Scotland's Dining Heritage?

[sfb]

Gooooooood word, Arlen.

2.5 lbs forehock bacon; 1 lb chopped onions; 2 lbs sliced tatties; dry mustard (Coleman's, of course); pepper, a bay leaf and milk. Cut the bacon into 1 inch cubes and layer with the onions and potatoes in a cast iron pan. Sprinkle each layer with pepper and a bit of mustard and finish with a layer of overlapping discs of potato. Put the bay leaf in the centre on top and pour in enough milk to come to the top layer of potatoes. Lid the pan and simmer gently for 1.5 to 2 hours.

Serves 6 or 8. Yum. A slab of bread to sop, of course (and a dark ale).

Rex

Just shows you - that's nothing like the stovies I'm used to. Bacon? All depends on your own mother's recipe, I suppose!

If folk really, genuinely, truly want an insight into Scotland's "dining heritage" they could probably do worse than have a look at this:





Maw Broon's Cookbook will pretty much give you an idea of what ordinary Scottish folk had on the table between - what - the 1940's and the 1970's?

And up until today, in some cases. Me, for example.

Here's the blurb:

"Launched in 1936 in the "Sunday Post" in Scotland, The Broons are undoubtedly Scotland's first family - the Nation's favourites - with a readership covering all generations. The Broons 'annual' sells over 100,000 copies. This is a facsimile of Maw Broon's very own cookbook, which we borrowed from the sideboard at No. 10 Glebe Street - first made for her by her mother-in-law when 'Maw' married 'Paw', and added-to over the years with recipes for every day and special days, from friends and neighbours and others that simply caught Maw's eye in "The Sunday Post", or cut-out of the backof a flour bag. These are the very recipes that became the favourite dishes of the whole extended family - Maw and Paw, Granpaw, Daphne, Horace, Joe, Maggie, Hen, the Twins and 'the bairn'.The strip itself is still hugely popular, with the "Sunday Post" having a circulation of over 1,000,000 copies every week, and there are some examples of the strip from years gone by that Maw must have clipped into her Cookbook- perhaps as reminders of special days. We've just left the 'bits and pieces' that you find tucked into a cookbook, exactly as we found them - stains and all."

The Broons & Oor Wullie are of course so quintessentially Scottish that they should have a dedicated forum on here. The politics of the Sunday Post might not be to everyone's taste, but reading the paper certainly gives you an idea of what living in Scotland is actually like. (On reflection, I'm not entirely sure it's possible to explain the Sunday Post to anyone that hasn't absorbed Scottish culture by staying here for at least a couple of years.)

Oh, and everyone should applaud the genius of Dudley D. Watkins. Goes without saying really.

[Brian K]

Finished separating the rest of the elephant garlic bulbs (relative of the leek), so I am bug proof for a few more days. A quick web search revealed discussions of growing elephant garlic in Scotland, as well as, regular garlic. So I guess you all can eat your own garlic over there.

The elephant garlic is much larger, and a bit milder.

If I am not mistaken, Elephant Garlic is not truly garlic, but a member of the onion/lily family with a mild garlicky flavor. My mother loves it but my preference is for the strongest real stuff you can find. I want my garlic to assert itself. I don't always like roasted garlic for the same reason. Of course, any garlic - including elephant or roasted - is better than no garlic at all!

[Bugbear]

Yes, they're related to onions, leeks and so on. They're not too mild.

I do like to roast an onion wrapped in foil, and even thrown in a fire like a potato. They come out very sweet.

Which reminds me, I put a little cinnamon in my cold oat mush, this evening. It's good.

[ThistleDown]

Finished separating the rest of the elephant garlic bulbs (relative of the leek), so I am bug proof for a few more days. A quick web search revealed discussions of growing elephant garlic in Scotland, as well as, regular garlic. So I guess you all can eat your own garlic over there.

The elephant garlic is much larger, and a bit milder.

We do roast elephant garlic in Scotland, Ted, but it's not quite "garlic", is it? The wild garlic season is just about over now, but in some parts this has been a good year. Now the roses will benefit from the garlic planting beside them of two years ago and, where we can grow it well, hops will already be attracting the aphids of the rose garden and ladybugs will be growing fat at their harvest.

Rex

[ThistleDown]

Just shows you - that's nothing like the stovies I'm used to. Bacon? All depends on your own mother's recipe, I suppose!

If folk really, genuinely, truly want an insight into Scotland's "dining heritage" they could probably do worse than have a look at this:





Maw Broon's Cookbook will pretty much give you an idea of what ordinary Scottish folk had on the table between - what - the 1940's and the 1970's?

And up until today, in some cases. Me, for example.

Here's the blurb:

"Launched in 1936 in the "Sunday Post" in Scotland, The Broons are undoubtedly Scotland's first family - the Nation's favourites - with a readership covering all generations. The Broons 'annual' sells over 100,000 copies. This is a facsimile of Maw Broon's very own cookbook, which we borrowed from the sideboard at No. 10 Glebe Street - first made for her by her mother-in-law when 'Maw' married 'Paw', and added-to over the years with recipes for every day and special days, from friends and neighbours and others that simply caught Maw's eye in "The Sunday Post", or cut-out of the backof a flour bag. These are the very recipes that became the favourite dishes of the whole extended family - Maw and Paw, Granpaw, Daphne, Horace, Joe, Maggie, Hen, the Twins and 'the bairn'.The strip itself is still hugely popular, with the "Sunday Post" having a circulation of over 1,000,000 copies every week, and there are some examples of the strip from years gone by that Maw must have clipped into her Cookbook- perhaps as reminders of special days. We've just left the 'bits and pieces' that you find tucked into a cookbook, exactly as we found them - stains and all."

The Broons & Oor Wullie are of course so quintessentially Scottish that they should have a dedicated forum on here. The politics of the Sunday Post might not be to everyone's taste, but reading the paper certainly gives you an idea of what living in Scotland is actually like. (On reflection, I'm not entirely sure it's possible to explain the Sunday Post to anyone that hasn't absorbed Scottish culture by staying here for at least a couple of years.)

Oh, and everyone should applaud the genius of Dudley D. Watkins. Goes without saying really.

Sfb, you bring to the surface one example of the difference between the Highland and Lowland diet of today. A simple thing like a range-top stew ("stovies") and the twain shall not meet. The recipe I gave was a plain Highlander's tea, but I failed to mention that he had his own pigs over by. For the Lowland urban dweller, the alternative to the bit of bacon might be two or three ounces of drippings collected in a tin scoured of the beans from the last two mornings -- or so

The Broons. Ah yes, as familiar to us as the Cleavers and, later, the Bunkers were to Americans, I suspect. And perhaps just as indearing.

[Bugbear]

We do roast elephant garlic in Scotland, Ted, but it's not quite "garlic", is it? The wild garlic season is just about over now, but in some parts this has been a good year. Now the roses will benefit from the garlic planting beside them of two years ago and, where we can grow it well, hops will already be attracting the aphids of the rose garden and ladybugs will be growing fat at their harvest.

Rex

Ah yes, the feasting larvae of the ladybugs. The chives, elephant and regular garlic are part of my "IPM" horticultural strategy. They kept the fire ants and their aphid cattle away, but it's best to remove the bulbs to the bottom drawer of the refrigerator for the summer.

I have a few good sized bulbs of regular garlic, which happened to have been planted by the rose bush. The rest, which were planted in the new garden (it has pathetic soil) are too small and will be replanted in September. I need to make a half-ton of compost.

It would probably be pretty difficult to grow hops down here. Does it grow wild in Scotland?

[McElmurry]

What are your favorite Scottish dining traditions?

Not really to my taste but apparently the Anglo-Norman would eat anything.

“The castell of Cragfergus, after it had been strictly besieged a long time, was surrendered to the Scots, by them that kept it, till they for want of other vittels were driven to eat leather and eight Scots (as some write) which they had taken prisoners…”

Ireland during the Bruce invasion, from Holinsheds Chronicles of Ireland as presented in Wars of the Irish Kings by David Willis McCullough

[BoldHighlander]

Not really to my taste but apparently the Anglo-Norman would eat anything.

“The castell of Cragfergus, after it had been strictly besieged a long time, was surrendered to the Scots, by them that kept it, till they for want of other vittels were driven to eat leather and eight Scots (as some write) which they had taken prisoners…”

Not Scottish fare, I dare say, but my Scottish great-grandfather (x8) Johne MacRanald of Keppoch (an officer in the army of William of Orange), is said that during the 1689 siege of Londonderry to have beaten a fellow defender for allowing dinner (a rat) to get away!

Suppose they were going to deep fry it?

[Bugbear]

I have a recipe book, A Taste Of Scotland: The Essence Of Scottish Cooking, With 30 Classic Recipes Shown In 120 Evocative Photographs, by Carol Wilson and Christopher Trotter; Anness Publishing, 2008, and it doesn't say anything about cooking leather, shoes, rats, or prisoners. On the other hand, it doesn't have a recipe for roasted grouse either, and that is what I wanted to look over...