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By Deborah Freeland
Louisiana has
an abundance of indigenous game and a long growing season for fruits and
vegetables. Because of its many areas of salt and fresh water a wide variety
of fish and seafood are available year round. It has long been considered
a haven for hunters and fishermen alike.
Mary Land, born in northwest Louisiana, was related to two former Governors
of Mississippi. During the late 1920’s she was formally educated
and attended a number of schools including the Cheyney-Trent School of
Poetry in California. After finishing her education she choose to pursue
a career as a journalist. Land was a prolific writer completing six books
and numerous articles on cooking, travel, folklore, and poetry but she
is best known for her writings on food.
As a woman who enjoyed the outdoor life she complied many delectable recipes
for cooking fish and game. In her youth her father had taught her to hunt
and fish. From the 1940’s on she wrote about subjects related to
the outdoors and conservation. She was a newspaper columnist, poet, and
staff writer for the Mississippi Valley Sportsman, The Louisiana Conservation
Review, and Southern Outdoors Magazine. She strongly believed that cooking
was one of the arts and that Louisiana cuisine was unique. In her cook
book Louisiana Cookery she states that "the five requisite elements
in Louisiana cooking are the "iron pot, the roux, stock, herbs, and
alcoholic liquids."
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