Afield: A Chef’s Guide to Preparing and Cooking Wild Game and Fish by Jesse Griffiths

The fruit of Jesse Griffiths’ one-year labor is an exquisite and attractive book on how to clean, butcher, and cook your harvest (and what to pair it with!). Afield: A Chef’s Guide to Preparing and Cooking Wild Game and Fish combines simple Southern cooking with haute French cuisine suitable for gourmet dinner parties, but which can be especially enjoyed over a backyard grill with buddies.

More than just a cook book, Griffith subtlety interjects his stories from the field and occasionally delivers a nugget of wisdom within the description of the meal you’re about to prepare. For instance, he dispelled a long-held belief of mine that catfish should be avoided in cuisine because it was a dirty bottom-feeder. The fish is, in fact, a predator as well. He also inspires us to put a unique twist on our cooking such as his recipe for roasted, bacon-wrapped snipe where the snipe’s long bill is used as the “toothpick” to hold the bacon around the bird.

Among the recipes, you’ll find advice on complimentary dishes, how to make homemade mayonnaise, sausage and step-by-step instructions (with photographs) on how to clean and butcher/fillet every animal or fish mentioned within the book.

Find recipes for dove, snipe, duck, goose, turkey, venison, squirrels, rabbits, boars, javelina, catfish, bass, bluegill, sunfish, mackerel and more. Afield presents recipes for fried or grilled cutlets, soups, polentas, stews, pâtés, stocks and tacos among other American and international dishes.

The only problem you might have with this book is not getting it dirty as you get your hands into some guts and prepare them for the grill.

Agnieszka Spieszny

Everyday I try to exercise my brain and body, and find something new to learn about. I read extensively, write gainfully, and drink massive amounts of tea, seriously. I love many things, especially spending time in nature. I love learning outdoor survival skills and outdoor tips as I write about the topics for OutdoorHub.com. I slowly preparing for two separate extreme outdoor adventures - one to the tip of the earth in Nunavut, Canada where the earth begins to split into glaciers and the other into the wilderness in New Zealand; where cliffs meet the coast. I love traveling and have been to Europe, North America and Asia. My first trip abroad was when I was 5 years-old and my parents brought me from my home country of Poland to New Jersey, USA. We moved to Michigan not long after and I've moved around the state a bit. I spent four years in East Lansing, studying Journalism at Michigan State University all the while photographing and writing for spartanedge.com. In 2010 I moved to Detroit then traveled again to Europe and Asia at the end of that year which sucked me dry of all my money. Currently, I'm working on getting back in the city and establishing my homebase there. The shortlist of what I do: Recycle Play cards Dance Travel Procrastinate Love music What I don't do: Watch TV Eat junk food Walk to work Wash my hair everyday Spend money senselessly