Customer Reviews

Hieland Foodie: A Culinary Journey with Clarissa Dickson Wright

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a fun and very charming book. It's possible that the negative reviews are due to expecting something different from this cookbook, comparing it to others Clarissa has put together from her TV show.

Here we have a collection of Scottish fare as it was served by royalty, authors, poets, and by the Roman conquerors of the Scottish Isles. The text is illustrated with many photos of cooking utensils, artifacts, vintage photographs, shop signs, food labels, tartans, and so on.

Anyone with Scottish heritage or in love with the history and lore of Scotland will be delighted with this book. The recipes actually are doable (Matius' Ragout is delicious, as are the incredible Oyster Loaves. The Scones recipes are lovely too, and the Balmoral Dessert Biscuits come out beautifully. Next on our list is the Buttered Oranges, and we're eager to try the Leg of Mutton with Lemons.)

As a cookbook collector and lover of unusual, authentic fare, I heartily recommend this cookbook. It is beautifully put together, and the co-author Henry Crichton-Stuart (who persuaded Clarissa to do this book) adds some wonderful historical background throughout the book. Crichton-Stuart apparently was able to get his cousin Lord Bute of the Museum of Scotland involved in the project, which has led to the wonderful photographs and illustrations of historic Scotland.

I am a big TFL's fan (no pun intended) and love many of Clarissa's receipies and views as expressed in the 4 books which came out of that BBC series, so I jumped at the chance to get more of her stuff. This was a mistake.

The book focus' on classic scottish dishes and for ther most part she converts the ingredients to Imperial and metric measurments but I still feel like I walked from the table unfullfilled. This is a very skinny book, ironic don't you think? and the receipies all seem to be a couple of centuries old. OK I have some other books that cover centuries old recipies but I was hoping for something of modern Scottland as well. One gets the feeling these are the classics grand mother makes for St. Andrew's day or Whitsun or Changin' o' the Kilt Day or some such. There is no sense that the people of Scotland have developed any new recipies of their own since the last Stuart monarch went over the sea.

My other problem is there are NO pictures of what the food is supposed to look like. Each page has a picture. Stemware, paintings, artifacts but not one single picture of what any of the food is supposed to look like when you're done. This further hinders the book from being appitizing.

As ever Clarissa's comments are enjoyable BUT the food portion of the COOK book is not. I grabbed up a copy for around $10 and still feel cheated, for $30+ only buy it if you owe a debt to the lady, like she donated a kidney to you.

Over the weekend I tried a few of these and they do turn out well, Just as a loyal reader has come to expect from Clarrisa, but this doesn't change any of the points I find disappointing about the book.

It's a lot of money for a darn skinny book. Whose contents are so arranged that they do not seem likely to fatten you up.

This is a nice "little" book and I am a big TFL fan. However unless you are looking for a history of Scottish food, you may want to pass on this one.