The Scottish Kitchen
By Margaret Weale F.I.C.Sc
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| Me Today |
This is a personal collection of traditional Scottish recipes from the imposing Highlands to the rural lowlands, covering both family cooking
and the festive fare for which Scotland is famous. As a Scot myself, I particularly remember certain dishes cooked or baked to perfection by
my mother and/or grandmother, who were both excellent at cooking and baking (two distinctively different talents). It is therefore no surprise
that I have spent my life specialising in food - teaching it, writing about it and dealing with it in domestic and professional situations.
Having studied in Edinburgh at Queen Margaret College, formerly Atholl Crescent, I was well equipped to face the future and have thoroughly
enjoyed my varied career in food.
| | Me at 10 years old on the pier |
You will note that sometimes I have given instructions for cooking in a microwave oven which is, you may think, rather ultra-modern for
traditional recipes. But having written eight microwave cookbooks, I have come to realise that whilst, like all appliances, the microwave
oven has its limitations, it can be used to advantage and often saves a great deal of time.
By the by, many Scottish recipes are of French origin. Indeed, James 1 is said to have employed a French cook, and during the reign of Mary Queen of Scots, so much money was spent on foreign sweetmeats that Parliament passed a law forbidding all but the wealthy to have anything on their table that was not made in Scotland. A number of words are derived from French. For instance, Tartan Purry is not a cat in a kilt but tarte-en-puree (chopped kail in oatmeal). Ashet is assiette, a large meat dish; sooty bannoch is a saute-bannoch, a pancake.
The fashionable grace-before-meals at the tables of the nobility in the reign of Queen Mary was The Covenanter's Grace. This legend was carved over many doors in old Edinburgh:
Some hae meat that canna eat
And some wad eat that want it:
But we hae meat, and we can eat,
And sae the Lord be thankit.
I do hope you enjoy these traditional recipes from my homeland. Each one brings back happy memories of my life growing up in Scotland.
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