Celtic Folklore Cooking

by Joanne Asala

A treasury of delectable recipes, Celtic Folklore Cooking by Joanne Asala will help you select foods to serve at your celebrations of the Sabbats and Esbats: the festivals and ritual times for Witches and Wiccans. It is also a terrific introduction to Celtic culture. The recipes in this book were gathered during four trips the author took to Ireland and Britain, as well as visits to Scotland and Wales. She searched for people who still cooked in the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1567180442
• ISBN13: 9781567180442
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Llewellyn Publications
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.63 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 7.2" x 9.8"

Customer Reviews

Evocative Culinary Connection for Celts and Christianity. Buy It

`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 t

Best tasting reading from kitchen to bedroom

With a delicious pinch of wry wit, a dollop of common sense, a large measure of Irish legend and enough flavor to fill the countryside, Joanne Asala has captured the sweet treasure at the end of the rainbow in Celtic Folklore Cooking. From the rich simplicity of Apples in Red Wine for Samhain to Marigold Pudding to celebrate Midsummer, she's created a charming, earthy, melt-in-your-mouth compendium of exquisite recipes that are easy to follow and coincide beautifully with this hedgewitch's idea of great food. Spiced with flair and fun, Asala's style and storytelling are as genuinely palatable as the recipes are edible. As engaging as any novel, this is also one bedtime read that promises (and delivers) sweet dreams that come in every flavor!

Tastey stick-to-your-ribs food and richhistory

Absolutely wonderful. I love this book, and everything I have tried out of it has been a smashing success. If you are born again, or object to Pagan references I recommend you look elsewhere, the food is good, but there are pagan references and history of culture that you will not apreciate. For everyone else, understand, this book is full (and I do mean FULL) of recipes from our (Celtic) forfathers, and some from our contemporaries. Mincemeat Parcels with whipped cream, Michaelmas Goose with Sage and Onion Stuffing (delectable), Homemade Irish Cream, Eggnog (nummy), Poacher's Pie, Irish Stew (2 Variations), Venison Soup, Venison Roast, Saffron Cakes, Faerie Cakes, Herbed Honey and Herbed Butter, recipes for making Heather Wine and Dandilion Wine, Spiced Whiskey and non-alcoholic homemade eggnog, Scones and more! Baked Onions, Cockle and Mussel Stew, Dublin Lawyer (Lobster), Baked Salmon, Roast Pheasant, Duck in Spiced Oranges, Whiskey Fried Steak, Welsh Bubble and Squeak and sooooo much more!!And sandwiched in between it all, folk stories and history. I LOVE this book!! I can't help but highly recommend it. Enjoy!!

Be sure to get 2!

I have purchased this book 5 times now. My friends fall in love with my copy and I end up letting them have it. The recipes and stories are wonderfull. And the food is simply delightful. I have taken to ordering 3 at a time so that I can keep a copy on hand!...

A Feast for the Spirit as Well as the Stomach

I'll say right off the bat that this will be a book you'll either love or hate. There isn't another cookbook quite like it, so it's really hard to make comparisons. I personally think its terrific, and my coven has used it on a number of occasions. We've had good luck with the citrus curd, crescent moon rolls, soda bread, tea brack, and baked trout among others. Yum! Asala has taken on the gargantuan task of suggesting traditional Celtic dishes for the festivals of the wheel of the year: Beltane, Samhain, Yule, etc. Some of these dishes do stem from the earliest days of recorded history, others are obviously more recent in origin, so a purist may find it inappropriate to call this a "pagan" cookbook. Still, all religions, even reconstructionist neo-paganism, are fluid in nature and are constantly changing. What's important is the "now." You may still observe the "old" holidays by using "modern" Irish recipes. The recommendations are Asala's own, and I feel they have a lot of merit. She has also managed to distill a lot of other information into one convenient format. The proverbs and songs, especially, can be found in a dozen different collections. But I think she has presented them in a new way by placing them with recipes that they enhance. For example, if one of the recipes has "milk" as the main ingredient, she has linked it with a proverb about cows or milking or added a bit of folklore about cows. So I consider this book as a good jumping off point into celtic mythology and culinary history. If you want to learn just about the foods, find a book that is strictly a cookbook. If you want to learn more about folk sayings, check out an old proverb collection or poetry book like Carmina Gadelica. But if you want to find new, creative ways to celebrate the gods and goddesses than this is the book for you. Even if you don't agree with everything she says, there is enough Celtic pagan and Christian folklore to entertain and inform any reader -- and I can say for myself the food is great!