Kay Shaw Nelson - The Scottish-Irish Pub and Hearth Cookbook: Recipes and Lore from Celtic Kitchens

Recipes and Lore from Celtic Kitchens

KAY SHAW NELSON

To the memory of my Scottish forebears, the Morrisons, MacLeods, MacAskills and Shaws and to my Celtic friends, especially the Scots and Irish

irst, I wish to thank my daughter, Rae, for her continual support, excellent ideas, editorial, and technical assistance. Second, my grateful thanks to all the people who believe that the food of a nation is part of its history and culture and maintain that this information is very important.

Over the years, many friends and acquaintances have helped me considerably in my quest for Scottish and Irish as well as Celtic knowledge, including history, folklore, lifestyles, and cooking. This began during my childhood in Lebanon, New Hampshire, where I learned about my Scottish heritage from my parents, Dolina MacAskill and Angus Shaw, and their sisters and brothers. During visits to my parents' beloved homeland, the small isle of Cape Breton off the Nova Scotian mainland, my Canadian relatives introduced me to the delight and goodness of homemade Scottish fare. I thank them and all the friendly Scots and Irish who provided hospitality, helpful talks, and recipes during my travels in Scotland and Ireland. Celts everywhere are noted for their conviviality and sharing of food and drink.

I also thank my neighbors and friends who have been kind enough to share meals with me during the testing of my recipes. Their reactions and comments were appreciated.

I wish to thank particularly the Scottish and Irish Tourist Boards for their valuable information and guidance. And, also, Carol Chitnis, Managing Editor of Hippocrene Books for her helpful suggestions throughout the writing of this book.

ix

t was a glorious June evening in Tarbert, an ancient fishing port beautifully situated at the northern tip of the long, narrow Kintyre Peninsula, almost an island between the waters of the Firth of Clyde and the Atlantic. Travelling alone in Scotland to experience Scottish lifestyles and to refresh my mind and body, I had arrived by happenstance in Mid Argyll, the ancient heartland of the land of the Gael, an unspoiled and beautiful area with a wide range of historical and vacation sites to visit.

After checking into a hotel centrally located on the waterfront overlooking the harbor and hills of Knapdale beyond, there was time to look for local food specialties. I always travel with culinary subjects in mind, and I'm usually rewarded with one or more discoveries that leave everlasting impressions.

In Tarbert I would not be disappointed. I bought little jars of unusual Arran Island mustards, Campbeltown cheeses, and freshly baked breads. Restaurant and cafe menus advertised sweet queen scallops, Arran cod, prawns, salmon, mussels, cockles, and pickled herring for dinner. Fish bars sold langoustines, whiting, plaice, and mackerel. At Take Aways, a sidewalk store, one could buy fried haddock or scampi, savory pies and puddings. A fishmonger proffered salmon smoked on the shores of Loch Fyne and cured with Glenturret, a curious but likeable Tayside whisky with a light lemony flavor.

The next morning, after a characteristic hearty Scottish breakfast, I set out to view Tarbert's castles but was soon drawn to the waterfront of the picturesque almost landlocked harbor surrounded by fishermen's cottages, shops and hostelries. I am always hard put to choose between the historic attractions and those related to food, the objects of most of my trips. The temptations of both usually prove irresistible. Fortunately, it's often possible to combine my two major travel interests. I had found an ideal locale for this.

Although I was in Scotland many of the foods reminded me of those I had enjoyed in Ireland. On my previous extended sojourns in the Highlands and Islands and visits in the Emerald Isle, I'd become increasingly interested in the similarities between and appeal of Scottish and Irish foods, drinks, culinary arts, and holiday celebrations. But it was not until my stopover in Kintyre that the Gaelic traditions of good eating, convivial entertaining, and congeniality crystallized as I learned about remarkable places and sagas of the past.

The west coast of Scotland from Tarbert to the tip of Kintyre is one of the most interesting and spectacular corners of Scotland and has long had a close affinity with neighboring Ireland through cultural and economic links. The peninsula, only about twelve miles from the Irish north coast, is ancient Dalriada, the first kingdom of the Scots, from where they migrated north to Argyll. An early center of Christianity in Scotland, legend has it that St. Columba-in Gaelic Columcille,"dove of the church,"first set foot in the country near the present holiday Southend village, at Keil Point to the east of Carskey Bay, in 561 A.D. This was before he went on to Iona. Kintyre also has a rich sculptural heritage of ancient standing stones, Christian sites, and reminders of the Celtic Iron Age.

Both Scotland and Ireland have histories involving strife and struggles, captivating natural beauty, romantic legends, tenacious people, notable drink, and hearty dishes strongly linked to a deep sense of tradition, individualism and hospitality, dating back to Celtic times, and based primarily on a wealth of superior natural resources. The Scots and Irish have long enjoyed nourishing, simple fare that evolved over the centuries from a thrifty, wholesome diet to, in recent times, a more diverse one tied to continental influences.

Scotland, or Caledonia, was at first an isolated land inhabited by Picts, the earliest Celtic Britons of obscure origin, who were given that name because of the way that they pricked or tattooed their bodies, and settled there in pre-Christian times. Then, between the 3"' and 6`h centuries, came successive waves of Celts from Ireland who established a new homeland across the sea. They were known as Scotti or Scots and brought their Gaelic language and customs, including a method of baking on a griddle or "girdle" that gave birth to the Scottish repertoire of versatile daily breads.