1,000 Foods To Eat Before You Die: A Food Lover's Life List (13 page)

You sense the heather first in the color of the honey—a mauve cast overlaying a deep sunset gold. Then there is the warm, dusty aroma, like a lush, swaying field of full-bloom heather on a summer afternoon. Finally there is the flavor: a flowery sweetness with a slight brassy tingle, good enough to eat by the spoonful, though more likely to be spread on toast, drizzled over ice cream and summer fruits and berries, or stirred into yogurt, tea, or lemonade.

Writing in 1933, Le Vicomte de Mauduit explained in his book
The Vicomte in the Kitchen
that Scottish honey is the world’s best not because the bees do their job better, but because of “the excellence of the clover and the heather which are fuller in nectar.” Whatever the reason, heather honey, according to F. Marian McNeill in her definitive cookbook,
The Scots Kitchen
, should appear on every tradition-respecting Scottish breakfast table, along with orange marmalade.

Honey should be stored in a tightly covered jar or crock in a cool, dry place. An old Greek rule: “Honey keeps where salt stays dry.” If it should solidify and become sugary, place the container in hot water until the honey liquefies.

Mail order:
Scottish Gourmet USA, tel 877-814-3663,
scottishgourmetusa.com
; amazon.com (search mellis heather honey).
Further information and recipes:
The Scots Kitchen
by F. Marian McNeill and Catherine Brown (2010);
honeytraveler.com
(click Single Flower Honey, then Heather Honey).

Loch Fyne boasts world-famous langoustines.

Dublin calls them prawns. Italy, scampi. When caught off the icy waters of Scotland’s west coast—where, as national pride would tell it, their firm, silken flesh and saline sea-air flavor are unparalleled—these little cousins of the lobster are called langoustines. Pale orange in color and 7 or 8 inches in length, they wear most of their meat in their tails and in their long, skinny claws.

For the best experience, you should dine upon them in situ—in restaurants in Scotland or England—where the roseate crustaceans can be kept alive until cooking. But for a second best option that is still revealingly delicious, blast-frozen U.S. imports are also available. Steamed briefly, then served hot and dipped into melted butter, or chilled and dabbed with lemony mayonnaise, either method yields delectable flavor. Many prefer these langoustines grilled, but their delicacy is best retained by gentler cooking.

Where:
In Paris
, Pierre Gagnaire, tel 33/1-5836-1250,
pierre-gagnaire.com
.
Mail order:
Scottish Gourmet USA, tel 877-814-3663,
scottishgourmetusa.com
.

Slices with lemon and capers.

One of the world’s poshest treats, wild salmon smoked in Scotland is the gold standard for this luxurious appetizer. Thinly cut in the long, narrow rectangles known as banquet slices, the firm and satiny rose-coral flesh has
almost invisible lacings of fat, with just enough smoke to lend sophistication to the deep-sea flavor of the fish itself.

The wild fish, caught in cold North Atlantic waters, is increasingly scarce and so exorbitantly priced that very little comes to the United States. Lovers of this delicacy who cannot make it to pricey London food shops and do not wish to wait for a mail-order source must consider the next best option; salmon farmed and smoked in Scotland, just slightly oilier and the slightest bit less firm, but elegant nonetheless.

It is the Scottish cold-smoking process that distinguishes that country’s salmon. Whole fish, lightly cured with salt, are hung high over slow-burning fires of oak mixed with chips from retired whisky casks, imparting smoky, autumn overtones. Irish smoked salmon is second only to Scotland’s, based on the same fish from the same waters, but cured to a firmer, dryer texture with a stronger burr of flavor developed by smoking over peat. (These are much the same subtleties that characterize the differences between Irish and Scottish wool tweeds and whiskies as well.)

Such superb smoked salmon requires little enhancement—say, a spray of lemon juice and, if you must, a few salty bronze capers. Thin slices of buttered brown bread and a shot or two of any top-shelf white spirit such as aquavit, vodka, or gin complete the feast. Smoked salmon is also a lavish garnish for scrambled eggs or cool asparagus in a vinaigrette dressing.

Where:
In London
, Harrods, tel 44/20-7730-1234,
harrods.com
; Fortnum & Mason, tel 44/20-7734-8040,
fortnumandmason.com
.
Mail order:
Scottish Gourmet USA, tel 877-814-3663,
scottishgourmetusa.com
.

The defining feature of shortbread, or short’ning bread, is a high content of butter or other shortening and the meltingly fragile, crumbly crust that results. A finely gritty cookie-cake, Scottish shortbread is redolent of that pure, sweet butter held together with sugar and a combination of wheat and rice flours. It is the latter that imparts a nicely dry, “short,” sandy texture to this pleasurable cake.

Shortbread’s popularity is such that the rest of the U.K. bakes it, too, and other countries have created their own versions. American bakers boldly dip their shortbread in melted chocolate, spread icing on its top, or toss sweet extras into its batter; these versions are not to be confused with American shortcake, the leavened biscuity concoction typically served or layered with strawberries and cream.

Among shortbreads, Scotland’s are the classic originals, “the jewel in the crown” of that nation’s proud baking tradition, as Scottish chef John Quigley described it in 2009. Traditional in Scotland for Christmas and New Year’s,
shortbread is a descendant of the pagan Yule cake called an oat bannock. When baked in the round, shortbread is scored in wedges (also called petticoat tails) radiating from its center as a symbol of the sun’s rays. It’s also sometimes baked in rectangular wooden molds whose ridges indicate where portions should be broken off. Why such precision? It all stems from the superstition that to cut bannock with a knife is to invite bad fortune.

Mail order:
walkersshortbread.com
; amazon.com (search scottish shortbread).
Further information and recipes:
Visions of Sugarplums
by Mimi Sheraton (1981);
saveur.com
(search real scottish shortbread).
Special event:
Sarasota Shortbread Contest, Sarasota, FL, February,
sarasotahighlandgames.com
.
Tip:
Unwrap packaged shortbread 20 to 30 minutes before it is to be eaten so any overly intense butter aromas can dissipate. (Do the same for any packaged butter cookie.)

No matter how bizarre or even detested, some tastes of childhood may waft into memory later in life, bringing on the sort of longing that can only be called nostalgia. In his wonderfully rich and moving memoir
Angela’s Ashes
, Irish-born writer Frank McCourt describes many childhood meals that consisted merely of bread fried in bacon grease—the only food his dysfunctional mother, Angela, could afford. He doesn’t describe that dish with anything like affection, implying instead a distaste that readers immediately share. And yet the author has admitted to an occasional longing for that bread fried in bacon grease, even going so far as to prepare it for himself two or three times a year.

A curious cook of a perhaps perverse nature who tries this doubtful treat can be rewarded with a surprisingly delicious snack. Stack the deck by getting some very good Irish bacon and an acceptable, but not extraordinary, white, fine-textured bread (on the supermarket level, a safe choice would be Pepperidge Farm’s Original loaf). Then slowly and carefully fry the bacon strips in a skillet that can hold as many bread slices as you want to fry. Four slices of bacon should give you enough rendered fat for four slices of bread. Remove the cooked bacon from the skillet and reserve it for whatever use you care to make of it, the wisest choice being to consume it at once, while it is still hot and crisp.

Over low heat and with the rendered fat at a low sizzle, add the bread slices. After about two minutes, press lightly with a spatula for a minute or two, or until the first side is a light golden brown. Flip the bread over and repeat on the other side until it, too, is golden brown. Remove the fried bread slices and drain them on paper towels for a minute or two. Then, while the slices are still hot and, hopefully, crisp, sprinkle them with coarse salt—a touch undoubtedly not added by Angela McCourt. Another enhancement would be a fried or poached egg with a runny yolk, especially if the fried bacon strips are crumbled over it all.

Where:
In New York
, Myers of Keswick, tel 212-691-4194,
myersofkeswick.com
.
Mail order:
The British Food Depot,
britishfooddepot.com
(search winston irish style bacon).
Further information:
Angela’s Ashes
by Frank McCourt (1996).

There is a wistful Irish folk song, “Colcannon.”

The soul-soothing potato dish colcannon is best described by its simple recipe: Cooked, chopped cabbage and sliced scallions are folded into a pile of softly mashed potatoes, all to be mounded in a bowl with a well of hot, melted butter and a haze of black pepper in the center. To consume it, work your way slowly around the edges of that well, so butter glosses each forkful of this humble country fare.

Though it brings comfort to any cold night, the dish is traditionally served on All Hallows’ Eve (Halloween), with coins or charms hidden in it. In Victorian times, the colcannon itself was the charm: Unmarried girls would hang socks holding a lump of the stuff on their door handles; the first man to enter was said to be their future husband.

Even more elemental, and much loved in both Ireland and Wales, is champ. For this, potatoes are mashed with warm, sharply tangy buttermilk just before butter and chopped scallions are stirred in.

Either way, a sprinkling of minced parsley adds a dose of welcome freshness.

Further information and recipes:
The Country Cooking of Ireland
by Colman Andrews (2009);
theguardian.com
(search colman andrews colcannon);
food52.com
(search buttermilk mashed potatoes).
Tip:
For best results, use old, starchy potatoes. Look for russets, aka Idaho baking potatoes. Kale is often substituted for cabbage for a lustier result.