HIBLER, Jane (Franke)

(Janie Hibler)

PERSONAL:

Female.

ADDRESSES:

Agent—c/o Author Mail, William Morrow/HarperCollins, 10 East 53rd St., New York, NY 10022.

CAREER:

Culinary writer.

MEMBER:

International Association of Culinary Professionals (founding member and past president), Portland Culinary Alliance (founding member).

WRITINGS:

AS JANIE HIBLER

Fair Game: A Hunter's Cookbook, Irena Chalmers Cookbooks (New York, NY), 1983.

Easy and Elegant Seafood: An Everyday Guide to Buying and Cooking Seafood and Fish, photographs by Mike Henley, Frank Amato Publications (Portland, OR), 1984.

Dungeness Crabs and Blackberry Cobblers: The Northwest Heritage Cookbook, Knopf (New York, NY), 1991, reprinted, WestWinds Press (Portland, OR), 2004.

Wild about Game: 150 Recipes for Cooking Farm-raised and Wild Game—from Alligator and Antelope to Venison and Wild Turkey, Broadway Books (New York, NY), 1998.

The Berry Bible: With 200 Recipes Using Cultivated and Wild, Fresh, and Frozen Berries, William Morrow (New York, NY), 2004.

Contributor to periodicals, including National Geographic Traveler, Food & Wine, and Gourmet.

SIDELIGHTS:

Jane Hibler is a Portland, Oregon-based food writer who has published a number of cookbooks, including Dungeness Crabs and Blackberry Cobblers: The Northwest Heritage Cookbook. Despite the title, in this book Hibler goes beyond crab and cobbler to provide recipes using Olympia oysters, Chinook salmon, various waterfowl, and other delectables. She includes dishes specific to Native American, pioneer, and immigrant cultures, using regional products like Tillamook cheese. Recipes include such diverse foods as blueberry catsup, Vietnamese shrimp rolls, and baked catfish. Molly McQuade noted in Publishers Weekly that while Hibler includes historical photographs and quotes about food and cooking from the letters and diaries of pioneers, "the region's bounty and diverse cultural background are perhaps best celebrated in the recipes."

Hibler, who is experienced with cooking wild game brought home by her hunter husband, brings her knowledge to the page with Wild about Game: 150 Recipes for Cooking Farm-raised and Wild Game—from Alligator and Antelope to Venison and Wild Turkey. Available game recipes have, for the most part, been limited to farm-raised game, but Hibler includes recipes, from the simple to the elegant, that call for boar, antelope, kangaroo, armadillo, and beaver, as well as those cuts of farm-raised meats that have become more available in recent years. These include buffalo, alligator, ostrich, pheasant, venison, and rabbit. Hibler also offers recipes that complement these meat dishes and offers recommendations regarding the proper preparation of the tougher or leaner cuts.

In a review of Wild about Game for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Judith Evans cited several of Hibler's recipes, including "Quail Roasted in Polenta," "Pan-fried Venison Steak with Horseradish-Mustard Sauce," and "Grilled Ostrich Medallions." According to Evans, Hibler maintains that game "is flavorful and extremely low in fat, a boon nutritionally but a challenge to the cook." Game is often lower in cholesterol than beef, making it a choice for those who love their meat but are watching their cholesterol.

In The Berry Bible: With 200 Recipes Using Cultivated and Wild, Fresh, and Frozen Berries, Hibler offers recipe that use strawberries and raspberries, but goes beyond those familiar berries to jostaberries, pyracanthas, thimbleberries, and mayhaws. The berries are listed alphabetically and are identified by both their common and scientific names, habitat, and history. Hibler provides information on availability, picking, purchasing, and storing. Her berry recipes include soups, breads, sauces, and main dishes, as well as desserts and drinks, both alcoholic and nonalcoholic, and homemade liqueurs. A Publishers Weekly contributor wrote that "incorporating the berry into both sweet and savory dishes is what Hibler seems to do best, and her recipes are straightforward and well-explained." Booklist's Mark Knoblauch called The Berry Bible an "exhaustive and authoritative treatise" which he felt "will be popular also with those who like to forage for natural fruits."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, October 15, 1998, Mark Knoblauch, review of Wild about Game: 150 Recipes for Cooking Farm-raised and Wild Game—from Alligator and Antelope to Venison and Wild Turkey, p. 384; April 15, 2004, Mark Knoblauch, review of The Berry Bible: With 200 Recipes Using Cultivated and Wild, Fresh, and Frozen Berries, p. 1414.

Entertainment Weekly, January 24, 1992, Sada Fretz, review of Dungeness Crabs and Blackberry Cobblers: The Northwest Heritage Cookbook, p. 52.

Library Journal, October 15, 1998, Judith Sutton, review of Wild about Game, p. 92; April 15, 2004, Judith Sutton, review of The Berry Bible, p. 118.

Publishers Weekly, October 25, 1991, Molly McQuade, review of Dungeness Crabs and Blackberry Cobblers, p. 60; March 15, 2004, review of The Berry Bible, p. 69.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 5, 1998, Judith Evans, review of Wild about Game, p. 38.*