Savory Scottish Recipes

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Summary: We cooked a haggis--and lived to tell about it.
Review: Encouraged by this cookbook, we bought a haggis at a shop in the Edinburgh airport. We transported this frozen cannonball home, cooked it according to directions and made the tatties and neeps as presented here.

We also bravely invited guests. As we plunged the knife into the heart (literally) of the haggis, its compact contours exploded into an amazing amount of what looked like steaming cooked chopped meat. It tasted divine, and there wasn't any left.

It's a good thing this cookbook has plastic-coated pages, because an exploding haggis could really damage a regular book. Of course Scottish cooking isn't just about haggis; there's a lot of salmon and many notable soups. I recommend the Dundee cake recipe. If you want to serve a fruit cake at Christmas that will delight and not disgust your guest, Dundee cake is for you.

Why the Scots can cook and the British cannot remains a mystery. But don't even think of making a haggis at home. One set of instructions I read had you put the lungs into a pot of boiling water and hang the trachea outside the pot, draining into a cup to collect...whatever. Stick with the salmon or cockaleekie and you will be all right.

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Summary: Scottish Recipes and Lore
Review: I really like the format it's in. All of the pages are laminated (to avoid those cooking accidents) and there are cute Scottish anecdotes and pictures throughout. It has recipes for every occassion, including drinks!

Rating:
Summary: Really Cool - well worth the wait!
Review: I really like the format it's in. All of the pages are laminated (to avoid those cooking accidents) and there are cute Scottish anecdotes and pictures throughout. It has recipes for every occassion, including drinks!

Rating:
Summary: Scottish Recipes and Lore
Review: Savory Scottish Recipes designed in the popular recipe-card file size Stocking Stuffer format. This series of books adds proverbs and tidbits of traditional lore to a full complement of recipes and illustrations.

Scotland is renowned the world over for ingredients culled from deep seas, coastline, moorlands, mountain meadows and streams, lochs, uplands, lowlands, and countryside. The language of the people lends an added gusto to the food. Thus, potatoes are "tatties," turnips are "neeps," and hash browns are "stovies." The author, who collected these recipes on her travels in Scotland, prefaces the work with a "Wee Glossary" of these flavorful terms.

One-hundred-forty pages include over seventy-five recipes for daily fare and festive celebrations. Notes include instructions for Robert Burns Night (January 25), when the "Ploughman Poet's" birth is celebrated by serving up the haggis-a liver-and-heart pudding encased in a sheep's stomach! The more conventional Scottish food represented includes delicious Shepherd's Pie, Scottish Farmhouse Eggs, Chicken Stovies, Baked Salmon Steaks, Drop Scones, Collops, Marmelade, Shortbread, Toffee, and Dundee Cake. Recipes for concoctions of Scottish "spirits" are also included.

McDonald writes that she "fell in love with" the Scottish people and the drama of their lives and surroundings. This volume clearly reflects that enchantment.

Excellent for personal collections, as well as a thoughtful gift and memento.