Traditional Scottish food recipes

[NCMC]

I will let you know how the Black Bun recipe turns out, we will be making it for a St. Andrew's Day party.

[Paul Henry]

It's very unusual for Black Bun to have a yeast dough, usually it is a shortcrust type pastry, I've grown up with it , and made it many times.It was never a bread type dough, interesting perhaps, let us know how it turns out

[Tobus]

paulhenry, do you have another black bun recipe that you'd be willing to share?

[Paul Henry]

to be honest , with all the family recipes there are variations and not one "standard" one, this one from google Black bun seems reasonable, although we have never used lard, a mixture of "white" fat and butter.And I ad a few glace cherries as well. It eeds to made a few month before to mature, so getting busy soon!!

[Tobus]

Tobus
Just wait till you try Cranachan if you haven't already done so.

I made this over the weekend. Excellent. The whisky and honey gave it a wonderful (yet milder than anticipated) flavor. And the toasted oats really gave it a nice 'nutty' accent.

I don't know what double cream is; I used heavy cream and it turned out well.

I also made the Shetland Shortbread recipe. My wife and her friend who was visiting both complimented it, saying it wasn't as sweet as they expected but was 'just right'. It goes well with a cup of hot tea.

And last but not least, I made the Sweet Brodick Bannock recipe for breakfast yesterday. It goes very well with a little butter. And honey puts it over the top.

[PEEDYC]

Another favourite of mine was / is "cloutie dumpling" It takes hours to make but in my opinion well worth it. On the first day it is eaten as a "puddin" with custard or cream or even just milk. When it is cold it is eaten like cake or again as a cold pudding. Then what is left is sliced and fried and eaten with a normal Scottish breakfast. My English freinds can't get their heads round the idea of something sweet fried for breakfast but we used ot have white pudding as well as black pudding for breakfast. The white pudding being a sweet dish. I had a Canadian girlfriend and she served breakfast with bread or rolls and jam with the main meal.

[Fougasse]

Another favourite of mine was / is "cloutie dumpling" It takes hours to make but in my opinion well worth it. On the first day it is eaten as a "puddin" with custard or cream or even just milk. When it is cold it is eaten like cake or again as a cold pudding. Then what is left is sliced and fried and eaten with a normal Scottish breakfast. My English freinds can't get their heads round the idea of something sweet fried for breakfast but we used ot have white pudding as well as black pudding for breakfast. The white pudding being a sweet dish. I had a Canadian girlfriend and she served breakfast with bread or rolls and jam with the main meal.

If the haggis is the "Great chieftain o'the pudding race", then the Cloutie is the Queen of Dumplings. My Gran, God rest her soul, made a fantastic cloutie dumpling. Just like you describe, it was a multi-day event and well worth the wait! News would get around the family when she was making one and she would suddenly have a flood of visitors from all over the west of Scotland!

[Tobus]

I checked out the recipe for "Clootie Dumpling" on the site, but it makes absolutely no sense to me. I don't know what half of those ingredients are (mixed spice? treacle?), I don't understand the measurements (teacup? dessertspoonful?), and have no clue about the instructions (scald a pudding cloth?). Plus, I think some of the ingredients would not be available in my area (suet, currants).

*Sigh*

This is the hardest and most frustrating part about trying to make traditional recipes from other cultures. Often they are written with the assumption that the reader knows exactly what they're talking about.

Add to that the fact that I've no idea what traditional "pudding" should look like. American "pudding" is vastly different.

[Paul Henry]

I checked out the recipe for "Clootie Dumpling" on the site, but it makes absolutely no sense to me. I don't know what half of those ingredients are (mixed spice? treacle?), I don't understand the measurements (teacup? dessertspoonful?), and have no clue about the instructions (scald a pudding cloth?). Plus, I think some of the ingredients would not be available in my area (suet, currants).

*Sigh*

This is the hardest and most frustrating part about trying to make traditional recipes from other cultures. Often they are written with the assumption that the reader knows exactly what they're talking about.

Add to that the fact that I've no idea what traditional "pudding" should look like. American "pudding" is vastly different.

Google is your friend!

I can sympathise with not being able to find ingredients in different countries but with the internet it really is fairly easy to find out what some of the ingredients are... treacle for example is similar to black molasses
and mixed spice is exactly " mixed spices "- usually a mixture of ground ginger and cloves and cinnamon , but the amounts differ and there are variations, in the UK it's a very common every day spice available in almost every grocery shop.
Scalding a cloth , simply means throwing boliing water over it to sterilise it!
It's also worth hunting for a picture of the food, there will be lots of different pictures on the web.

Scalding a cloth , simply means throwing boliing water over it to sterilise it!

[Tobus]

treacle for example is similar to black molasses

When I looked that up, the best description I could find was that it was a form of sweet syrup. I was thinking it would be like maple syrup of Karo syrup. Molasses, though, makes sense.

mixed spice is exactly " mixed spices "- usually a mixture of ground ginger and cloves and cinnamon , but the amounts differ and there are variations, in the UK it's a very common every day spice available in almost every grocery shop.

That's great for general info, but how do I make it? Do you know the proportions of each?

I suppose it's a little bit like using "curry powder" which is a blend of a bunch of different spices, and there are a zillion different blends out there. It's easy if I can buy "curry powder" at the store, but if I had to make my own, I'd need a recipe of sorts. That's what I need for the "mixed spice", since that's not something I can buy here.

Scalding a cloth , simply means throwing boliing water over it to sterilise it!]

Ah, good to know. Thanks! But... what the heck is "pudding cloth"? Is it something like cheesecloth? American pudding doesn't have cloth involved!