Maine: Home-Style Meals from the Pine Tree State

Maine does not do anything quietly. The lobster boats are out before sunrise. The winters are long and genuinely cold, and the summers are so beautiful that people who have never seen a Maine summer do not quite believe in them when you describe them. This is a state that earns its table.In this seventh book of the 50 States Gathering Table series, Waverly Finch travels the Pine Tree State from the lobster pounds of the Downeast coast to the Franco-American mill town kitchens of Lewiston and Biddeford, from the wild blueberry barrens of Washington County to the Aroostook potato farms of the far north. These 50 recipes are a love letter to a state whose food is as honest, as brisk, and as deeply satisfying as the place itself.Pull together a Maine lobster bisque built from shells and cream and a splash of brandy. Fry a basket of whole-belly clams the way they do it at the clam shacks along Route 1. Slow-bake a pot of bean-hole beans with salt pork and dark molasses until the kitchen smells like a Maine Saturday. And finish with a whoopie pie - two rounds of chocolate cake sandwiched with marshmallow cream filling, Maine's official state treat, and entirely worth the argument over who invented it.With stories woven between the recipes and techniques that honor the tradition, this book brings the Pine Tree State table home to your kitchen.50 recipes. One rugged, beautiful state. Pull up a chair.