Myrtle Allen's Cooking at Ballymaloe House: Featuring 100 Recipes from Ireland's Most Famous Guest House

Welcome back to Ballymaloe! When it was originally published ten years ago, Myrtle Allen's Cooking at Ballymaloe House was hailed as an instant classic. Legions of Irish-Americans, tourists familiar with the guest house, and gourmets intrigued by an oft-neglected cuisine clamored for this groundbreaking cookbook devoted to traditional Irish dishes. Easy yet elegant recipes for Irish stew, batter-fried fish filets, mutton pies, colcannon, apple cake, and Ballymaloe's trademark brown bread did not disappoint. Now, in a completely redesigned edition, Stewart, Tabori & Chang is proud to bring this heirloom collection of recipes into the twenty-first century.

Ballymaloe House evokes a time and place when summer meant freshly squeezed lemonade and sorbet made of plump blackberries picked right from the brambles; when breakfast was a multi-course meal to be savored, from the stone-ground oatmeal to the buttery scones to the robust sausages; when the making of plum pudding, months in advance, signaled the beginning of the Christmas season. This tranquil way of life still exists at County Cork's legendary countryside inn, where proprietress and master chef Myrtle Allen presides over a kitchen that prepares seasonal dishes from the incomparably fresh local produce.

In chapters ranging from soups and starters to desserts and drinks, the 100 recipes in Myrtle Allen's Cooking at Ballymaloe House have been specially selected and adapted for the American home. Mrs. Allen introduces each one in her own charming prose, and her witty descriptions bring Ballymaloe to life.

MYRTLE ALLEN - farmer's wife, mother, writer, hotelier, teacher, and, of course, chef - was born in County Cork and, with her husband, bought Ballymaloe House in 1947. In 1964, inspired by a magazine article about French country cooking, she opened the Ballymaloe House restaurant and began to serve seasonal food using locally grown ingredients. Her farm is now home to a landmark inn and prestigious cooking school as well as a second restaurant. This is Mrs. Allen's first (and only) book.

MICK HALES is an acclaimed photographer whose work has appeared in several magazines and eleven books, including Monastic Gardens, Perfect Preserves (both STC), and Antique Flowers (Villard).