The Art of Scottish-American Cooking
by Kay Shaw Nelson
Pelican Publishing Company, 2007
$21.00, cloth
304 pages
Scottish-American cooking doesn't stand out by virtue of exotic spices or complicated techniques. These dishes are the definition of comfort food - pies, hot breads, griddle cakes, meaty casseroles, and thick soups - that have flowed seamlessly onto American tables. They are dishes that require no special attribution, they've always been there.
The Scottish presence in America goes back to the nation's founding. In fact, just outside Washington, D.C. is the city of Alexandria, named for John Alexander who bought the founding 6,000 acres in 1670, for the price of a pound of tobacco per acre.
Scotsmen were among the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and from McCormick to Carnegie, Scottish industriousness helped make America an industrial powerhouse. Poets, artists, educators of Scottish heritage are woven through American history. Hundreds of place names across the nation begin with the letters Mc or Mac. And from Campbell's Soup to Graham Crackers, Tillamook Cheddar and McIlhenny's Tabasco sauce, Scottish flavors have long been part of the American table
Alexandria proudly maintains its Scottish heritage to this day, celebrating Highland Games and Christmas holidays with Scottish spirit and sentiment, and with traditional Scottish foods including the infamous haggis, spice and fruit cakes, game dishes, and lamb pies.
Nelson traces these dishes and others, from appetizers to drinks and desserts, gathering them from communities across the country. She points out their particular Scottish heritage, from Craig Claiborne's Scotch Eggs - hard-boiled eggs packed in sausage and bread crumbs - to the Grandfather Mountain Oaties cookies served at the largest Scottish clan gathering in the eastern United States, held in July in the North Carolina mountains.
Split Pea Soup is made with yellow lentils gently flavored with Canadian bacon and onion and simmered into a thick porridgy soup. Its bright color and straightforward flavor goes well, as Nelson suggests, with Bannock Cakes. These puffy little cakes are barely sweet and just savory. They taste equally good with butter, cheese or jam. Their texture can be varied depending on the depth of the pan you cook them in - cakey and thick or thin and crispy. The oats lend a hearty flavor and satisfying chew.
Orange Marmalade Cake takes its tart sweetness and moist crumb from what Nelson calls "one of Scotland's great culinary achievements," the happy accident of a thrifty housewife looking to sweeten some sour oranges. Dark and moist, the cake is a spare but appealing dessert.
It would go very well with tea, the drink and the meal, to which Nelson devotes four pages, covering varieties favored by Scots, how to make it hot and cold, and how to serve it. She points out that High Tea is not the grand service with doilies and cream cakes that Americans often mistake it for, but a sturdy workingman's meal, and a happy gathering point at the end of the day.
Nelson has illuminated a corner of overlooked culinary heritage, and has capturing pleasing flavors that will suit for everyday meals.
© 2007 Claudia Kousoulas
