The Irish Heritage Cookbook
by Margaret Johnson
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Book Summary Information
Author: Margaret JohnsonEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1999-01-01
ISBN: 0811819922
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Book Reviews of The Irish Heritage Cookbook
Book Review: Very nicely organized book of Irish recipes and Ingredients
Summary: 4 Stars
`the Irish Heritage Cookbook' by Irish-American high school teacher and culinary writer, Margaret M. Johnson is a near-perfect reflection of how the Irish cuisine has grown up around the products of Irish farming, animal husbandry, and fishing. The chapter organization facilitates appreciating this situation with the following chapters:
From the Land with recipes for fruits and vegetables, especially root vegetables such as potatoes, carrots, turnips, parsnips and onions and tree fruit such as apples. The potato recipes are no surprise, the recipes combining potatoes with other root vegetables and with apples is new. I am especially happy to see recipes for champ and colcannon side by side, as I constantly forget what it is which distinguishes one version of these mashed potato recipes from the other.
From the Farm with recipes for meat dishes, especially beef, pork, and chicken. Like the previous chapter, one is taken, here, with the rich combination of meats with apples, beer, and whiskey. Unlike some recipes, I am happy to see that the author gives us the recipe for making the corned beef for our corned beef and cabbage dish.
From the Dairy features milk and egg recipes and recipes from milk products such as cheese and cream. While I have known that Ireland is a rich milk producing country, I was never aware that it had a very rich cheese making industry. In fact, almost all the cheese varieties used in these recipes are type made famous elsewhere such as cheddar from England, Parmesan from Italy, and Swiss style cheeses. The Irish varieties in fact mostly seem to be variations on the neighboring cheddar and the product of the Alps, `Swiss' cheeses.
From the Hillside is all about Lamb dishes. Oddly, in spite of the fact that I am weary of seeing stock recipes in virtually every cookbook I open, I do miss a good recipe for lamb stock in this book, as recipes for lamb stock are not nearly as common as for chicken, veal, beef, and fish. There is a very simple recipe for `lamb broth', but none for `homemade lamb stock', an ingredient in many of these recipes. I miss it because Deborah Madison has converted me to the notion that stocks should ideally be made to fit the dishes in which they are to be used. I also miss the fact that Ms. Johnson is not more specific in specifying the source of her stewing lamb pieces.
From the Waters is all about fish dishes, especially salmon, trout, sole, oysters, and mussels. As wine is used in the fish poaching recipes, I assume these are more likely from restaurants than from home cooks, as I suspect wine was a real luxury item in Ireland of olden days.
From the Wild covers recipes from game such as turkey, goose, game hens, duck, quail, pheasant, venison, rabbit, and guinea fowl. Here again I'm surprised and impressed by the wide use of apples and apple cider in the recipes. It even includes a recipe for a wild duck pate. I'm a bit surprised that there is not more charcuterie recipes for things such as sausage. I guess Ireland was cold enough in the fall and winter that one could store meats in the root cellar in the cold without fancy preservation techniques.
From the Hearth is all about baking, with the famous Irish Soda Bread occupying the first two recipes. We find that even many recipes without `soda' in the title turn out to be leavened by baking soda or baking powder or both. Next to soda bread, the most famous Irish type of bread must be scones, of which there are plenty of recipes here. And, next to wheat, the most popular grain ingredient is, of course, oats prepared in one way or another.
From the Orchards and the Fields contains fruit dishes and desserts. Here again, the stars are apples, potatoes, and oats, with a welcome role for the great character actors, rhubarb and strawberries.
While this is the first full sized Irish cookbook I have reviewed, I feel safe in heartily recommending it to anyone who wants a great source of relatively simple Irish and Irish-inspired recipes in an inexpensive volume. I believe I will find more elaborate, or at least more culinarily fussy books on the subject, but this one is a keeper!
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