Subject: Scottish Cooking

From: [email-masked] (David P. Lucey)
Date: 27 Sep 1994 19:39:42 GMT

I am doing a bit of research for a Scottish recreation group here in 
Northern California, and was hoping that I could beg the pardon of those 
present for a few references on historical Scottish dishes, meals, 
breakfasts, etc...  Any reference would be greatly appreciated.

Also as a bit of an aside, I am immersed in an arguement with several 
others over the actual composition of the Scottish diet...(mainly their 
supposed lack of starch)...any references in this arena would also be 
greatly appreciated.

Thank You in advance

--
             David  P. Lucey is unforturately [email-masked] or
                                              [email-masked]

---

From: [email-masked] (Charlie Sorsby)
Date: 28 Sep 1994 18:58:53 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (David P. Lucey) writes:
= I am doing a bit of research for a Scottish recreation group here in 
= Northern California, and was hoping that I could beg the pardon of those 
= present for a few references on historical Scottish dishes, meals, 
= breakfasts, etc...  Any reference would be greatly appreciated.
= 
= Also as a bit of an aside, I am immersed in an arguement with several 
= others over the actual composition of the Scottish diet...(mainly their 
= supposed lack of starch)...any references in this arena would also be 
= greatly appreciated.
= 
= Thank You in advance

Please either post here or Cc: to me ([email-masked]) or, perhaps,
David could share what he learns?  Thanks.

-- 
Best,

Charlie "Older than dirt" Sorsby				"I'm the NRA!"
	  [email-masked]

---

From: [email-masked] (Jack Lang)
Date: 28 Sep 1994 22:43:18 GMT

>David could share what he learns?  Thanks.

Some books (I have them by me as I write):

Mistress Margaret (Meg) Dods, Cook of the Cleikum Inn, St Ronans.
"Cook and Housewife's Manual" 1829 Oliver and Boyd Edinburgh
Reprinted 1988 Rosters Ltd 60 Welbeck St London
ISBN 0-948032-71-5 (Cased)
ISBN 0-948032-76-6 (Paperback)

The ultimate Scotch cookery book, but full of good things.

(The Cleikum Club features extensively in St Ronan's Well, by Scott..)

Quoted in

McNeill, F. Marian: The Scots Kitchen (1929)

A modern book is 
Scottish Regional Recipes
Catherine Brown 1983 Penguin ISBN 0 14 046 595 2
This has an excellent bibliography

There is always Saintsbury's Notes on a Cellar Book,and his
scrapbooks, or Burn's Ode to a Haggis, or Boswell's Travels...

---

From: [email-masked] (John E. Taylor III)
Date: Wed, 5 Oct 1994 12:31:20 -0400

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Jack

> >= supposed lack of starch)...any references in this arena would also be

Missed the original posting, but...lack of starch?  That's puzzling,
because while the laird might eat heavy on sheep and game, just to
reinforce the fact that he's not a peasant, the peasants themselves would
go pretty heavy on gruels and porridges of oats and peas, supplemented with
bread (which was probably an oat bread because the climate is a bit severe
for wheat).  Can't support with a specific reference, though.

--
John Taylor    (W3ZID)     |  "The opinions expressed are those of the
[email-masked] |   writer and not of Rohm and Haas Company."

---

From: [email-masked] (Jane Beckman)
Date: 6 Oct 94 23:43:32 GMT

>for wheat).  Can't support with a specific reference, though.

What era are we talking about?  My Scots cookbook from the mid
1700s is pretty heavy on starches and cole vegetables, and it
was aimed at the middle class in Edinborough.  

As for earlier, I did an article for a local SCA publication, 
about 15 years ago, going into the details of the late 16th 
century Scots diet (some of which I would modify, now, due to 
additional research details), and your basic highlander was eating 
a lot of grains (mostly oats, with barley as a fallback) and cole 
or root vegetables.  Game was not much used except, yes, by
the Lairds.  Fish was common, provided it was not a *white 
fleshed* fish, as popular superstition attributed it as a cause 
of leprosy.  Pork was also not eaten, possibly because of surviving 
superstitions of the pig-totem clans of the Picts.

The repeated statutes forbidding the peasantry to grind their 
own grain at home, on the quern (never successful in outlawing 
the quern), and ordering them to bring their grain to the 
government-run mills and pay for milling, would indicate a lot 
of grain being grown and milled at home, on the sly.  I've got 
a book, _Medieval Scotland_ published in 1893, which details a 
lot of this.  Sorry, don't recall author off the top of my head.

--
  Jilara the Exile   [[email-masked]]
That's how freedom will end: not with a bang, but with a rustle of file
folders.  If you love any of your rights, defend all of them!
-Joe Chew, on the net