Celtic Folklore Cooking

`Celtic Folklore Cooking' by culinary writer and folklorist, JoAnne Asala of Chicago is truly unique among the 500 some cookbooks I have reviewed over the last two and a half years. The only books that come close to it in combining spiritual and culinary worlds are the books on Jewish Holiday cooking. In some ways, Ms. Asala's book deals with things which are less alive today than the very active world of Judaism, since virtually no one except wannabe witches or druids make the lore in this book a part of their everyday life. But, that glib summary of our Celtic heritage today ignores two strong influences where Celtic lore still works on our psyches from behind centuries of misty influence.The first and more subtle influence is the effect of Celtic lore on the placing of our Christian holidays. Practically every single Christian and Secular holiday, including Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Carnavale / Marti Gras, Lent, and Advent can be traced to the mapping of Christian doctrine onto the pre-existing Celtic agricultural calendar. One can almost feel the palpable shadow of great Stonehenge, that early instrument for tracking that calendar, weighing on our imagination on Spring, Midsummer, Autumn, and Midwinter celebrations. While it is quite beyond the scope of this book and this review, one can wonder how the Celts in the damp north influenced the Greek and Roman based early Christianity, but it obviously did, in no small way.The second great influence is more obvious today than it may have been for over a century. This is the presence of Celtic iconography in some of our most important modern interpretations of ancient myths, recently enshrined in all their celluloid splendor in the `Lord of the Rings' trio of movies and in the `Chronicles of Narnia' which promises to begin another movie series franchise. These two works by J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis respectively were written by scholars of ancient Celtic and Nordic languages and literature, who happened also to be great friends and influenced one another's writing. Other major repositories of the Celtic influence on literature are the fairy tales of the Grimms and Shakespeare.While this overlay of folklore on culinary traditions may not interest some people, even people in search of the best Irish cookbook, it opens up the book to an audience which may not be all that interested in the average or even the better than average cookbook, because it does offer a connection between both the Christian and pre-Christian pagan calendar to the agricultural and festival year. This fills in for Christianity that major connection Judaism has between food and religious tradition.While this book promises a `Celtic' cookbook, it intentionally leaves out part of the historic Celtic homeland which traditionally includes Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England (especially Cornwall), Brittany (in France) and Galacia (in Spain). It concentrates on the British Isles. It also recognizes that the basis of culinary tradition in these regions is also heavily influenced by Norse, Roman, and Saxon influences, let alone the introduction of New World vegetables such as the potato.The first 24 pages of the book are a survey of the Celtic lunar year of agricultural milestones. This section is liberally sprinkled with tales of famous Celtic stories, but it's most dramatic effect is to show us how much of our Christmas, Halloween, Easter, and May Day festivals owe to Celtic traditions.The first fully culinary chapter gives us recipes for drinks, heavily based on beer, honey, and cream. From this one would thing the Eire has a far greater claim to the `land of milk and honey' than does Israel. One of the more interesting little factoids in this chapter is the fact that the recipe for Irish coffee is quite modern, having been invented by an Irish chef in the 1940s.The remaining chapters cover:Breads, Porridges, and Breakfast FoodsMilk, Eggs, and CheeseSoups and StewsVegetablesFish, Shellfish, and SeaweedMeat and Wild GameDessertsWith the great tradition in the British Isles for breakfast dishes and dishes containing oatmeal, plus the development of quickbread scones and other breads, this book is a great resource for people needing new things to serve at breakfast. We get here the origin of the religious symbolism behind hot cross buns, a major tradition for Easter baking. It began not as a Christian symbol but as an offering to the Saxon Goddess Eostre (get the connection!) worshipped by the Greeks, Romans, Germans, Franks, and Anglo-Saxons (although the Greek / Roman image for this goddess may have been Ceres). For those with a literary bent, this and other chapters include great recipes for the celebration of Midsummer's Night, made most famous by Shakespeare's great play `A Midsummer's Night Dream'. For those whose interest is entirely culinary, I am happy to say that all measurements are American friendly, using our traditional cups and spoons. I also find the cooking directions to cover all the usual cautions about handling ingredients and testing for doneness.The good culinary sense extends to the next chapter with its chicken stock recipe that is neither overly fussy nor overly long.One of the best aspects of the Dessert chapter is that it includes many very good recipes using apples. Not only is Normandy famous for its apples, but it seems these little beauties are also a speciality of Eire, as every Irish cookbook I have seen recently features apples in many savory and sweet recipes. There are also several recipes that sound like they are straight out of the early chapters of `The Hobbit' and `Lord of the Rings'.A pure foodie may be bored or annoyed by folklore material, but I encourage all people who love seasonally appropriate dishes to buy this book immediately and relish the great heritage gleaned from our Celtic traditions.

The stories are the best part. Love the recipes. Got a lot of ideas from the book, but found the stories the best.

I liked everything about this cookbook, the history and recipes are outstanding. Thank you.

I absolutely adore this book, I cannot stop reading it. It is filled with recipes and stories. Folklore at its best. I already have a week's worth of menus planned.I can HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!

I liked that the recipes are made from s scratch.These recipes use natural ingredients.

this book contains so many recipes, i am thrilled with it, lots of the foods my grandmother and ancestors from ireland and england would deeply enjoy cooking, i do understand the modernization of certain recipes, like ones that call for "corn" i mean, in the old days corn refered to small things, like peppercorns, where the name, corned beef comes from, so substituting an older harder to get ingredient for one that can do the same job isn't such a problem, in most of the recipes, you could exclude the corn anyway, if you want no new world ingredients, then i suggest you look to the book: an unexpected cookbook, the unofficial book of hobbit cookery, by chris-rachael oseland, it'd be a better fit, that said, this book contains hundreds of excellent recipes, and my only remaining question, is which recipe is that pie on the front, because i have a mighty need to make it

Breaking the Food Seduction: The Hidden Reasons Behind Food Cravings---And 7 Steps to End Them Naturally As a Christian, I believe one of my responsibilities is to be respectful of other religions. This being said, I found the discussions on Wicca as enriching as the tales and the food, and I learned to appreciate the Wiccan culture which provided us with mistletoe in Advent and Christmas and the hot cross bun on Good Friday. As an American of Irish ancestry, I was fascinated with the Irish tales that accompany many of the recipes, some of which produced in me laughs as hearty as a good bowl of stew.I found the recipes being grouped according to the Wiccan seasons helpful because it seems as if the Wiccans have a great respect for the earth and for agriculture; from Asala's perspective, food that may be appropriate Pentecost in May or June may not be so at around the time Christmas is celebrated and vice versa.From a health perspective, many doctors, including my friend Arlene Alexander, M.D., the sister-in-law of InterVarsity's founder John Alexander, and Neal Barnard, M.D. have considered oatmeal very beneficial to one's heart, yet even when I was vacationing in Ireland, I have avoided oatmeal simply because I do not like sweet things for breakfast, or have considered oatmeal boring. Asala's BrotchanFoltchep (Leek and Oatmeal Soup) has completely transformed the way I look at oatmeal. In keeping with Barnard's teachings against mammal products, I find this recipe easily modifiable by substituting mushroom broth for the whole milk or beef stock mentioned, and olive oil for the melted butter, even though olive oil may not have been readily accessible in Ireland prior to 1500.This is an excellent feast for the body, mind, and spirit - and not just for St. Patrick's Day!

Really unimpressed, the author doesn't even attempt to explain or justify ingredients that would not have been commonplace in the U.K. Until relatively recently and are US natives like yellow corn meal and pecans. Unfortunately for me these kind of mistakes (or alterations to reflect the store cupboards of her primary audience?) leave me doubting the authenticity of the rest of the book, everything I now use will require further research and checking as I was hoping to use this as a resource for work. Really disappointed

This book arrived promptly and in good condition. I have had a copy for years a d decided to order one for one of my daughters who loves Ireland and used to live there.

reads well but not one of the recipes i have tried have turned out well.

This arrived very quickly and is a very good book, even if you dont cook any of the recipies in it. A lot of the measurements are in Cups so I bought a set to go with it.

ALRIGHT