Myrtle Allen's Cooking at Ballymaloe House

County Cork's most well-known guest house yields its culinary secrets in this collection of classic Irish recipes culled from rolling green countryside of the Emerald Isles.

Myrtle Allen's Cooking at Balymaloe House, first published in 1990 and now reissued, is a modern classic. Written by the proprietor and chef of Ireland's most famous guesthouse, the book presents a farm-fresh cuisine miles removed from the common notion of Irish cooking as savorless or indelicate. Most especially, it offers the voice, recollections, and culinary wisdom of a woman who has seen and understood much since she and her husband bought Balymaloe House in 1947. Cooks of all kinds will delight in Allen's observations (of her refusal to put carrots in a traditional Irish stew: "As this is a folk dish, I feel that the common practice carries its own authority") and hasten to try such recipes as Lettuce and Mint Soup, Baked Rainbow Trout in Spinach Sauce, and Beef with Stout.

Chapters explore soups and starters through breads, desserts, and drinks, and offer 100 or so accessible recipes for everyday and special-occasion dining. Present are traditional Irish favorites, including Dingle pies (a spiced mutton dish), Colcannon (potatoes mashed with cabbage), and brown soda bread, as well as the likes of Danish Liver Paté, Mussels with Mayonnaise, and Turnedos with Mushrooms. Readers with a sweet tooth will want to try Allen's Almond Meringue Gâteau with Chocolate and Rum Cream and Blackberry Sorbet, and an exemplary trifle featuring almonds, cherries, and angelica. Illustrated with color photos throughout, the book is a cook's treasure with delightful, sometimes provocative thought. --Arthur Boehm