tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8011557877105021955.post1333509281386455940..comments2024-03-25T22:59:30.053+00:00Comments on Desperate Reader: Shetland: Cooking on the Edge of the World - James & Tom MortonDesperate Readerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15708411387912078122noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8011557877105021955.post-25186638220938331432018-10-26T09:28:49.555+01:002018-10-26T09:28:49.555+01:00Hi Ginny,
Thank you for emailing your comment aft...Hi Ginny,<br /><br />Thank you for emailing your comment after blogger ate it. I don't think it was anything you did at all. The Marian Armitage book is excellent, though currently out of print (or it was when I last checked), I really need a replacement copy! The furore over the descriptions of Whalsay fishermen in the book only blew up a couple of weeks ago when someone finally noticed it. I don't think it was very well handled which was the final thing that I found somewhat disappointing about the whole thing.<br /><br />I think the photography is fantastic, and relevant to what's being talked about as well. Not just food, but community - and as you say, you don't always get that in contemporary cookbooks. And yes, I'm much more judgemental because it's somewhere I know (there is a longer list of little niggles which were to petty to share) love, and have my own ideas about. <br /><br />I wonder of the fruit and veg books you mentioned would be the Jane Grigson ones? <br />Desperate Readerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15708411387912078122noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8011557877105021955.post-26266806434203860172018-10-26T08:57:15.662+01:002018-10-26T08:57:15.662+01:00I just wrote a comment about the SHETLAND cook boo...I just wrote a comment about the SHETLAND cook book and when I tried to publish it, it disappeared right off the screen and I got an error message................ due, I am sure, to my digital ineptness but also very frustrating!<br /><br />Although I mostly agree with you about the Morton cook book, I have a copy and I have enjoyed it, probably for the unusual things which are included --reestit mutton among them. Though my family has a large flock of Icelandic sheep (and thus a lot of lamb) I don't plan to make it but I've always been curious as to what it is! Somehow, and this is odd, I totally missed the controversy about black fish but did know about the criminal activities. I am sure that reading about it in a book ruffled more than a few feathers! It sounds like something that happened across Buzzards Bay in New Bedford which is the big fishing port here in Massachusetts. Very criminal and heavy fines! As there should have been. I agree about the tea breads, which I also love including Irish tea brack. I use a simple recipe which is in THE PUFFER COOK BOOK and it is delicious. I liked the photos in the cook book too, although I find that cook books with lots of glossy full page photos of food shown with tarnished silver and on an old plank in a pretty dish generally aren't very helpful and the tarnished silver craze drives me nuts! They are essentially coffee table cook books and not for real use.<br /><br />The SHETLAND FOOD AND COOKING by Marian Armitage is one of my absolute favorite cook books -- for sure value and high interest it is a winner. Very expensive over here however. I also love Darina Allen's FORGOTTEN SKILLS OF COOKING (from Ballymaloe Cooking School in Ireland), Julia Child, various old cook books by Irma Rombauer, MRS. APPLEYARD [there are various titles] books about New England cooking and from my own island MARTHA'S VINEYARD COOK BOOK by Louise Tate King and Jean Wexler. It is now 50 years old xince the first edition [there have been 4 all somewhat different] and still selling. A lot of other Vineyard cook books just don't cut the mustard as the saying goes and I am sure that your familiarity with Shetland affects how you perceive the Morton book, to a degree, just as I feel pretty proprietorial about the superiority of the Vineyard cook book mentioned above. Oh I love some British cook books as well, but the older ones when the food scene was just starting There was a woman who wrote fab books about fruit and veg although I cannot now remember her name. Ditto for Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Greek cooking.<br /><br />Best wishes. Ginny JonesDesperate Readerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15708411387912078122noreply@blogger.com