Traditions and Customs of Scotland: Scottish Food

Have you ever tried Scottish traditional food? Would you like to? If your answer yes, here you can see some interesting information about the most notable dishes.

Scottish cuisine is the specific set of cooking traditions and practices associated with Scotland. It has distinctive attributes and recipes of its own, but shares much with wider European cuisine as a result of foreign and local influences both ancient and modern. The famous Scottish saying "S mairg a ni tarcuis air biadh" ("He who has no contempt for food is a fool") describes precisely the attitude to the food and cooking of Scotland. From the national dish of Haggis to the finest whisky in the world.

Soups

Scotch broth is a filling soup, originating in Scotland but now obtainable worldwide. The principal ingredients are usually barley, stewing or braising cuts of lamb, mutton or beef, root vegetables such as carrots, turnips or swedes and dried beans. Cabbage and leeks are often added shortly before serving to preserve their texture, color and flavors. The proportions and ingredients vary according to the recipe or availability. Scotch broth has been sold ready-prepared in cans for many years.

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Cullen Skink is a thick Scottish soup made of smoked haddock, potatoes and onions. An authentic cullen skink will use Finnan haddie, but it may be prepared with any other undyed smoked haddock.

This soup is a local speciality, from the town of Cullen in Moray, on the north-east coast of Scotland. The soup is often served as a starter at formal Scottish dinners. It has been described as "smokier and more assertive than American chowder" and ''heartier than classical French bisque" The name is partly (and indirectly) derived from Gaelic. The first element refers to the town of Cullen in Moray (a place name of Gaelic origin). The second element skink is a Scots word for a shin, knuckle or hough of beef which has developed the secondary meaning of a soup, especially one made from these.
Cullen Skink appears in many traditional Scottish cookery books and appears on a large number of menus across Scotland.

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Fish and Seafood

Crappit Heid is a traditional Scots fish course. In Gaelic it is known as ceann-cropaig.

Its origins can be traced to the fishing communities of the North, Hebrides and North-Eastern Scotland in the eighteenth century. In a time when money was scarce, the more expensive fillets of fish, such as cod or haddock would be sold to market but the offal and less attractive parts were retained by the fisherfolk for the pot.

Crappit Heid was a favourite midday or evening meal amongst those communities and consisted of the head of a large cod or similar sized fish, washed, descaled and then stuffed with a mixture of oats, suet, onion, white pepper and the liver of the fish in question. This was then sewn or skewered to close the aperture and boiled in seawater. The cooked dish would then be served with potatoes or other root vegetables in season.

Later variations include exchanging the seawater for a court bouillon of fish stock and onion. The resulting poaching liquid is often eaten as a soup before having the fish head.

Although once a very common dish, Crappit Heid has, like many traditional dishes, become a rarity. Cod livers are now harder to obtain and usually only available if the fish has been caught by local line fishermen. A healthy and nutritious dish, it is rich in carbohydrates, proteins, fats and more importantly cod liver oil.

Finnan haddie, also known as Finnan haddock and Finnan or Findrum speldings, is cold smoked haddock, representative of a regional method of smoking with green wood and peat in Northeast Scotland. It may have been a popular dish in Aberdeenshire since at least as early as the 1640s.

Although known and admired in Scotland for a long time, Finnan haddie became a popular food item in London only in the 1830s. Because of the light smoking that the fish received, it did not have a long shelf life - by most contemporary estimates, at most three days (although some suggested no more than one day). Although often available in Aberdeen "within twelve hours of being [caught]", the distance to London had been nearly insurmountable if spoilage was to be avoided. The fish started making its first appearances in London when shipped by established mail coach, but became widely available with the construction of the railroad link connecting Aberdeen to London in the 1840s. The association with Findon became strong because of the Aberdeen connection. Occasionally, confusion was so deep that Findon was referred to as Findhorn.^[9]

The traditional preparation is to roast or broil the whole pieces of fish over high heat. Finnan haddie is also often served poached in milk for breakfast and is an important part of traditional kedgeree and the Arnold Bennett omelet.

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Meat Dishes

Haggis is a kind of savoury pudding containing sheep's pluck (heart, liver and lungs); minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally encased in the animal's stomach and simmered for approximately three hours. Most modern commercial haggis is prepared in a sausage casing rather than an actual stomach.

The haggis is a traditional Scottish dish, considered the national dish of Scotland as a result of Robert Burns' poem Address to a Haggis of 1787. Haggis is traditionally served with "neeps and tatties" (Scots: rutabaga and potato), boiled and mashed separately and a dram (a glass of Scotch whisky), especially as the main course of a Burns supper. However it is also often eaten with other accompaniments.

Haggis is traditionally served with the Burns supper on the week of January 25, when Scotland's national poet, Robert Burns, is commemorated. Scotch whisky is often asserted to be the traditional accompaniment for haggis, though this may simply be because both are traditionally served at a Burns supper together with it.

Haggis is widely available in supermarkets in Scotland all year round, with cheaper brands normally packed in artificial casings, rather than stomachs, just as cheaper brands of sausages are no longer stuffed into animal intestines. Sometimes haggis is sold in tins or a container which can simply be microwaved or oven-baked. Some supermarket haggis is largely made from pig, rather than sheep, offal.

Haggis is served in Scottish fast-food establishments deep fried in batter. Together with chips, this comprises a "haggis supper". A "haggis burger" is a patty of fried haggis served on a bun. A "haggis pakora" is another deep fried variant, available in some Indian restaurants in Scotland.

A modern haggis variant often served in higher class restaurants is the "Flying Scotsman", which is chicken breast stuffed with haggis.

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Scotch pie is a small, double-crust meat pie filled with minced mutton or other meat. It may also be known as a shell pie or a mince pie to differentiate it from other varieties of savoury pie, such as the steak pie, steak-and-kidney pie, steak-and-tattie (potato) pie, and so forth. The Scotch pie is believed to originate in Scotland, where it is often known simply as pi ebut can be found in other parts of the United Kingdom and widely sold all over Canada. They are often sold alongside other types of hot food in football grounds, traditionally accompanied by a drink of Bovril, resulting in the occasional reference to football pies.

The traditional filling of mutton is often highly spiced with pepper and other ingredients and is placed inside a shell of hot water crust pastry. An individual piemaker's precise recipe, including the types and quantities of spice used, is usually kept a close secret, for fear of imitations. It is baked in a round, straight-sided tin, about 8 cm in diameter and 4 cm high, and the top "crust" (which is soft) is placed about 1 cm lower than the rim to make a space for adding accompaniments such as mashed potatoes, baked beans, brown sauce or gravy.

Scotch pies are often served hot by take-away restaurants and bakeries, and at outdoor events. The hard crust of the pie enables it to be eaten by hand with no wrapping, but increasingly they are cooked and served in a foil tin. Typically there is a round hole of about 7.5mm in the centre of the top crust.

Every year, the Scotch Pie Club holds the World Scotch Pie Championship. Butchers and bakers enter their pies into this competition, and the maker of the pie judged tastiest by a panel of judges is awarded the title of World Scotch Pie Champion.

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Cakes and desserts

Edinburgh rock or Edinburgh Castle rock is a traditional Scottish confection, and is quite distinct from conventional rock. It consists of sugar, water, cream of tartar, colourings and flavourings. It is formed into sticks, and has a soft and crumbly texture.

Edinburgh rock was first made in the 19th Century by a man named Alexander Ferguson, who became known as 'Sweetie Sandy'. Alexander was born in Doune, Perthshire in 1789. He learned the confectionery trade in Glasgow, and then moved to Edinburgh to set up his own business. The success of Edinburgh rock was such that he was able to retire back to Doune a very rich man.

There is an apocryphal tale that Alexander discovered Edinburgh rock by accident. One day he came across a tray of sweets that had lain forgotten for months. He tried a piece of the desiccated results, found it to be delicious, and so Edinburgh rock was born.

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Bannock is a variety of flat quick bread. The word can also be applied to any large, round article baked or cooked from grain. When a round bannock is cut into wedges, the wedges are often called scones. But in Scotland, the words bannock and scone are often used interchangeably.

The original bannocks were heavy, flat cakes of unleavened barley or oatmeal dough formed into a round or oval shape, then cooked on a griddle (or girdle in Scots). In Scotland, before the 19th century, bannocks were cooked on a bannock stane (Scots for stone), a large, flat, rounded piece of sandstone, placed directly onto a fire, then used as a cooking surface. Most modern bannocks are made with baking powder or baking soda as a leavening agent, giving them a light and airy texture.

Bannock varieties can be named or differentiated according to various characteristics: the flour or meal from which they are made, whether they are leavened or not, whether they have certain special ingredients, how they are baked or cooked, and the names of rituals or festivals in which they are used.

The separatepeace of a bannock is called a scone.

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A tattie scone (also potato scone) is a regional variant of the savoury griddle scone which is especially popular in Scotland and The Isle of Man. Many variations of the recipe exist. They generally include liberal quantities of boiled potatoes and salt.

Potato scones are traditionally made as circles of about 90 mm in radius and then cut into quarters. They are thinner, 7 mm or so, than what is usually considered a scone; they are more like a soft oatcake. They are often served as part of the full Scottish breakfast with fried eggs, bacon and sliced sausage. Alternatively they are often enjoyed in a roll, usually accompanied with either sliced sausage, bacon, or fried egg.

A typical potato scone is made with mashed potato (potato and butter—no milk is used—with salt to taste) and plain flour is added to make it into a dough which is then rolled out and put on a griddle to cook or baked in a hot oven.