4 comments about The Irish Isle (Menus and Music) (Sharon O'Connor's menus & music).

1. WHAT A WONDERFUL BIRTHDAY PRESENT I RECEIVED WHEN I OPENED THE IRISH ISLE. THE RECIPES ARE LOVELY AND DIFFERENT, BUT NOT SO DIFFICULT TO DO. I MADE THE CARROT CILANTRO SOUP AND FOUND IT DELICIOUS.(I ADDED A LITTLE FRESH LIME JUICE AS A PERSONAL CHOICE) I ENJOYED THE BEAUTIFUL MUSIC. IT IS RICH AND WARM AND IT GLADENS MY HEART. I CAN ONLY HOPE THAT I MIGHT BE LUCKY ENOUGH TO GET ANOTHER SHARON O'CONNOR BOOK FOR MY BIRTHDAY NEXT YEAR.



2. This book is so worth having! Gives a bunch of great dishes & some Inns that theyre from too! I highly recommend this book!



3. I was looking for a nice gift for someone who really enjoys irish culture. i was first thinking a CD of traditional music, then i thought a cookbook would be fun...what could be better than both together. The gift was extremely well received. definitely recommended.



4. Purchased for a St. Patrick's Day "Thank you". Great price thru Amazon and great product.

No comments about Taste of Ireland.

No comments about Recipes From Around the World - Volumes 1 & 2.

3 comments about Classic Irish Recipes.

1. I love this book! The price is right and the recipes are delicious. Marlene Ekman has illustrated a number of books for Sterling, and her illustrations are always charming. If you are looking for a special St. Pat's recipe, you'll find it here! Easy-to-follow directions for even the most inexperienced cook. There's something for everyone! I highly recommend it! For those with a little more money to spend, try Celtic Folklore Cooking (great folklore/history background); Irish Heritage Cookbook; and Irish Traditional Cooking.



2. I bought this book so I could cook the same foods my Irish-born husband grew up with. It has come through time and again. He swears the Brown Bread I make is exactly like his Mum's but I got it straight out of this book! There's a little bit of everything; from simple sauces to soups, vegetables, main dishes, breads and desserts and more complex recipes (like traditional Christmas cake that takes a couple of days to make!).

   My one "complaint" would be that this smallish book likes to close by itself especially when I've got my hands in the flour so remember to weight it open beforehand.

   However, I give 5 stars because you get a bunch of really great recipes for a reasonable price. So worth it!




3. Ireland is a land of comfort food. Every time I've been to Ireland I've been thrilled with the fresh meats, the fresh vegetables, the delicious breakfast, lunch and dinner you find around every corner. I still think back to the guinness lamb pie I had in central Ireland and wish I could have that every week.
   
   Georgina Campbell does a wonderful job not only of providing the traditional recipes for you to enjoy at home, but also in giving you the background information to help you appreciate more the history of these meals. For example, most people might think of a soup as just a "watery meal" with no real social connotation. However, in Ireland, there were riots over soup kitchens, because the locals felt they were being killed off with nutritionless offerings. Also, soup was used to lure in poor people to get them to convert religions.
   
   Other food items are part of the national lore of Ireland. Boxty bread, made with potato, is apparently a romantic charm for women. One saying goes:
   
   Boxty on the griddle, boxty on the pan,
   If you don't eat boxty, you'll never get a man!
   
   I have my mouth water just reading through this book, never mind making the dishes.
   
   If there's a complaint, it's that it's rather short, and that it is a normal "paperback book". That makes it very hard to actually use while cooking. I suggest xeroxing out the recipe you're interested in making and using that flat piece of paper for reference while you make the recipe. That way you can also add in your own notes, and make the recipe your own!
   
   Highly recommended.

4 comments about A Little Irish Cookbook (Little Books).

1. I LOVE this book! I refer to it several times each year. Great simple recipes plus the traditional St. Patty's Day meal of Corned Beef, etc. Includes personal memories of the author about when dishes were served as well as any regional variations.



2. I recently picked up this book at an Irish import shop to add to my collection of Celtic cookbooks. The compact format makes it easy to use, and the recipes are delicious. If you are looking for just a few recipes to use on St. Patrick's Day, and don't want a large format book, than this is the one for you. Clear directions and simple ingredients make it a winner. (Other Irish cookbooks I recommend for those willing to spend a little more money are The Irish Heritage Cookbook, Classic Irish Recipes, and Celtic Folklore Cooking -- which provides some ancient history behind the recipes.) Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone!!!!



3. This little treasure is a classic in Ireland and America. Good, classic and basic recipes for the Irish at Heart. Never a disappointment for self or as a gift for others.



4. We decieded to do ethnic dishes for Thanksgiving,mine was Irish. I Googled and couldn't find anything, went to Amazon and found this cookbook. The recipes are easy to understand and you can find most items at the grocery store. I made Dublin Coddle and it was a hit.
   This little cookbook is a must have.

No comments about The Feckin' Book of Irish Recipes (Feckin' Collection).

No comments about Kings and Queens of Britain's Golden Age: The glorious monarchs of the golden age of Britain, from Henry VII, Henry VIII and the magnificent reign of Elizabeth ... of the Stuarts and the rule of Queen Anne.

No comments about In an Irish Country Kitchen: A Cook's Celebration of Ireland.

2 comments about Ballymaloe Bread Book, The.

1. If you're looking for a bread cookbook with recipes that are different than the usual bread recipes, this is an excellent choice. My search for an authentic Irish Soda Bread recipe met with success when I found it here. And the Orange Butter Scones are a MUST. They are melt in your mouth delicacies. The instructions are easy to follow, once you look at the glossary and decipher the different types of sugar. (For castor sugar, just use regular granulated sugar.) Enjoy!



2. `The Ballymaloe Bread Book' by the husband of Darina Allen and co-founder of the Ballymaloe cooking school, Tim Allen (no connection to the `Home Improvement' comedian) is a very nice little introduction to bread baking of all types, although it does begin with and feature Irish favorites such as the Irish soda bread, spotted dog, and scones.
   
   The one statement made in this book which immediately gave me a favorable impression of the work was his claim that yeast bread making is actually easier than soda bread baking. It may not be simpler and it may not be faster, but soda bread and other `quick breads' with chemical leaveners are simply more tricky and more subject to environmental conditions than yeast breads. One can easily pound the dickens out of yeast bread dough and it will reward you by an even better result. On the other hand, breads raised with baking soda and buttermilk or baking powder must be brought together very gingerly, very similar to the way one might do a pastry crust. On the other hand, the `quick breads' do deserve their nickname, as they are certainly a lot faster to mix and bake than almost all yeast breads. What you loose with the speed is the great lightness and flavor that comes from yeast fermentation. While I like quickbreads, I get tired of them a lot faster than I do of a good yeast white bread.
   
   But, if you are really fond of quick breads and want to make a splash at your next St. Patrick's day party, this is the book for you. As a bonus, you get an excellent introduction to virtually all different kinds of European breadmaking.
   
   The chapters in this book are:
   
   Soda Bread, An Old Friend including recipes with chocolate, savory seeds, treacle, and potato flour.
   Scones, including sultanas, chocolate, orange, walnut, crumpets, popovers, brownies, and balloons.
   Basic Yeast Bread, including brown bread, bread sticks, rye bread with caraway seeds and Carta Musica.
   Sweet Breads, including croissants, brioche, banana bread, stollen, shortbread, and cinnamon swirl.
   Pizza, including focaccia, gluten-free pizza base, calzone, Pizza Margherita, and garlic pizza bread.
   Sweet Buns, including doughnuts, biscotti, muffins, and `London Buns'.
   Ethnic Breads including black bread, Chinese Wok bread, ciabatta, Pitta (sic) bread, and tortillas
   Flavored and Specialty Breads, including stromboli, fig bread, walnut bread, and zucchini bread.
   Sourdough (natural yeasts), including bigas, potato starter, malted sourdough, and rye sourdough.
   Bread as the Base, including things made from bread such as French Toast and Chicken Casserole.
   Essential Extras such as jams, butters, marzipan, tomato sauce, Roux, and Ice Cream.
   
   This is an extraordinary range for such a small book. Needless to say, the author devotes almost all his space to the recipes and none to the kind of background information on flours and leavenings you may find in Rose Levy Beranbaum's books. I was especially happy and surprised to find so many French, Italian, and American specialities. It is the rare cookbook, even one specializing in breads, to include a recipe for the specialty, Carta Musica, or `music paper', a Sardinian flatbread.
   
   There are at least two very important cautions I must give you before you rush out to get this book.
   
   First, there are many ingredients with unfamiliar names, and the substitutions for some of these are not entirely clear. Treacle, for example, is very close to our Black Strap molasses, but I had a little trouble finding good substitutions for kibbled wheat, castor sugar, muscovado sugar, bread soda, cream flour, strong flour (probably bread flour), and coffee essence (probably instant coffee). Neither David Joachim's `The Food Substitutions Bible', Alan Davidson's `The Oxford Companion to Food', nor the venerable `Larousse Gastronomique' could help out on several of these words. The best source for many of these may be Elizabeth David's great `English Bread and Yeast Cookery'.
   
   Second, all flour measurements are by weight in either grams or ounces and pounds. You must either invest in a good kitchen scale or arrive at some good equivalence between cups and pounds. I strongly vote for getting a good, reliable scale. Several other measurements may also be in not the most convenient units. One real puzzle was a measurement in `dessert spoons'. I seem to recall from some other source that this is roughly equivalent to a teaspoon.
   
   While I strongly caution you away from this book if you are not serious about bread baking, I still recommend it highly to anyone who is especially interested in a broad sampling of good, traditional Irish recipes for bread which appear in the first two chapters. Therefore, while I really love this book, I must give it only four stars as a warning to the casual baker.

No comments about The Ultimate Bread Machine Cookbook.