10+ Best Irish Cookbooks

The Irish are renowned for their generous hospitality and love of good food. This selection of Irish cookbooks offers a comprehensive collection of the best-loved recipes and traditional dishes that have helped to earn its reputation for culinary excellence. But I have also included a selection of modern Irish cookbooks that continue Ireland’s tradition of good food.

Traditional Irish Cookbooks

Irish Traditional Cookbook

This new edition of Darina Allen’s bestselling Irish Traditional Cookbook contains 300 traditional dishes, including 100 new recipes such as Sea Spinach Soup, Potted Ballycotton Shrimps with Melba Toast and Rhubarb Fool. Each recipe is accompanied with tips, tales, historical insights and common Irish customs, many of which have been passed down from one generation to the next.

The Very Best of Traditional Irish Cooking

Authors Biddy White Lennon and Georgina Campbell have featured more than 60 classic step-by-step dishes from the Emerald Isle. The Very Best of Traditional Irish Cooking is beautifully illustrated with over 250 photographs. It covers a wide range of authentic regional dishes, from Potato Cakes, Irish Stew and Colcannon, to Irish Whiskey Trifle, Brown Soda Bread and Quick Barm Brack. Recipes include Lamb and Vegetable Broth, Pheasant with Oatmeal Stuffing, Champ, Beef and Guinness Casserole, Irish Whiskey Trifle, Pratie Apple Cake, and Brown Soda Bread, as well as unusual regional specialities such as Brotchan Foltchep (leek and oatmeal soup). Packed with tantalizing recipes, expert advice and stunning photography, this informative book is essential reading for all lovers of Irish food.

The Complete Irish Pub Cookbook: The Best of Traditional and Contemporary Irish Cooking

Pubs in Ireland are the cornerstone of their communities, relaxed places where locals and visitors can experience the best of traditional Irish hospitality. Many pubs have also become the place to go for a great meal, with a choice of both traditional and contemporary dishes. In recent years Irish cooking has been transformed, with skilful cooks making the most of wonderful fresh local produce to create delicious new dishes and giving a twist to many classics. The Complete Irish Pub Cookbook includes the best of both worlds – with best loved favourites such as Split Pea and Ham Soup and also newer recipes like Scallop Chowder or Oatmeal and Raspberry Cream to set your taste buds tingling.

There are recipes here for all occasions – a hearty family supper, a traditional St. Patrick’s Day party, or a special celebration. Well-loved classics include Irish Stew, Fish Cakes, and traditional Soda Bread. For a special occasion try the spectacular Roast Goose with Apple Stuffing and Cider Gravy. On a cold winter’s night, warm up with a Whiskey and Orange Cream Toddy and a slice of Spiced Fruit Cake. All the recipes have stunning full-colour photographs of the finished dish and clear instructions to ensure success every time. The Complete Irish Pub Cookbook contains all the recipes you will need to cook up a feast for your family and friends.

Our Irish Grannies Recipes: Comforting and Delicious Cooking from the Old Country to Your Family’s Table

Bring back the memories and comfort of your grandmother’s kitchen table with Our Irish Grannies’ Recipes, perfect for family gatherings, St. Patrick Day celebrations, or Sunday lunches with friends. Author Eoin Purcell offers a collection of classic foods such as brown bread and potato soup have been passed down from generation to generation, and faithfully served by grannies in thatch-roofed cottages and local village pubs for years. Safe-keepers of Ireland’s tastiest and most precious culinary traditions, grannies from all across the Emerald Isle have long kept the secret recipes that define Irish cooking.

Eoin Purcell has compiled the best of his ancestors’ recipes in the ultimate collection of authentic Irish cooking. Try your hand at tried-and-tested recipes such as Ravenscroft Guinness Beef Stew, A Traditional Dublin Coddle, Granny’s Northern Irish Stuffing, Old-fashioned Soda Scones.

Irish Pantry: Traditional Breads, Preserves, and Goodies to Feed the Ones You Love

From jams and jellies to cakes, breads, condiments, and cured meats, this traditional look at feel-good foods bursting with nostalgia will satisfy your longing for something special. Chef and restaurateur Noel McMeel has spent a lifetime first learning in the kitchen, then working there himself. The recipes in Irish Pantry are generations old, passed from his grandmother to his mother, and to Noel and the next generation. They celebrate a culture of thrift and good eating. Recipes include Blackberry and Lime Jam and Orange Confit, and Traditional Irish Christmas Cake. There’s also Rhubarb Ketchup, Homemade Elderflower Liqueur, Spiced Oat Crackers, and a whole chapter of rubs and seasonings. Whether you’re Irish or just a food enthusiast, the Irish pantry may well become a way of life.

The Irish Grannys Pocket Book of Bread and Baking

The Irish Grannys Pocket Book of Bread and Baking includes all the classic Irish recipes, from soda bread to fadge, with chapters on bread, scones, cakes, tarts, crumbles, pies, biscuits and bakes. Every recipe is illustrated with a full-colour photograph, with easy-to-follow text.

The Pocket Irish Potato Cookbook

This wonderful The Pocket Irish Potato Cookbook gathers together a collection of delicious recipes featuring Ireland’s favourite food. Here, the humble potato is transformed into classic dishes such as Dublin coddle, colcannon and boxty, while there are also recipes for adventurous new suggestions including parmesan potato cakes and even potato pizza. The Pocket Irish Potato Cookbook will help you create delicious meals that all the family will enjoy. It also includes a history of Ireland’s relationship with the potato and heritage varieties.

Irish Christmas Themed Cookbooks

The Irish Countrywomens Association Book of Christmas

For many Irish families, that sense of ‘bringing home Christmas’ is very much alive: welcoming loved ones back to the family homestead, gathering gifts beneath the tree and fresh food in the fridge, filling your home with the sounds of family and friends having the craic, and your kitchen smelling of mince pies and mulled wine.

The ICA Book of Christmas lets you in on secrets and tips that have been passed down and perfected through generations of Irish families. Find traditional recipes for festive feasts, advice for the big shop and buying the tree, techniques for homemade cards and gifts, and shortcuts to get your home ready for the festive season. Not forgetting the little touches that make an Irish Christmas complete, like the wreath on the door, the candle in the window and stirring a wish into the Christmas pudding. The Irish Countrywomens Association Book of Christmas reflects on the importance of blessings and memories with heart-warming lines from poems, short stories and carols.

Neven Maguires Perfect Irish Christmas: 100 Recipes for all of your Christmas Celebrations

Christmas is the one time of the year where you want everything to be perfect. Neven Maguires Perfect Irish Christmas is packed with all the classics you need for the big day, like Neven’s famous buttermilk turkey, perfect roast potatoes and traditional Christmas desserts, you’ll also find lots of inspiration for the whole festive season, from a Snowman Cake to make with the kids and St Stephen’s Day leftovers, right through to a festive New Year’s Eve dinner. In addition, you’ll find lots of fun ideas for edible gifts, party food and all the little extras that help make Christmas as special as it can be.

Modern Irish Cookbooks

A Year at Avoca: Cooking for Ireland

If you have ever visited Ireland, then you will have heard of the famously delicious Avoca cafe’s and wonderful gift stores selling their Irish made wares. The third in the series of Avoca cookbooks, A Year at Avoca is a celebration of good food. It’s packed with gorgeous photography, mostly shot around Avoca’s base in Wicklow. Learn more about Avoca in my Ultimate Dublin Shopping Guide. If you want to visit the original Avoca wool mill that still operates today, then see day 13 of my post Discover Ireland in Two Weeks – A Detailed Self Drive Itinerary.

Home Cooked

Bestselling TV cook Donal Skehan features 100 delicious recipes for relaxed home cooking in this stunning Home Cooked cookbook that accompanied his 12-part primetime TV series. Homecooked includes new takes on well-loved family classics, such as Stuffed Pork with Apple and Ginger Sauce, One-pot Whole Chicken and Failsafe Bread 101, plus original and inspiring new ideas like Blackened Salmon with Green Goddess Avocado Salad, Blue Cheese Beef Sliders and Mikado Coconut Cream Cake.

Coast: Recipes from Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way

Follow bestselling author and TV chef Rachel Allen as she journeys along the beautiful Atlantic coast of Ireland, delivering over 100 recipes collected from her culinary odyssey. The west coast of Ireland is a rugged terrain of wild natural beauty, and the traditional food of these coastal towns and villages complements this perfectly. Rachel explores their local fare, starting her journey near her home in Cork and travelling all the way up to the green untamed headlands of Donegal.

Filled with stunning photography of the people and places she visits along the way, in the Coast you’ll discover a whole host of authentic and simple recipes inspired by her travels. From Salmon Pâté and Pan Fried Brill with Watercress Butter; to Irish Gingerbread and Gin, Lemon and Milk ice cream, these are simple dishes made with the freshest ingredients – fuss-free and yet packed full of flavour.

Part travel journal, part cookbook, Rachel also shares her favourite places to stay off the beaten track; the incredible stories she learns from the fishermen and farmers that she meets; and the breadth of local produce – from honey and cheeses to gins and whiskeys – that she samples.

The Happy Pear: Healthy, Easy, Delicious Food to Change Your Life

The Happy Pear café opened ten years ago in Ireland when twins David and Stephen Flynn, passionate about starting a food revolution in their home town, took over their local fruit and veg shop and later opened a café. David and Stephen’s first cookbook The Happy Pear: Healthy, Easy, Delicious Food to Change Your Life is full of irresistible recipes for everything from everyday breakfasts, lunches and dinners, to scrumptious cakes and sweet treats, to special occasion splurges. David and Stephen also tell their story (how they transformed from jocks to hippies before finally finding their groove), share their top tips for maximising taste and goodness in food, and explain how they’ve succeeded in building a food business based on flavour, health and community. You can visit one of their cafe’s in Greystones and Dublin.

The Farmette Cookbook: Recipes and Adventures from My Life on an Irish Farm

The Farmette Cookbook documents Imen McDonnell’s extraordinary Irish country cooking journey, which began the moment she fell in love with an Irish farmer and moved across the Atlantic to County Limerick. This book’s collection of 150 recipes and colourful stories chronicles nearly a decade-long adventure of learning to feed a family (and several hungry farmers) while adjusting to her new home. Along the way she teaches us foundational kitchen skills and time-honoured Irish traditions, sharing wisdom from her mother-in-law and other doyennes of Irish cooking. Learn the ritual of Sunday lunch, pudding, and tea. She takes the reader along with her on wild crafting walks–the country version of foraging for wild edibles. We visit her local fishmonger to see what we can create with his daily catch from the sea. Along the way we see how she’s deviated from classic Irish recipes to add contemporary or American twists.