Outlander Kitchen: "take one last bit of advice: when in doubt, eat"

October 1, 2016 11:48 AM

Outlander Kitchen is chef Theresa Carle-Sanders' blog (and now cookbook) inspired by the food in Diana Gabaldon's Scottish time travel romance series. Recipes include LJ's Steak and Mushroom Pie from The Private Matter, Claire's Spoon Bread from Drums of Autumn, Smoked Eggs at the McGillivray's from A Breath of Snow of Ashes, and Mrs. Graham's Chocolate Biscuits from Dragonfly in Amber.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl (20 comments total)

Spoon bread? Wow, I thought that was South Carolinian- but then, the South was settled by so many Scotch-Irish. I didn't know they would have inexpensive maize meal there and then, as opposed to oats.
posted by Countess Elena at 12:39 PM on October 1, 2016

I gave up on the Outlander series about 30 pages into the second book, but I think that they're in America by the time Drums of Autumn happens. And now I am shuddering at the thought of how Diana Gabaldon would handle slavery. Is Drums of Autumn set in South Carolina? Eeek.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 12:46 PM on October 1, 2016 [3 favorites]

Oh my mistake, the South is where they are at that point! Never mind, carry on.
posted by Countess Elena at 12:51 PM on October 1, 2016

Yup, they're in the American colonies in that one, and they end up in the North Carolina foothills.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:51 PM on October 1, 2016

Jinx!
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:52 PM on October 1, 2016

I've always wanted to cook something from this blog/cookbook, but it all looks intimidatingly hard. Has anyone here tried any of the recipes? Every year I get an idea in my head to throw a Scotland themed party, but I always lazy out of it before really planning anything. The Governor Tyron's apple pie looks amazing.
posted by banjo_and_the_pork at 1:31 PM on October 1, 2016

Outlander.... that's the "there can be only one" thing, right?
posted by oneswellfoop at 1:34 PM on October 1, 2016 [5 favorites]

Whoa crivens (or something)! Just an hour ago I was looking at my honey, lemons and whisky and thought, would it be possible to dissolve the honey in some lukewarm water, mix in whisky and lemon juice and serve it over ice? Yes it would.
posted by Namlit at 1:38 PM on October 1, 2016

Banjo, I have a friend who is cooking her way through that book and posting the results on Facebook. She has 4 kids, and everybody seems to like most of the recipes. She hasn't said they are hard. Her favorite so far is the plum cake.
posted by acrasis at 2:04 PM on October 1, 2016 [1 favorite]

I used to play the "Outlander Drinking Game", which is simply every time they drink whisky, you drink.

There are days I couldn't make 30 pages.
posted by mikelieman at 2:09 PM on October 1, 2016 [6 favorites]

oneswellfoop: "Outlander.... that's the "there can be only one" thing, right?"

As far as I'm concerned, that is the only one.
posted by Splunge at 2:32 PM on October 1, 2016

Outlander.... that's the "there can be only one" thing, right?

Yes, after you behead all your rivals, you get to eat all the spoon bread and chocolate biscuits.
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:03 PM on October 1, 2016 [6 favorites]

The secret ingredient is constant sexual peril.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 7:07 PM on October 1, 2016 [3 favorites]

This is kind of irritating to me, as food doesn't actually play much of a role in these books. The main character is a notoriously disinterested cook and mostly they just eat porridge and bits of cheese.
posted by something something at 7:20 PM on October 1, 2016 [3 favorites]

Excellent. I've just put my spoon bread into the oven to bake while I grill some chicken and veggies. Yay! Thank you for the timely post. I've been looking for an easy spoon bread recipe since I read DoA and somehow missed this one.
posted by angeline at 7:34 PM on October 1, 2016

Now someone do this with The Clan of the Cave Bear.
posted by sourwookie at 8:02 PM on October 1, 2016 [6 favorites]

I used to play the "Outlander Drinking Game", which is simply every time they drink whisky, you drink.
For authenticity with the show you will, of course, need one of these; mark me!

This is kind of irritating to me, as food doesn't actually play much of a role in these books. The main character is a notoriously disinterested cook and mostly they just eat porridge and bits of cheese.
I first noticed the cook book in my local farm shop - and only when chatting to the staff there about it did I discover that they stocked it because "Lallybroch" lies a short distance from my (very much non-highland) home, down an otherwise unmarked back road labelled "saw mill".

But Scotland was pretty trial blazing with those oats that it turned into porridge (a country that subsists on horse fodder as Samuel Johnson said) - and this was also an era when the legacy of the auld alliance with France meant that poor people subsisted on a tiresome diet of oysters, wild salmon and claret.
posted by rongorongo at 11:09 PM on October 1, 2016 [2 favorites]

For authenticity with the show

There's a show?

/me googles

There's a show. Huh. Good for her. One of Niven's Laws was "If something's worth selling, it's worth selling again", right?
posted by mikelieman at 1:28 AM on October 2, 2016

There's a show?

Apparently it's good. I gave up after two episodes. Though, not because of lack of interest. Mostly because I'm already knee deep into a few other historical dramas (Vikings, Marco Polo, Black Sails), and adding another into the mix is just not going to work for me. I barely get sleep as it is. So many shows, so little time.
posted by Fizz at 5:03 AM on October 2, 2016

There's a show
(Outlander on Fanfare FYI)
posted by rongorongo at 12:07 PM on October 2, 2016