SC - Re: Help-Scottish recipes

[Lorix]

david friedman wrote:
<snip>
> 
> The "recipe book" that Jenne is referring to is a manuscript, not a
> printed book; the first printed cookbook in Europe is Platina, late
> 15th century. So you would need evidence that an English collection
> of recipes was known in Scotland. That probably means you need a
> Scottish manuscript containing the English recipes--which, so far as
> I know, doesn't exist.
<snip>
There is a book I have flipped thru called 'The Scots Kitchen' which
was first published in 1929 and was collected and edited by F. Marion
McNeill, currently published by Mercat Press in Edinburgh.  It's a
collection of traditional recipes, some of them from older
collections.  Nearly all of them are written in the old-fashioned
style in which exact amounts, times and temperatures are not given. 
Some of the dishes can be readily identified as post-period by reason
of their ingredients, while others do have about them the air of being
as 'old as the hills.'  At the back of the book, Ms McNeill gives a
bibliography of her manuscript sources.  Now some of those sources
(whose recipes she repeats & then redacts) are late period I think (ie
in 1600-1650).  Many of the others are 18th century.  She does
acknowledge which recipes come from which sources & the book was
designed to compile a resource of traditional Scottish recipes.  I
only examined the book briefly & have been meaning to re-visit it but
someone else may be able to comment on its usefulness & veracity.  It
is certainly worth a look.
Lorix