Scottish cuisine (Scots:Scots cookery/cuisine;Scottish Gaelic:Biadh na h-Alba) encompasses the cooking styles, traditions and recipes associated withScotland. It has distinctive attributes and recipes of its own, but also shares much with otherBritish and widerEuropean cuisine as a result of local, regional, and continental influences — both ancient and modern.
Scotland's naturallarder of vegetables, fruit, oats,fish and other seafood, dairy products andgame is the chief factor in traditional Scottish cooking, with a high reliance on simplicity, generally without the use of rare (and historically expensive) spices found abroad.
Scotland, with itstemperate climate and abundance of indigenous game species, has provided food for its inhabitants for millennia. The wealth of seafood available on and off the coasts provided the earliest settlers with sustenance. Agriculture was introduced, and primitiveoats quickly became the staple.[1]
From thejourneyman down to the lowestcottar, meat was an expensive commodity, and would be consumed rarely. For the lower echelons of mediaeval Scots, it was the products of their animalsper se, rather than the beasts themselves which provided nourishment.
This is evident today in traditional Scots fare, with its emphasis on dairy produce. A typical meal in medieval Scotland consisted of apottage of herbs and roots (and when available some meat, usually seafood, or stock for flavouring), with bread and eggs, cheese or kelp when possible.
Scotland was afeudal state for the greater part of the second millennium. This put certain restrictions on what one was allowed to hunt, therefore to eat. In the halls of the great men of the realm, one could expectvenison,boar, various fowl and songbirds, expensive spices (pepper,cloves,cinnamon, etc.), and the meats of domesticated species.
BeforeSir Walter Raleigh's introduction of the potato to the British Isles, the Scots' main source ofcarbohydrate was bread made from oats orbarley. Wheat was generally difficult to grow because of the damp climate. Food thrift was evident from the earliest times, with excavatedmiddens displaying little evidence of anything but the toughest bones. All parts of an animal were used.
The mobile nature of Scots society required food that should not spoil quickly. It was common to carry a small bag of oatmeal that could be transformed into a basicporridge oroatcakes using agirdle (griddle). It is thought that Scotland's national dish,haggis, originated in a similar way: a small amount ofoffal or low-quality meat, carried in the most inexpensive bag available, a sheep or pig's stomach. It has also been suggested that this dish was introduced byNorse invaders who were attempting to preserve their food during the long journey fromScandinavia.[2]
During theEarly Modern period,French cuisine played a role in Scottish cookery due to cultural exchanges brought about by the "Auld Alliance".[3] WhenMary, Queen of Scots returned to Scotland, she brought an entourage of French staff who revolutionised Scots cooking and created some of Scotland's unique food terminology. These terms include Ashet (assiette), a large platter;[4] Cannel (cannelle), cinnamon; Collop (escalope); Gigot, French for a leg of mutton;[4] Howtowdie (hétoudeau), a boiling fowl in Old French;[4] Syboe (ciboule), spring onion.[5]
With the growth of sporting estates and the advent of land enclosure in the 18th century, harvesting Scotland's larder became an industry. The railways further expanded the scope of the market, with Scotsgrouse at a premium (as today) on English menus shortly after theGlorious Twelfth.
In the 19th century, Charlotte, Lady Clark of Tillypronie collected recipes throughout her life by asking society hostesses or cooks, and then testing them for herself at Tillypronie (Aberdeenshire). These were published posthumously in 1909 asThe Cookery Book of Lady Clark of Tillypronie.[6][7][8][9]
The availability of certain foodstuffs in Scotland, in common with the other parts of the United Kingdom, suffered during the 20th century. Rationing during the two World Wars, as well as large-scale industrial agriculture, limited the diversity of food available to the public. Imports from theBritish Empire and beyond did, however, introduce new foods to the Scottish public.
During the 19th and 20th centuries there was large-scale immigration to Scotland from Italy, and later from the Middle East, India, and Pakistan. These cultures have influenced Scots cooking dramatically. The Italians reintroduced the standard of fresh produce, and the latecomers introduced spice. With the enlargement of theEuropean Union in the early years of the 21st century, there has been an increase in the population of Eastern European descent, from Poland in particular. Several speciality restaurants and delicatessens catering for the various new immigrants have opened in the larger towns and cities. Fusions of Scottish and other cuisines have occurred since this, an example in recent years being the invention of thehaggis pakora.
Scotland's reputation for coronary and related diet-based diseases is a result of the wide consumption of fast food since the latter part of the 20th century.Fish and chip shops remain extremely popular, and indeed the battered and friedhaggis supper remains a favourite. In the area aroundEdinburgh, the most popular condiment for chip shop meals is "salt and sauce", the sauce element consisting ofbrown sauce thinned with water and vinegar. However inGlasgow, and elsewhere, chippy sauce is unknown and ketchup or salt and vinegar are preferred, prompting light-hearted debate on the merits of the options among the cities' residents, who tend to find the alternative a baffling concept.[10][11][12][13]
Outlets sellingpizzas,kebabs,pakoras and other convenience foodstuffs have also become increasingly popular, with an extreme example of this style of food being themunchy box.[14]
In addition to independent fast-food outlets, in the 1960s American-style burger bars and other restaurants such asWimpy were introduced, and in the 1980s,McDonald's,Burger King,Pizza Hut andKentucky Fried Chicken appeared in Scotland, followed by a large number ofSubway franchises in the early 21st century. Branches ofGreggs offering cakes, pastries and sandwiches are also very commonly found on the high streets of Scotland, often alongside smaller competing bakeries.[citation needed]
^MacIntosh, John (1894).Ayrshire Nights Entertainments: A Descriptive Guide to the History, Traditions, Antiquities, ect. of the County of Ayr. Kilmarnock. p. 265.
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