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One
of the pleasures of visiting a country is sampling its native
dishes. And in Scotland, despite its northerly latitude, our
hills, rivers, forests, farms and seas provide one of the richest
and most varied menus in Europe. Until the middle of the eighteenth
century, communications in
There
has long been a great tradition of soup making There is much advice around on the making of tea from this nation whose "other" national drink it has been for more than two centuries. The only thing to be repeated about the making of tea, is the adage from the side of the Victorian teapot: 'Those
who love good tea To which can be added - use freshly drawn water. Water re-boiled is only fit for washing up. The following advice is also worth remembering about keeping a pot of tea going and producing more cups: 'Do not drain the pot dry and then fill it up again; fill half the cups at a time and replace in the teapot the water you have taken from it; always with boiling water'.
One whisky is all right; two is too much; three is too few.
One often yearns Black bun, also known as Scotch bun, is a cake made with raisins, currants, almonds, ginger, cinnamon and brandy. The favourite tea-time Scone is the Scots name of a species of cake made of wheat or barley meal and baked on a griddle. The cakes are round and are usually cut into four pieces, thus giving the familiar shape of a wedge with circular edge. The broad lowland bonnet was called a “ scone “ or “scone-cap “ from its shape. The word appears to have been a shortened form of a Low German word Schonbrot, i.e. fine bread, explained in the Bremen Glossary (1771), quoted in the New English Dictionary, as a sort of white loaf with two acute and two obtuse angles. The Essential British Cookbooks Collection
Conversion
Table The U.S. pint is 16 fluid ounces, and not 20 fl.oz like the British Imperial pint. 1
U.S. cup = 8 fl.oz = 250 ml Baxters of Speyside are famed for their soups Confectionery
Scottish
Cooking Literary Anecdotes More
Scottish Cooking Facts and Fancies More
Scottish Recipes Traditional
Scottish A restaurant manager in Edinburgh with a sense of humour put this notice in his window: SCOTCH HAGGIS with CHIPS! These timorous wee beasties are freshly shot daily in the Highlands for visitors (with ye olde bows and arrows). Skinned alive, heads and legs removed before cooking. A dish fit for a king. We deport them to all parts of the world! |
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More Books Nick Nairn's New Scottish Cookery
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Country Housewife's Island Whisky Trail: Scotland's... Hebridean and West Coast Malt Whiskey Distilleries.
Edinburgh
School Scottish
Hospitality Festive
Scotland |
From
Bawd Bree to Partan Bree, a distinctive culinary repertoire awaits
the traveler to Scotland, and those who associate Scottish cooking
with such deadly sounding dishes as haggis and black bun is in
for a pleasant surprise. Blessed with a wealth of natural produce
from its rich land and teeming waters, Scotland has developed
a culinary repertoire of exceptional quality and variety. Partridge,
grouse and pheasant from the rolling moorlands, venison from the
red deer running wild in the mountains, salmon and trout from
Highland rivers, succulent beef from the Aberdeen Angus herds,
shellfish of all kinds - with ingredients like these, only a truly
lamentable cook could fail to come up with a feast. 
City
folk tend to look back to bygone days when the streets of the
larger Scottish cities rang to the cries of ‘oyster wives’
and vendors of everything from hot peas to Het Pints, a brew of
ale, eggs and whisky flavoured with nutmeg and sold from a steaming
copper kettle. Those were the times when a fish dinner, including
ale and perhaps a dozen oysters, cost little more than one cigarette
does now. As far back as the thirteenth century, salmon was so
plentiful that it was pickled for export to London to be fed to
the poor, and only a hundred years ago servants in big houses
had contracts stipulating that it was to be served to them no
more than three times a week.
But
those are bygone days indeed. The allure of traditional Scottish
fare, however, has carried through to modern times in all but
price. Breakfast and tea have a special place in Scottish cooking,
and the visitor who might think of these meals as something light
has another think coming. It was Dr. Samuel Johnson who wrote:
‘If an epicure could remove by a wish in quest of sensual
gratification, he would breakfast in Scotland.’ Oatmeal is
still a staple of the national diet, and certainly most of the
older people start the day with a bowl of porridge, flavoured
with salt, not sugar, please. Then come the soft warm rolls known
as baps, kippered herring from Loch Fyne or smoked haddock (‘smokies’)
from Aberdeen and Arbroath, scones and oatcakes with heather honey,
jams, jellies and marmalade, claimed by Scots as their own invention.
Tea is the occasion for another mammoth spread of cold meats and
eggs, potato scones, crunchy shortbread and such delicacies as
Dundee cake, a fruity concoction strewn with almonds.
An
elaborate dinner or late supper will bring out the smoked salmon,
rich dark venison or feathered game, roast beef or tender mutton,
perhaps lobster from the Firth of Forth. Auld Alliance, a savoury
of creamed cheese laced with whisky and served with hot buttered
toast, can be a superb climax to the meal.
The
visitor who comes across haggis or black bun should not be put
off by the unappetizing names. Haggis consists of the heart, liver
and lights of a sheep, cooked with oatmeal and onions inside its
stomach bag. Hard to believe, but it’s delicious. And you
must try it!
The
names of many Scottish delicacies are nothing if not colourful.
A few examples: Bawd Bree (hare soup), Bubblyjock (roast turkey),
Cock-a-Leekie (chicken and leek soup), Inky-Pinky (beef and carrot
stew), Stovies (sliced potatoes cooked with onions and lamb) and
Melting Moments (biscuits in rolled oats).
