Stalking the Blue-Eyed Scallop

by Euell Gibbons

Overview

This foraging and cooking classic was first published in 1964 and has continued to be one of America’s most appreciated works on the subject of seafood. As a young man, Euell Gibbons kept his family alive during the Dust Bowl era by gathering wild foods. In later years he foraged for seafood all over the coastlines of North America and even Hawaii. He drew on his extensive experience and research to write his “Stalking” series, books which have entered the American lexicon and which remain the starting point for serious foragers. Euell Gibbons tells how to find marvelous food in every coastal area of North America.This book contains numerous drawings for identification and hundreds of recipes and cooking tips from chowders and clambakes to simple epicurean treats such as boiled periwinkles dipped in melted butter.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780811739030
Publisher:	Stackpole Books
Publication date:	04/01/2020
Series:	19640101
Edition description:	1st Edition
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	5.87(w) x 8.49(h) x 0.76(d)

About the Author

Euell Gibbons was born in Red River County, Texas, and made a living in various ways—as a cowboy, hobo, carpenter, surveyor, boat builder, beachcomber, newspaperman, farmer, and teacher—throughout many states, before writing his first book, Stalking the Wild Asparagus, in 1962 at age fifty-one.

Table of Contents

1 How to Cook a Sea Serpent 1

2 Gather Your Own Oysters 10

3 Quahog or Littleneck: The Wampum Clam 19

4 Crabs and Crabbing 23

5 Razor Clams and Other Marine Cutlery 49

6 Blue-Eyed Scallops-and Others 65

7 The Common Periwinkle 76

8 The Surf Clam: Abundant and Delicious 79

9 Transcendental Seafood Combinations 85

10 Soft-Shell Clams, Long-Necks, or Steamers 103

11 The Neglected Blue Mussel: A Savory Seafood Treat 109

12 Moon Shells and Left-Handed Whelks 119

13 Sea Urchins or Sea Eggs 130

14 The Purple Snail or Dog Whelk 135

15 Coquinas and Bean Clams: the wedge shells 141

16 The Cockles of America 150

17 The Pen Shells, a Favorite Food of Ancient Gourmets 161

18 Angel Wings, Fallen Angels, and Rough Piddocks 166

19 Clamming on the West Coast 172

20 The Epicurean Abalone 196

21 The Edible Limpets 202

22 Chitons or Sea Cradles 207

23 Hunting the Wild Goose Barnacle 211

24 Grunions, Blennies, and Lancelets 214

25 Fishing for Food and Fun 222

26 Edible Seaweeds 245

27 Seaside Vegetables and Salads 256

28 Sour Sorrel: Salad, Beverage, Potherb, and Dessert 282

29 The Beach Plum 286

30 The Ubiquitous Bayberry 291

31 Catching and Cooking the Wild Et Cetera 295

Index 319

What People are Saying About This

Shirley King

Stalking the Blue-Eyed Scallop is a cookbook, nature guide and remembrance that pulls you in like a riptide. It is particularly illuminating about all the fine seafood we can gather on our shores, with beautiful descriptions of their habitats and behavior, and not least, recipes for some of the most unique and savory dishes you will ever enjoy.
—Shirley King, author of Fish: The Basics

Editorial Reviews

A practical guide to the edibles that about in and around tidal areas, and these are more numerous than the average man dreams of. It is conceivable that, equipped with the book, an adventurous spirit might live for endless time with a minimum expenditure of money for food other than sugar, salt, flour, and other pantry staples.

Craig Claiborne

Stalking the Blue-Eyed Scallop is a cookbook, nature guide, and remembrance that pulls you in like a riptide. It is particularly illuminating about all the fine seafood we can gather on our shores, with beautiful descriptions of their habitats and behavior, and not least, recipes for some of the most unique and savory dishes you will ever enjoy.

Shirley King

Gibbons is one of America’s most original writers about nature and food, and I’ve followed his advice about the gathering of periwinkles, edible seaweed and such and cooked a la Gibbons with delicious results. This book is the best antidote to mechanized modern life. I can’t think of any other that has given me as much pleasure each time I’ve picked it up.

Nika Hazelton

Yet, to those who actually knew him, as well as to those who took the time to read his many books and articles, Euell Theophilus Gibbons (1911-1975) was nothing short of a naturalist and survivalist of the first rank, not to mention a great ecological hero--in a class with figures like Rachel Carson, Aldo Leopold, Henry Thoreau, and John Muir.

Careful historians have largely concurred with this assessment, noting that Gibbons was one of several prominent naturalists who ushered in our modern ecological renaissance. Indeed, Gibbons' writings, like Rachel Carson's, possessed true motivational power, spurring many people to relinquish the idea of "conquering nature" (the cultural war cry of the 1950s) and to start thinking about living in harmony with it. He was arguably even the chief one of a handful of nature writers of the 1960s and early 1970s who actually succeeded in bringing people back to the land, and thus to the very well-spring of true ecology. Here the Cleveland Natural Science Museum's Explorer newsletter perhaps put it best: "None can exceed Euell Gibbons in presenting the material in a fashion that makes you want to dash right out and try his advice."

In appreciation of Euell Gibbons' efforts, Susquehanna University awarded him an honorary doctorate. Then, too, Boston University has carefully preserved a collection of his notes and materials. Today, as well the Euell Gibbons Environmental Foundation continues the important wilderness educational work that he had started American Survival Guide Magazine, September 2000

Matthew Alfs

With this book along, there is no reason why anyone on the beach cannot live on practically nothing.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer