Scottish Heritage Food and Cooking [Hardcover]

`Scottish Heritage Food and Cooking' by British food historian, Carol Wilson and Myres Castle Highland Hotel chef, Christopher Trotter is a great archetype of how to do an introductory book on a less familiar cuisine. After looking at a few pages, this great format started to look remarkably familiar, when it occurred to me that the same style was used to give us the `The Irish Heritage Cookbook' by Biddy White Lennon and Georgina Campbell.

The book begins with two chapters on Scottish history and cuisine. `The Flavors of Scotland' details the foreign influences on Scottish cuisine and the historically important Scottish food resources. It is not at all surprising that in place of a rhapsody on the country's wines, there are long chapters on the origins, history, and techniques for the production of Scotch whiskey. And, even this humble subject can offer up a few secrets, when I discovered that blended Scotch whiskeys were not only a blend from multiple distilleries, but also a blend from two very different grain preparation and distilling techniques, the old traditional barley malting procedure and `pot stills', and grain whiskeys produced in a `patent still'.

The second is `The Scottish Kitchen' which itemizes the primary ingredients of the Scottish cuisine. These hallmark items are fresh fish, smoked fish, fresh shellfish, game (on hoof, paw, and wing), domestic meats, dairy and cheese, fruits, wild mushrooms, vegetables, oats and barley, and Scotch whiskey. Aside from replacing wine with whiskey, the salient differences between Scotland and Western Europe seems to be the importance of oats, barley, game, and preserved fish. While salted cod is a staple throughout inland Europe, Scotland has many more different fish preserving modalities, since no spot in Scotland is much more than 2 days ride on horseback from the sea, especially on the four Island groups, the Inner Hebrides, the Outer Hebrides, the Orkney Islands, and the Shetland Islands.

I couldn't take the author's claims of foreign influences too seriously, as Scotland is so removed from the main stream, I'm hard pressed to see how much influence the Romans, Scandinavians, and Anglos from England could really have on this very insular landscape. But, the authors do profess some substantial foreign influences. The most important to us may be the `Auld Alliance' between Scotland and France against England. The most prominent event in this history was the tale of Mary, Queen of Scots, the Catholic pretender to the English throne. Unlike some of the very best culinary studies, such as Arthur Schwartz' `Naples at Table' and Coleman Andrews' `The Catalan Cuisine', these subjects are just touched on, just enough to whet one's appetite. One small fault I cite on this book is that it gives no bibliography to assist us in following up this stuff. The authors also claim major influences from the Dutch and the Italians, primarily through trade in the former case and immigration in the latter case. One can probably attribute the Scots' mania for frying anything in sight to the Italian influences on fast food in Scotland, especially with their invention of `fish and chips'. My only other fault with these two chapters is that they end up visiting various subjects twice, such as the history and current state of Scotch whiskey making. They may have done their readers a greater service by treating each subject once, from start to finish.

The very first thing which made me take this book seriously from a culinary point of view was its treatment of Scottish baking. With the smaller resources for raising wheat, bread may not be as big a thing as it is in France and Italy, it is still important, so I was especially happy to see it presented so well here. The centerpiece of breadbaking is the Bannock, which seems to be a cousin to Irish scones and soda bread, in that it's flat and a common part of breakfast, but it is a yeasted bread and not a quickbread like the Irish specialties.

The importance of Bannock and other breads make it all the more easy to understand the discovery that fruit preserves are high on the list of important Scottish culinary products. The authors even go so far as to say that the famous English marmalade was invented in Scotland. It is in the chapter on `Preserves, relishes, and sauces' that we discover that the great Scottish whiskey is an important ingredient in a lot more than the Scotsman's kilted tummy. My only warning on the preserves recipes is that true canning for preservation is a bit more complicated than these recipes make it out to be, so you should either be adept at canning or get a good book on canning (see the `Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving') before attempting these recipes.

While many other influences are cited, I get the constant sense that this cuisine is remarkably similar to great Irish mainstays, especially in their styles of bread and vegetable dishes, featuring potatoes, cabbages, leeks, bacon, kale, and wild greens. In fact, many of the potato dishes look identical to their Irish counterparts, with just a small name change, such as in replacing Colcannon with Kaikenny. The primary difference between Ireland and Scotland seems to be the higher incidence of oats in Scottish `signature' dishes.

With England, Scotland shares a love of a certain kind of sweet pudding and candied fruitcakes.

The most useful chapter in this book may be the one on breakfasts, as it is a prime selection of recipes for a Scottish themed brunch. You even have a dish of lamb kidneys, made famous by association with the opening chapter of James Joyce's `Ulysses'.

The book makes few compromises on calling for local ingredients, especially as it is published in the UK, where ingredients from the British Isles are more common. The only lapse seems to be in its providing little information on sausage making (although some readers may be thankful for being spared the details of blood sausage).

the cookbook was all it was listed to be,it;s written so it can be used in the american kitchen. it really has wonderful pictures and simple diretions. it came in the time frame mentioned, even sooner. i would order from here again!!

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