.
.
The Scottish Catering News, March 1982 included this article:
Alan Harrison, Director of the Edinburgh Hotel School at Telford College, takes a historical look at aspects of Scottish cuisine in this the first of a series of his articles for the “News”.
THERE IS MORE TO SCOTS FARE THAN OATMEAL
After that, there is a piece on 1483.
The paragraphs have been numbered to provide easier referencing and an index follows the two papers.
.
.
.
There's More to Scots Fare than Oatmeal
as shown in a menu of 1483
1
There is a long history of Scottish cookery and oatmeal has formed part of it. But with all that there is available in the way of food-stuffs today there is no reason to perpetuate the myth of oatmeal.
2
It seems to be presumed that the Scottish diet began and ended with oatmeal up to the end of the nineteenth century and possibly in the early decades of the twentieth.
This is not so.
3
Oatmeal was an important characteristic but was by no means anything more than a staple component.
4
Today, bread is the United Kingdom’s staple but it would be unfair to accuse it of dominating the diet.
5
I will confine myself to a brief history. The earliest reference draws attention to the fact that at one time, oatmeal was rather a luxury to the ordinary person in the fifteenth century,
6
Henryson was a poet born about 1425 and who died around 1500. His comment was that in bad years the people did not have oatmeal every day. When it was available, it was necessary to mix it with a cheaper food such as rye meal.
7
Perhaps a hundred or so years later, the amount of flesh that was eaten was still low and the ordinary diet included butter and cheese from the farm. A common dish was brochan which might have been described as a form of porridge made from oatmeal and water.
8
It was looked upon by travellers as being the food of the vulgar.
In the bad years
9
We are told that as late as the 1750s, the poor people could seldom afford meat and white bread was hardly seen. They lived on milk, cheese, kail, herring, barley, rye and oatmeal and in bad years they went very short of food.
10
It would be somewhat specialised to talk about oatmeal in isolation and the mention of barley reminds us that barley mills were not in common use until the year 1742 and they were unknown in the Highlands until the close of he century.
11
But great improvements were being made in the middle of the eighteenth century and girnalls were built to store the grain to supply their goats and to feed the brew house where the ale was made.
12
Johnson remarked that oatmeal is “a grain which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.”
13
While we have moved from a position where oatmeal is the only identifying characteristic of Scottish food, there is a danger that caterers all over Scotland allow too many foods incorporating this ingredient to be served thereby continuing the myth.
14
The monster of convenience with which we are burdened today was no less an influence in early times.
15
Oats is a cereal which is able to grow under the most unfavourable conditions and thereby became a convenience food in Scotland.
16
The fact that its use as a food became such a habit in Scotland is probably due to the fact that grass grows so plentiful there that the competition for oats between beast and man is less keen than in other countries with poorer pastures, where horses require the whole crop of oats.
17
I have only given a brief account of some reasons for “oat culture” as one writer has put it, which “still ordains the Scotsman’s porridge and his biscuit confectionery”. However, we can progress to look at another ancient Scottish food and some of the background to it. Let us move on to the potato.
Document Published
18
There was a document published in 1683 which may prove that the potato’s earliest mention in Scotland was a few years prior to that date.
19
Alternative opinion is that the potato was the basic food in the 1740s and filled the stomachs of two-thirds of the people by the end of the same century.
20
A writer by the name of Douglas in 1798 held that “potatoes found their way into this country some years before turnips; through I cannot learn that they were planted, except with a spade, till the year 1772 or 1773”.
21
Not only can we see that there is some variation between the views on the introduction of the potato but the early nutritional opinion varied also.
22
A writer in 1891 said that the Highlander living mainly on oatmeal, requires a very much smaller weight of potatoes that an Irishman who requires for his support 10-11lb of potatoes daily!
23
A more modern writer, however, has commented that the baggage carts of distress always contained the potato and that its favourite location was in the poor regions such as the desolate islands such as the Hebrides.
24
When we couple this information with what was said concerning oatmeal there is the danger of concluding that the diet in former times was terribly monotonous.
25
Up to a certain level of society and up to a certain time in history this is probably quite true. But the same comments must apply to elsewhere in the United Kingdome, in Europe and in places much farther afield.
26
The advance of technology has removed the clouds over our dietary horizon and the onset of the agricultural revolution is an interesting study in itself.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - o-O-0
As a further illustration of the extent of early Scottish gastronomy, here is a minor article by someone else. It was based on my research. References for items mentioned were not appropriate in the magazine. Three footnotes have been added in 2009. Paragraph numbers continue from the previous paper.
1
This is my earliest reference relating to the Auld Alliance between Scotland and France. There were many influences on Scotland's gastronomy.
The word "lums" is in its possessive form lum's
and the menu item now might be "Portions of chimney's salmon" where lums reminds us that sides of salmon were hung in chimneys to give the first and long-continued form of smoked salmon.
"Reek" is a later and different form of "smoke". To this day, we wish each other well by saying "Lang (long) may yer (your) lum reek.". Edinburgh was known as "Auld (old) reekie" in the days of wood and coal fires when the city was filled with smoke.
2
nychtys - night's (nicht's in modern Scots informal speech)
Scalcks - ancient word leaving us scaill - to depart
deochys-an-doris - in moderns Scots - deoch-an-doris ... originally - stirrup-cup
To read more about this including a well-known [in the UK] song go to the foot of the lower panel after clicking
http://gastronomyofscotland.blogspot.com/
The "Halsum Sanctys Gylys Wyne" can be explained as Haleseome (strong and hearty) sanctuary-giving, caring wine where caring comes from the same root as gillie - a manservant. The gillie, later, was more often the laird's gamekeeper.
3
"In the sixteenth century, a mixture of oatmeal and water was carried by shepherds; brose resulted from the agitation of the mixture as they climbed the hills." (Hartley 1954).
Hartley, Dorothy (1954). Food in England. London: MacDonald. p. 676.
Athol Brose in those times was the uncooked brose mixed with whisky and honey. Modern recipes call for boiling water or milk to be mixed into the brose. It would be rare today to consume Athol Brose made with Claret (red Burgundy wine).
.
If you require references for items mentioned, please contact me at
avrf23@dsl.pipex.com
There is a long history of Scottish cookery and oatmeal has formed part of it. But with all that there is available in the way of food-stuffs today there is no reason to perpetuate the myth of oatmeal.
2
It seems to be presumed that the Scottish diet began and ended with oatmeal up to the end of the nineteenth century and possibly in the early decades of the twentieth.
This is not so.
3
Oatmeal was an important characteristic but was by no means anything more than a staple component.
4
Today, bread is the United Kingdom’s staple but it would be unfair to accuse it of dominating the diet.
5
I will confine myself to a brief history. The earliest reference draws attention to the fact that at one time, oatmeal was rather a luxury to the ordinary person in the fifteenth century,
6
Henryson was a poet born about 1425 and who died around 1500. His comment was that in bad years the people did not have oatmeal every day. When it was available, it was necessary to mix it with a cheaper food such as rye meal.
7
Perhaps a hundred or so years later, the amount of flesh that was eaten was still low and the ordinary diet included butter and cheese from the farm. A common dish was brochan which might have been described as a form of porridge made from oatmeal and water.
8
It was looked upon by travellers as being the food of the vulgar.
In the bad years
9
We are told that as late as the 1750s, the poor people could seldom afford meat and white bread was hardly seen. They lived on milk, cheese, kail, herring, barley, rye and oatmeal and in bad years they went very short of food.
10
It would be somewhat specialised to talk about oatmeal in isolation and the mention of barley reminds us that barley mills were not in common use until the year 1742 and they were unknown in the Highlands until the close of he century.
11
But great improvements were being made in the middle of the eighteenth century and girnalls were built to store the grain to supply their goats and to feed the brew house where the ale was made.
12
Johnson remarked that oatmeal is “a grain which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.”
13
While we have moved from a position where oatmeal is the only identifying characteristic of Scottish food, there is a danger that caterers all over Scotland allow too many foods incorporating this ingredient to be served thereby continuing the myth.
14
The monster of convenience with which we are burdened today was no less an influence in early times.
15
Oats is a cereal which is able to grow under the most unfavourable conditions and thereby became a convenience food in Scotland.
16
The fact that its use as a food became such a habit in Scotland is probably due to the fact that grass grows so plentiful there that the competition for oats between beast and man is less keen than in other countries with poorer pastures, where horses require the whole crop of oats.
17
I have only given a brief account of some reasons for “oat culture” as one writer has put it, which “still ordains the Scotsman’s porridge and his biscuit confectionery”. However, we can progress to look at another ancient Scottish food and some of the background to it. Let us move on to the potato.
Document Published
18
There was a document published in 1683 which may prove that the potato’s earliest mention in Scotland was a few years prior to that date.
19
Alternative opinion is that the potato was the basic food in the 1740s and filled the stomachs of two-thirds of the people by the end of the same century.
20
A writer by the name of Douglas in 1798 held that “potatoes found their way into this country some years before turnips; through I cannot learn that they were planted, except with a spade, till the year 1772 or 1773”.
21
Not only can we see that there is some variation between the views on the introduction of the potato but the early nutritional opinion varied also.
22
A writer in 1891 said that the Highlander living mainly on oatmeal, requires a very much smaller weight of potatoes that an Irishman who requires for his support 10-11lb of potatoes daily!
23
A more modern writer, however, has commented that the baggage carts of distress always contained the potato and that its favourite location was in the poor regions such as the desolate islands such as the Hebrides.
24
When we couple this information with what was said concerning oatmeal there is the danger of concluding that the diet in former times was terribly monotonous.
25
Up to a certain level of society and up to a certain time in history this is probably quite true. But the same comments must apply to elsewhere in the United Kingdome, in Europe and in places much farther afield.
26
The advance of technology has removed the clouds over our dietary horizon and the onset of the agricultural revolution is an interesting study in itself.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - o-O-0
As a further illustration of the extent of early Scottish gastronomy, here is a minor article by someone else. It was based on my research. References for items mentioned were not appropriate in the magazine. Three footnotes have been added in 2009. Paragraph numbers continue from the previous paper.
Although carrots were available at the time, broccoli was not. Shortbread as it is known today probably went under a different name. Port may have been available.
Scottish Menu of 1483 for Edinburgh Guild Dinner
By Reg Baker
Caterer and Hotelkeeper
November 3rd, 1983
27
There seems to be no limit to the ingenuity which can be employed to devise menu wording for special occasions. In this week’s selection it extends to reviving words which went out of use 500 years ago.
28
The occasion was the 500th anniversary dinner of the Incorporation of Hammermen of Edinburgh, a craft guild of armourers, goldsmiths, blacksmiths, cutlers and other metal workers set up in the 15th century to protect their trades against the inroads of foreign workers from France, Belgium and Holland.
29
Research for the menu was by Alan Harrison, Head of Faculty of Community Studies, Canterbury College of Technology, whose book Gastronomy has recently been published and who is now writing a social history of Scottish food and hospitality from 1500 to the present.
30
He tells me that his research to produce an authentic menu of 1483 involved tracing words which had vanished from the language by 1700. the word “tattys” he had to take out of its chronological context, since potatoes were not seen in Scotland until much later, nor, of course, were broccoli and coffee available in the 15th Century.
31
In the menu below, Alan Harrison has interspersed modern translations.
32
Among the drinks, Halsum Sanctys Gylys Wyne, refers to a Bordeaux wine or claret which was then the usual drink at Scottish parties. A “deochan’-doris” is a farewell drink, or stirrup cup.
Merchants’ Hall
Edinburgh
Porcyouns of lums saumonyss [1]
(smoked salmon mousse)
Rych scrumplie lythy meetys
(Game pie)
Brocolli
Vevvys
(Baby carrots)
Tattys an chys
(Jacket potatoes with cheese)
Wardonys un syryp rid wyne
(pears in red wine)
Shortbread
Scottys Chys
Mashhum Banneoksys bapys
(Scottish cheese and baps)
Drinks
Muscadet 1981
Halsum Sanctys Gylys Wyne
Port
Nychtys Scalcks Deochys-an-dorys [2]
Athol brose clairyt [3]
33
Occasion: Dinner to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the granting of the Charter of Incorporation to the Hammermen of Edinburgh
Caterers: Crawfords Catering, of Edinburgh.
Menu compiled by Alan Harrison
Chef: Celso Ravizza
------------------------------o-O-o-
34
In 1983, research was much more difficult. If you would lke more on the Hammermen go to:
http://www.hammermen.org/archive.html
Notes1
This is my earliest reference relating to the Auld Alliance between Scotland and France. There were many influences on Scotland's gastronomy.
The word "lums" is in its possessive form lum's
and the menu item now might be "Portions of chimney's salmon" where lums reminds us that sides of salmon were hung in chimneys to give the first and long-continued form of smoked salmon.
"Reek" is a later and different form of "smoke". To this day, we wish each other well by saying "Lang (long) may yer (your) lum reek.". Edinburgh was known as "Auld (old) reekie" in the days of wood and coal fires when the city was filled with smoke.
2
nychtys - night's (nicht's in modern Scots informal speech)
Scalcks - ancient word leaving us scaill - to depart
deochys-an-doris - in moderns Scots - deoch-an-doris ... originally - stirrup-cup
To read more about this including a well-known [in the UK] song go to the foot of the lower panel after clicking
http://gastronomyofscotland.blogspot.com/
The "Halsum Sanctys Gylys Wyne" can be explained as Haleseome (strong and hearty) sanctuary-giving, caring wine where caring comes from the same root as gillie - a manservant. The gillie, later, was more often the laird's gamekeeper.
3
"In the sixteenth century, a mixture of oatmeal and water was carried by shepherds; brose resulted from the agitation of the mixture as they climbed the hills." (Hartley 1954).
Hartley, Dorothy (1954). Food in England. London: MacDonald. p. 676.
Athol Brose in those times was the uncooked brose mixed with whisky and honey. Modern recipes call for boiling water or milk to be mixed into the brose. It would be rare today to consume Athol Brose made with Claret (red Burgundy wine).
.
If you require references for items mentioned, please contact me at
avrf23@dsl.pipex.com
Index
Athol Brose - p32 footnote 3
barley mills seldom seen until around 1742 - p10
bread, white - hardly seen even in the 1750s - p9
brochan - porridge and water - p7
brose - watered-down, uncooked porridge - p32 note 3
deochan-doris - stirrup cup - Hammermen menu - p32
Deochys-an-dorys, Nichtys Scalks - 1483 menu - p32
Edinburgh Hammermen - menu of 1483 - p28
girnalls - grain stores in Scotland - p11
Halsum Sanctys Gylys Wyne in 1483 -p32
Hammermen of Edinburgh - 500th anniv dinner - p28
Johnson, Samuel - oatmeal given to horses - p12
Lums saumonys - smoked salmon - 1483 - p32
mashlum Banneoksys bapys - 1483 menu - p32
oat culture ordains the Scotsman's porridge - p17
oatmeal - the food of the vulgar - p8
oatmeal a luxury in the fifteenth century - pp5 & 6
oatmeal identifying characteristic of Scots food - p13
potatato first planted in Scotland in 1772 - p20
potato - favourite location in the Hebrides - p23
salmon, smoked in 1483 - p32 footnote 1
scrumplie lythy meetys - 1483 menu - p32
wardonys un sirop rid wyne - 1483 menu - p32