Scottish cuisine

Haggis, neeps and tatties

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Scottish cuisine is the specific set of cooking traditions, practices and cuisines associated with Scotland. It has distinctive attributes and recipes of its own, but shares much with wider British and European cuisine as a result of local and foreign influences, both ancient and modern. Traditional Scottish dishes exist alongside international foodstuffs brought about by migration.

Scotland's natural larder of game, dairy products, fish, fruit, and vegetables is the chief factor in traditional Scots cooking, with a high reliance on simplicity and a lack of spices from abroad, as these were historically rare and expensive.

History

Scotland, with its temperate climate and abundance of indigenous game species, has provided a cornucopia of food for its inhabitants for millennia. The wealth of seafood available on and off the coasts provided the earliest settlers with their sustenance. Agriculture was introduced, with primitive oats quickly becoming the staple.^[1]

In common with many mediaeval European neighbours, Scotland was a feudal state for a greater part of the second millennium. This put certain restrictions on what one was allowed to hunt, therefore to eat. In the halls of the great men of the realm, one could expect venison, boar, various fowl and songbirds, expensive spices (pepper, cloves, cinnamon, etc.), and the meats of domesticated species. From the journeyman down to the lowest cottar, meat was an expensive commodity, and would be consumed rarely. For the lower echelons of mediaeval Scots, it was the products of their animals rather than the beasts themselves which provided nourishment. This is evident today in traditional Scots fare, with its emphasis on dairy produce. It would appear that the average meal would consist of a pottage of herbs and roots (and when available some meat or stock for flavouring), with bread and cheese when possible.

Before Sir Walter Raleigh's introduction of the potato to the British Isles, the Scots' main source of carbohydrate was bread made from oats or barley. Wheat was generally difficult to grow because of the damp climate. Food thrift was evident from the earliest times, with excavated middens displaying little evidence of anything but the toughest bones. All parts of an animal were used.

The mobile nature of Scots society in the past required food that should not spoil quickly. It was common to carry a small bag of oatmeal that could be transformed into a basic porridge or oatcakes using a girdle (griddle). It is thought that Scotland's national dish, haggis, originated in a similar way: A small amount of offal or low-quality meat, carried in the most inexpensive bag available, a sheep or pig's stomach. It has also been suggested that this dish was introduced by Norse invaders who were attempting to preserve their food during the long journey from Scandinavia.^[2]

French influence

During the Late Middle Ages and early modern era, French cuisine played a role in Scottish cookery due to cultural exchanges brought about by the "Auld Alliance",^[3] especially during the reign of Mary, Queen of Scots. Mary, on her return to Scotland, brought an entourage of French staff who are considered responsible for revolutionising Scots cooking and for some of Scotland's unique food terminology.

French-derived cooking terms

"Ashet", from assiette—a large platter.^[4]

"Cannel", from cannelle—cinnamon

"Collop", from escalope

"Gigot" /ˈdʒɪɡət/, from gigot—leg of mutton.^[4]

"Howtowdie", from hétoudeau—a boiling fowl (Old French).^[4]

"Syboe", from ciboule—a spring onion^[5]

With the growth of sporting estates and the advent of land enclosure in the 18th century, harvesting Scotland's larder became an industry. The railways further expanded the scope of the market, with Scots grouse at a premium (as today) on English menus shortly after the Glorious Twelfth.

20th and 21st centuries

The availability of certain foodstuffs in Scotland, in common with the other parts of the United Kingdom, suffered during the 20th century. Rationing during the two World Wars, as well as large-scale industrial agriculture, limited the diversity of food available to the public. Imports from the British Empire and beyond did, however, introduce new foods to the Scottish public.

During the 19th and 20th centuries there was large-scale immigration to Scotland from Italy, and later from the Middle East, India, and Pakistan. These cultures have influenced Scots cooking dramatically. The Italians reintroduced the standard of fresh produce, and the later comers introduced spice. With the enlargement of the European Union in the early years of the 21st century, there has been an increase in the population of Eastern European descent, from Poland in particular. A number of speciality restaurants and delicatessens catering for the various new immigrants have opened in the larger towns and cities.

Scottish dishes and foods

These dishes and foods are traditional to or originate in Scotland.

Cereals Brose Porridge Sowans Skirlie Soups Cullen skink – a thick soup made of smoked haddock, potato and onion Baud bree Cock-a-leekie soup Game soup Hairst bree (or hotch potch) Partan bree Powsowdie – a Scottish sheep's heid (head) broth or soup Scotch broth Fish and seafood Arbroath smokies – a type of smoked haddock – a speciality of the town of Arbroath in Angus Cabbie claw (cabelew) Crappit heid Cullen skink Eyemouth pales Finnan haddie Kippers Kedgeree Rollmops Smoked salmon Tatties and herring Fish and Chips Meat, poultry and game Ayrshire bacon Black pudding, red pudding and white pudding Boiled gigot of mutton or lamb Forfar bridie Chicken tikka masala Collops Haggis – a savoury pudding containing sheep's pluck (heart, liver and lungs) and several other ingredients Howtowdie with Drappit eggs Kilmeny Kail Mince and tatties Mutton ham Pottit heid (brawn) Potted hough Roast Aberdeen Angus beef Roast haunch of venison Roast grouse Roast woodcock/snipe Solan goose or 'guga' (gannet) in the Western Isles Scotch pie Lorne sausage or square sausage Stovies Vegetables Clapshot Curly kail Neeps and tatties (swede turnip and potatoes) Rumbledethumps – a traditional dish from the Scottish Borders with main ingredients of potato, cabbage and onion Fruits Blaeberries Raspberries Slaes Strawberries Tayberries

Arbroath smokies Cullen skink (right), served with bread Dundee cake Dunlop cheese Haggis on a platter at a Burns supper Rumbledethumps Dairy Bishop Kennedy Carola Criffel Crowdie Dunlop cheese – originating in Dunlop in East Ayrshire[6] Gigha Lanark Blue Caboc Dunsyre Blue Puddings and desserts Burnt cream Apple frushie Blaeberry pie Carrageen moss Clootie dumpling Cranachan Hatted kit Marmalade pudding Stapag Tipsy laird Cakes, breads and confectionery Abernethy biscuits Bannock Berwick cockles Black bun Butteries Caramel shortbread Deep-fried Mars bar Drop-scones Dundee cake – a fruit cake with a rich flavour[7][8] Edinburgh rock Fatty cutties Festy cock Fruit slice or flee cemetery Granny sookers Hawick balls Jethart Snails Lucky tatties Moffat toffee Oatcakes Pan drops Pan loaf Petticoat tails Strippit baws Plain loaf Puff candy Scones Scots crumpets Selkirk bannock, variations include Yetholm bannock Shortbread Soor plooms Tablet Tattie scone (potato scone) Preserves and spreads Dundee Marmalade Rowan jelly Heather honey

Drinks

Alcoholic

Atholl brose

Non-alcoholic

Breakfast tea

Irn Bru

Red Kola

Sugarellie

Restaurants

In recent years Haggis pakoras have become popular in Indian restaurants.^[9]

Fast food

Scotland's reputation for coronary and related diet-based diseases is a result of the wide consumption of fast food since the latter part of the 20th century. Fish and chip shops remain extremely popular, and indeed the battered and fried haggis supper remains a favourite. These have been joined in more recent years by outlets selling pizzas, kebabs, pakoras and other convenience foodstuffs. An extreme example of this style of food is the Munchy box.^[10]

In addition to independent fast-food outlets, in the 1960s American-style burger bars and other restaurants such as Wimpy were introduced, and in the 1980s, McDonald's, Burger King, Pizza Hut and Kentucky Fried Chicken appeared in Scotland.

Scottish chefs

See also

• List of British desserts
• List of restaurants in Scotland

Notes and references

Further reading

• Beckwith, Lillian (1976) Lillian Beckwith's Hebridean Cookbook. London: Hutchinson ISBN 978-0-09-127380-4
• Craig, Elizabeth (1956) The Scottish Cookery Book
• --do.-- (1965) What's Cooking in Scotland
• --do.-- (1980) The Scottish Cookery Book

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Scottish cuisine.

• Scottish Food — Scottish Food & Drink

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