More than 300 traditional dishes, each recipe is complemented by tips, tales, historical insights and common Irish customs, many of which have been passed down from one generation to the next through the greatest of oral traditions.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
"As well as the wonderful food, her book is rich in anecdote, folklore and history." -- Daily Telegraph, April 2004
"Darina Allen's beautiful and unpretentious vision of cooking is connected to the land. I find this book important and irresistable." -- Alice Waters, Chez Panisse
"One of 'my dog-eared' favorites." -- Natasha Richardson, The Times
"The book is sure to become the authoritative source of the cuisine of Ireland, every kitchen should have a copy" -- Food and Wine
"Will make your mouth water and entice you to cook some magical food. A real treat!" -- Antony Worrall Thompson, Daily Express, March 04
"Darina Allen's beautiful and unpretentious vision of cooking is connected to the land. I find this book important and irresistable." -- Alice Waters, Chez Panisse
"One of 'my dog-eared' favorites." -- Natasha Richardson, The Times
"The book is sure to become the authoritative source of the cuisine of Ireland, every kitchen should have a copy" -- Food and Wine
"Will make your mouth water and entice you to cook some magical food. A real treat!" -- Antony Worrall Thompson, Daily Express, March 04
From the Publisher
Imbued with a passion to preserve the traditions of Irish cooking, Darina Allen has journeyed all over Ireland, researching and recording different recipes and regional dishes. From County Cork where she learnt from Joan Twomey how to cook apple cake in a bastible on an open fire, to Ballyheigue in County Kerry, where she collected bairneachs (limpets) off the rocks to make the traditional Good Friday Soup, to Granny Toye's vivid descriptionof how to make the Boxty pancakes of her youth, Irish Traditional Cooking is a rich record of Ireland's wealth of culinary history. Ireland's strong tradition of farming, home baking, simple good food was based on what was readily available, with broths and soups, fish, game, and potato dishes all an essential part of traditional Irish cooking.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
89 of 92 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
`Irish Traditional Cooking' by leading Irish cooking school owner, Darina Allen is the fourth Irish-centric book I have reviewed and the second which warrants attention as a sound source for genuine Irish recipes. The other worthy book on this subject is `the Irish Heritage Cookbook' by Irish-American high school teacher and culinary writer, Margaret M. Johnson. Of the two, Allen's book is the more scholarly in that it endeavors to give a relatively complete and authoritative view of the cuisine of all Ireland. While Ms. Johnson's book is very good, it is a much more personal view of both Irish and `Irish-American' cooking.
One area covered by Ms. Allen which are not covered by Ms. Johnson is the native Irish pantry with items such as homemade sausage, homemade vinegar, homemade marmalade, and the like.
It's interesting that the two books take very similar approaches to Irish cooking. Unlike the classic Italian cookbook, neither proceeds by course, but primarily by principle raw ingredient. And, unlike Ms. Allen's great `ballymaloe cooking school cookbook', this book is totally Irish.
Ms. Allen's chapter subjects are Broths & Soups, Eggs, Fish, Game, Poultry, Lamb, Beef, Pork, Offal, Potatoes, Vegetables, Food from the Wild, Desserts, Pancakes, Breads, Oatmeal & Other Grains, Cakes & Biscuits, and The Irish Pantry. In addition to all the recipes, and there are certainly a goodly number for the price, there is an excellent historical foreword by Irish culinary historian, Regina Sexton. There are also numerous heading sections on groups of recipes such as nettles, herrings, eels, and many others. There is also an excellent little Appendices on Irish cheeses and cheesemaking; The Potato and the Famine; and Cooking Pits of the Fianna (Bronze Age sites associated with Ireland's early pre-Christian heroes such as Finn McCool (Fionn Mac Cumhaill)). The number of Irish Farmhouse cheese sources, 48 in all, is truly impressive. Since I suspect almost all of these cheeses are not available at our local megamart, I wish she would have given commonly available French, Italian, or American cheese equivalents.
Almost all of Ms. Allen's recipes seem relatively short in procedure and in number of ingredients. I am very fond of how Ms. Allen has put her ingredients list in the margin rather than above the procedure, and I am also happy that all units are in purely English units, rather than both English and Metric. This is not because I disapprove of Metric. In fact, I prefer it, but in a book for an English or American audience, it is simply easier to read if all units are in our most familiar units.
One of my more interesting discoveries in this book is the almost total absence of yeast baking. In the chapter on breads, there are 23 recipes, of which only three (3) include yeast. All others are leavened with baking power or baking soda plus buttermilk or both. With the great popularity of beer in Ireland, it is odd that there is no more yeast breadmaking, especially with brewer's yeast. While I am very fond of Irish Soda Bread, I find it lacks something compared to a good yeast bread; however, if you are yeast impaired, 20 recipes for chemically leavened quickbreads is a great source for breadmaking.
I am also struck by the large number of recipes using apples in both this book and in the previously mentioned book by Ms. Johnson. The dessert chapter alone gives us 12 our of 34 recipes with apples. Oddly, the Irish notion of an apple dumpling recipe is quite different from the Pennsylvania Dutch recipe of a single peeled and cored apple encased in pastry. The Irish `dumpling' is much more like what we would call a `crumble' or `cobbler', as it is a layer of sweetened apples covered by a pastry layer. One may have to use a little local knowledge for the apple recipes as Ms. Allen recommends no apple varieties for most recipes and when she does, they appear to be varieties native to Ireland such as `Bramley Seedling cooking apples'. I guess Macintosh apples should do fine here.
This book is a real winner if you happen to love mashed potatoes. Among the champ, colcannon, and boxty recipes, there are at least 12 recipes for mashed potatoes, not counting the various recipes for making dishes from leftover mashed potatoes such as griddle potatoes and potato & caraway seed cakes.
Overall, while Ms. Johnson's book has a great selection of recipes, Ms. Allen's selection is even broader, without being more difficult. If all you want is easy recipes, Johnson is excellent. But, if you want a great lyric evocation of the foods native to Ireland, Allen's book is superior.
One area covered by Ms. Allen which are not covered by Ms. Johnson is the native Irish pantry with items such as homemade sausage, homemade vinegar, homemade marmalade, and the like.
It's interesting that the two books take very similar approaches to Irish cooking. Unlike the classic Italian cookbook, neither proceeds by course, but primarily by principle raw ingredient. And, unlike Ms. Allen's great `ballymaloe cooking school cookbook', this book is totally Irish.
Ms. Allen's chapter subjects are Broths & Soups, Eggs, Fish, Game, Poultry, Lamb, Beef, Pork, Offal, Potatoes, Vegetables, Food from the Wild, Desserts, Pancakes, Breads, Oatmeal & Other Grains, Cakes & Biscuits, and The Irish Pantry. In addition to all the recipes, and there are certainly a goodly number for the price, there is an excellent historical foreword by Irish culinary historian, Regina Sexton. There are also numerous heading sections on groups of recipes such as nettles, herrings, eels, and many others. There is also an excellent little Appendices on Irish cheeses and cheesemaking; The Potato and the Famine; and Cooking Pits of the Fianna (Bronze Age sites associated with Ireland's early pre-Christian heroes such as Finn McCool (Fionn Mac Cumhaill)). The number of Irish Farmhouse cheese sources, 48 in all, is truly impressive. Since I suspect almost all of these cheeses are not available at our local megamart, I wish she would have given commonly available French, Italian, or American cheese equivalents.
Almost all of Ms. Allen's recipes seem relatively short in procedure and in number of ingredients. I am very fond of how Ms. Allen has put her ingredients list in the margin rather than above the procedure, and I am also happy that all units are in purely English units, rather than both English and Metric. This is not because I disapprove of Metric. In fact, I prefer it, but in a book for an English or American audience, it is simply easier to read if all units are in our most familiar units.
One of my more interesting discoveries in this book is the almost total absence of yeast baking. In the chapter on breads, there are 23 recipes, of which only three (3) include yeast. All others are leavened with baking power or baking soda plus buttermilk or both. With the great popularity of beer in Ireland, it is odd that there is no more yeast breadmaking, especially with brewer's yeast. While I am very fond of Irish Soda Bread, I find it lacks something compared to a good yeast bread; however, if you are yeast impaired, 20 recipes for chemically leavened quickbreads is a great source for breadmaking.
I am also struck by the large number of recipes using apples in both this book and in the previously mentioned book by Ms. Johnson. The dessert chapter alone gives us 12 our of 34 recipes with apples. Oddly, the Irish notion of an apple dumpling recipe is quite different from the Pennsylvania Dutch recipe of a single peeled and cored apple encased in pastry. The Irish `dumpling' is much more like what we would call a `crumble' or `cobbler', as it is a layer of sweetened apples covered by a pastry layer. One may have to use a little local knowledge for the apple recipes as Ms. Allen recommends no apple varieties for most recipes and when she does, they appear to be varieties native to Ireland such as `Bramley Seedling cooking apples'. I guess Macintosh apples should do fine here.
This book is a real winner if you happen to love mashed potatoes. Among the champ, colcannon, and boxty recipes, there are at least 12 recipes for mashed potatoes, not counting the various recipes for making dishes from leftover mashed potatoes such as griddle potatoes and potato & caraway seed cakes.
Overall, while Ms. Johnson's book has a great selection of recipes, Ms. Allen's selection is even broader, without being more difficult. If all you want is easy recipes, Johnson is excellent. But, if you want a great lyric evocation of the foods native to Ireland, Allen's book is superior.
63 of 67 people found the following review helpful
By Tess Donovan
Format:Paperback
My husband and I spent six months in Ireland in late 1999-early 2000, and I wanted to learn how to make some of the dishes we were eating in restaurants. (Irish food isn't nearly as awful as we'd heard it was going to be!) So I bought this book, and it's a wonderful introduction to traditional Irish cooking. There's one section I completely avoided on recipes for -- ahem -- strange parts of cows and lamb, etc. But the rest of the book is lovely and very easy to follow with gorgeous photos. As I indicated in the review title -- a perfect introduction to Irish cooking.
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
By MP
Format:Paperback
I first checked this cookbook out from the library. I was so impressed I just had to buy it. Page 8 shows Darina Allen with Lana Pringle in a traditional Irish kitchen making Barm Brack. That image took me back to the days of my childhood and the many wonderful memories of summer days spent visiting family in Ireland. Darina Allen does a wonderful job of implementing a heartfelt dose of Irish history into the book. As for the recipes, for the most part they are simple to make, yet tastefully superb!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
truly traditional
I bought this as a gift for a friend, who is Irish and loves to cook the authentic recipes. She really loves this book, both the recipes and the stories that accompany them.
Published 1 month ago by Roberta Clark
5.0 out of 5 stars
St Patrick's Day and Beyond
I bought this book for some new recipes for St. Patrick's Day. Made some new and some time honored dishes with it.
Think I will be buying more of her cookbooks too.
Think I will be buying more of her cookbooks too.
Published 1 month ago by Kathleen K. Murray
5.0 out of 5 stars
adition to my cookbooks
I had older book by Darina Allen this book is a great addition to my cookbooks . I have friends who are going to get one
Published 1 month ago by D. brown
3.0 out of 5 stars
Cooking
History is interesting. I was hoping for more recipes. It seems to be brief in my opinion and could have used more.
Published 2 months ago by M_C_McBride
5.0 out of 5 stars
Would buy all her books
Since I can't afford to go there and learn from her directly. Easy to understand writing. Many things to inspire my inner Irish Woman to cook
Published 4 months ago by Kimberly S. Coleman
5.0 out of 5 stars
Irish Traditional Cooking: Over 300 Recipes from Ireland's Heritage
Irish Traditional Cooking: Over 300 Recipes from Ireland's Heritage arrived on time priced perfect in good condition very happy with purchase from start to finish cheers
Published 4 months ago by muskag
4.0 out of 5 stars
An interesting view of Irish tastes!
This book is well-written and offers a variety of recipes to choose from when one wants to sample something that has a touch of Ireland to it.
Published 5 months ago by Dawne Pinchback
4.0 out of 5 stars
Adds welcome variety to my winter menu
This book is a lovely and informative cookbook and guide to traditional Irish cooking, and is as enjoyable to read through as it is to cook from. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Heather Irwin
5.0 out of 5 stars
Winner, Winner, Irish Dinner
This cookbook is not only wonderfully written and composed (it's well organized, includes little historical bits, and even some very old, original recipes) but it's also very user... Read more
Published 7 months ago by A. Church
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant
Brillant book with excellent content. Really captures the traditional food of ireland including some of the more obscure recipes/ingredients. Read more
Published 13 months ago by AML
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 6
books:
See all 6 books this book cites
7
books
cite this book:
See all 7 books citing this book
- The History and Social Influence of the Potato by Redcliffe N. Salaman on page 36
- Simply Delicious! by Margaret Mahy in Front Matter
- Land of Milk and Honey: The Story of Traditional Irish Food and Drink by Brid Mahon on page 71
- Merry Christmas by Shep Ireland on page 140
- Simply Delicious (Bk. 1) by Darina Allen in Front Matter
See all 6 books this book cites
- British Food: An Extraordinary Thousand Years of History (Arts and Traditions of the Table: Perspectives on Culinary History) by Colin Spencer in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- How to Eat: The Pleasures and Principles of Good Food by Nigella Lawson on page 227, and Back Matter
- How to Eat: The Pleasures and Principles of Good Food by Nigella Lawson on page 231, and Back Matter
- The Guide to Cooking Schools 2005: Cooking Schools, Courses, Vacations, Apprenticeships and Wine Programs Throughout the World (Guide to Cooking ... Apprenticeships & Wine Instruction ..) on page 295
- The Foodlover's Atlas of the World by Martha Shulman in Back Matter
See all 7 books citing this book
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