THE KITCHEN PANTRY IN DICK PROENNEKE‘S CABIN NEAR TWIN LAKES.
KIRSTEN DIXON
Although I live at a wilderness lodge in a roadless area of Alaska, I own a small house in Anchorage—a kind of reverse cabin in the woods. This comfortable cottage offers refuge to civilization, a respite from rural Alaska lodge life so appreciated now and then— a trip to the bookstore or dinner out to a favored ethnic restaurant. It’s here that I keep the majority of my coveted cookbook collection. I own hundreds of cookbooks, all carefully catalogued, organized by category, frequently referred to, and dearly loved. I am often in Anchorage during “freezeup and breakup,” the times of year when airplanes can’t fly in or out of our remote location. It’s then that you can find me sitting cross-legged in front of a big pile of books, thumbing through pages, attaching small sticky tabs to mark where to find a particular recipe or passage or tip.
Of all of my books, my favorite collection is the shelf filled with Alaskan cookbooks. The majority of the sources used in this compilation are represented there. I can sit for hours, lost in the stories of the people who took the time to share their lives, their knowledge of living in Alaska, and the recipes that became important to them. These recipes aren’t merely instructions on how to prepare food. They are living, interactive stories of how Alaskans have managed to define themselves through their cuisine. Each recipe in this collection sheds a bit of light on who we are as a people.
What is Alaskan cuisine? At first blush, it might seem that Alaska is too far off any culinary roadmap to be able to define a specific culinary style. But take a closer look, and you will find that we have a unique and vibrant food culture that reflects our natural world, our social and cultural history, our geographic place on the earth, and our values of self-sufficiency and independence.
Our Alaska native legacy is still reflected everywhere in daily life here—in our artwork, our clothing, and our social life. Many native communities still hold on to a vibrant heritage of consuming indigenous foods such as walrus and seal. You might not have access to foods such as walrus, (and, of course, marine mammals are now protected outside of Native populations) but the inclusion of these traditional recipes in this collection provides the opportunity for authentic understanding and insight into Native culinary traditions.
Those who came in search of Alaska’s rich natural resources, including fish, fur, and gold, left behind a legacy of food styles imported from their faraway homelands. Russian and Scandinavian influences are threaded throughout our local dishes. Early Russian residents brought cabbage and potatoes and other hearty northern garden crops to Alaska. Scandinavian fishermen brought pickled dishes and stews. We have many Asian influences in our dishes, which makes sense when you think about our geography and proximity to Asia.
Homesteader heartiness and endurance is reflected in many of the recipes in this collection. Look for clues to hardship in obtaining certain fresh ingredients in the crafting of some of the recipes: evaporated milk, canned lemon juice, and dehydrated onions make appearances for a reason. For many living in extreme, isolated conditions in the past (or even in the present), obtaining ingredients such as fresh milk or a fresh lemon was difficult or impossible. Baking breads, the use of sourdough, preserving and “putting by” foods for the root cellar, and gardening during our brief but glorious summers have all been important necessities to Alaskan homesteaders in the past, and many modern Alaskan cooks, me included, enjoy carrying on this tradition today.
With the longest coastline of any other U.S. state, we live amidst a thriving Pacific Ocean fishery. Alaskans are proud of our fishing heritage and strong modern commercial and sport-fishing industries. There is a wide range of seafood recipes represented in this collection, and I encourage you to try as many recipes as you can. All Alaska salmon are wild and considered “organic.” The quality of our fish is so important to us, it is actually written into our state constitution that we won’t allow farming of finfish within our boundaries. We have crab, halibut, shrimp, rockfish, and many other species of Pacific fish in abundance in our cuisine. Look around a little in Alaska and you will notice our iconic love of Alaska seafood in our art, on T-shirts, in books, on wind chimes, and even painted onto doormats. We revere our fish!
Into the land and away from the coast, highlights of our cuisine include wild berries, wild herbs and greens such as dandelions with blossoms, strawberry spinach, and mustard leaves, birds such as spruce grouse, ptarmigan, and geese, and game such as moose and caribou. Living off the land and utilizing the natural abundance around us has always been important to any good Alaskan cook.
Of course, Alaska isn’t quite as remote and inaccessible as it was in the past. Our markets are replenished with the bounty of the Pacific Northwest and California daily by jet, we find Chilean and Australian fruit and meats in the markets in winter, and we can special-order products on the Internet. We have, still, a preference for the local in our cuisine. Thriving weekend farmers markets are emerging in most urban areas in the summertime, and gardeners are growing increasing portions of our market produce, much of it organic. Creative, talented young chefs are moving to the state and our ethnic populations are growing, exposing us to global delights, both in local restaurants and in ingredients found in stores.
In this diverse cookbook, you will find recipes that are simple and sophisticated written by authors who wrote from wilderness cabins by candlelight or from their professional urban kitchens. Some recipes are unobtainable glimpses into the past and a cultural tradition in transition. Many others are priceless additions to your own personal culinary collection. This book offers you an entire Alaska cookbook collection in one volume. I hope you, too, will get out your sticky tabs and make note of particular recipes or passages or tips. And when you prepare these recipes, you will feel connected to those who reached out to communicate their Alaskan lives and foodways with you.
A MAN AND LAMB IN A LOG CANOE IN KENAI LAKE.