The Scottish Kitchen

By Margaret Weale F.I.C.Sc

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.

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.

Soups

Fish

Meat and Game

Desserts, Cakes, Biscuits, Baking

Miscellaneous