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I'm thinking about buying a Norwegian cookbook: North Wild Kitchen. There are several recipes using moose, reindeer, elk, or venison. I don't have access to these meats. Is beef a reasonable substitute? I don't want to get a cookbook where I can't cook half the recipes, and I don't want to substitute if it substantially alters the recipe.

Also, there are several berries that I don't think are available by me: cloudberry, bilberry, rowan berry. Can you suggest substitutes for these? As much as I love the idea of foraging for wild berries, about the best I can do by me is mulberries and black rasberries. I have a vibernum that has edible (but acrid) berries, but it's not big enough yet to pick them for cooking.

Using beef works just fine ... it is what most Finnish ladies of my Grandmother's age did. Yes, it alters the recipe but is in keeping with the ethos of Scandinavian cooking - you eat what you can forage and raise.

bilberries are just European blueberries so substitute blueberries or blue huckleberries. They are both a bit sweeter IIRC so perhaps scimp a bit on the sugar.

rowan berries I'd think cranberries or red currants but it's been a long time since I had actual rowan berries.

cloudberries ... if the recipe requests in jelly or jam form, track down a jar. You need to taste the real thing. But raspberries should work in most recipes.

Thank you everyone. It sounds like enough can be substituted to make it worth picking up the cookbook.