cookbooks from Joseph Conrad: "Its object [a cookbook] can conceivably be no other than to increase the happiness of mankind." Certainly that can be said of THE BERRY BIBLE, destined to become the book on berries by which others will be judged.