40 Fun Facts About Scottish Food

Which London store claims to have invented the Scotch egg, a snack with no proven Scottish origin, in 1738?

Fortnum & Mason claims to have invented the Scotch egg at Piccadilly in 1738. A Yorkshire account instead says it began in Whitby, covered in fish paste rather than sausage meat.

Haggis hurling, a Highland games event whose record throw was 66 metres in 2011, began in 1977 as what?

Haggis hurling was a practical joke: publicist Robin Dunseath admitted in 2004 that he invented it for the 1977 Gathering of the Clans in Edinburgh. Lorne Coltart set the 217-foot record at Milngavie in 2011.

Which dish did a 2009 Scottish Daily Express survey find a third of Scots eat every week?

Mince and tatties beat smoked salmon, haggis and Scotch pies to the top of the poll, a legacy of its years as a school-canteen staple. Cooks thicken it with flour, oatmeal or cornflour.

Buckfast, the caffeinated tonic wine notorious in Scotland, was first made by monks in which English county?

Devon's Buckfast Abbey monks first made the tonic wine in the 1890s, selling it as a medicine with the slogan 'Three small glasses a day, for good health and lively blood'. The green UK bottle is 15% alcohol.

Why did A.G. Barr have to rename its Iron Brew drink as Irn-Bru in 1946?

Labels had to be literally true under a 1946 law, and Iron Brew contained little iron and was not brewed. Rivals still sell generic 'Iron Brew', while only Barr can use the trademark spelling.

Which north-east harbour town's Haven Chip Bar claims it served the first deep-fried Mars bar in 1992?

Stonehaven's John Davie claims he invented the deep-fried Mars bar in 1992 at the Haven, now the Carron Fish Bar, which hangs a banner calling itself its birthplace. Mars said only that it was the most unusual way of enjoying the bar.

A decorated shortbread called 'dreaming bread' was traditionally broken over whose head at a doorway?

A new bride had the infar-cake, or dreaming bread, broken over her head on entering her new home. Shortbread was a luxury kept for weddings, Christmas and Hogmanay.

Scottish tablet is boiled from butter and condensed milk like fudge; how does the finished sweet differ?

It is harder and grainier: tablet is boiled to the soft-ball stage and allowed to crystallise, where fudge stays soft. F. Marian McNeill traced tablet to Lady Grisell Baillie's household book of the early 1700s.

Lees' macaroon bar was born in 1931 when John Lees rolled a failed fondant bar in what?

Coconut rescued the bar: Lees had failed to make a smooth chocolate fondant above his family's Coatbridge shop, so he coated it in coconut as an experiment. Scottish macaroon fondant is traditionally a potato paste, not almonds.

Which Scottish snack, a favourite of RAF V-bomber crews, was banned in 1965 after one exploded in a cockpit?

Tunnock's Teacake marshmallow domes expanded at altitude, and an unwrapped one burst over the instrument panel, prompting the ban. Dancers dressed as teacakes opened the 2014 Commonwealth Games; the RAF cleared them to fly in 2025.

Which prime minister sent a rumbledethumps recipe, calling it his favourite food, to a school cookbook?

Gordon Brown sent his recipe to Donaldson's School for the Deaf in January 2009, championing the Borders dish of potato and cabbage. It is Scotland's cousin of Irish colcannon and English bubble and squeak.

Lorne sausage, the square slice of a full Scottish breakfast, differs from ordinary sausages in lacking what?

A casing is absent: the meat, rusk and spices are packed into a rectangular tin and sliced, so the 'sausage' holds its shape only by being tightly packed. It was advertised in 1892, before the comedian Tommy Lorne was famous.

Why is the soft top crust of a Scotch pie set about a centimetre below the pastry rim?

To hold beans, mash or gravy: the sunken lid makes a well for toppings, traditionally eaten with a cup of Bovril at football grounds. Scottish Bakers have crowned a World Champion Scotch pie every year since 1999.

Which dried fruit did the original cock-a-leekie recipe add, and traditionalists still julienne as a garnish?

Prunes went into the original cock-a-leekie, a leek-and-chicken soup that probably began in France before Scots swapped in leeks. Its first recipe was printed in 1598, though the name took until the 18th century to appear.

Scotch broth, built on mutton or beef, root vegetables and split peas, takes its body from which grain?

Barley is the backbone, earning the soup its other name of barley broth. Maria Rundell's early-19th-century 'Scotch Mutton Broth' simmered mutton neck for hours before adding pre-soaked Scotch barley.

Which Moray fishing village names Scotland's smoked-haddock soup and hosts its World Championships?

Cullen skink is a soup of smoked haddock, milk and potato, and the village stages the Cullen Skink World Championships each year. Old recipe books specify Finnan haddie, the cold-smoked haddock of Findon, as the fish to use.

The Arbroath smokie, a PGI-protected smoked haddock, is said to have originated in which nearby fishing village?

Auchmithie, three miles north-east of Arbroath, claims the smokie via a legend of a store fire that cooked barrels of salted haddock. Its fisherfolk brought the recipe to Arbroath when the council offered them land in the late 1800s.

Stornoway black pudding, PGI-protected since 2013 against 'impostor puddings', comes from which island group?

The Western Isles won protection in May 2013 after puddings labelled Stornoway were being made elsewhere. The recipe uses beef suet, oatmeal and blood, with the Scottish oatmeal giving its rough texture.

Legend says Dundee cake was first made for Mary, Queen of Scots because she disliked which cake ingredient?

Glacé cherries were what Mary supposedly refused, so the cake was topped with blanched almonds instead. Keiller's marmalade firm mass-produced it in Dundee and is credited with coining the name.

Janet Keiller's 1797 refinement of Dundee marmalade, thought to aid digestion, is credited with adding what?

Thin strips of peel made Keiller's the 'chip' marmalade, and the peel was believed to help digestion. Legend starts it with a storm-bound Spanish ship's cheap cargo of bitter Seville oranges, bought on a whim by her son James.

Partan bree, a north-east fishing-port soup, takes its name from the Scots and Gaelic word for which shellfish?

Crab is 'partan', and 'bree' is Scots for a brew or soup; rice thickens the dish. It is traditionally enriched with milk or cream.

Legend says the 1st Earl of Atholl ended a 1475 Highland rebellion by spiking what with Atholl brose?

The rebel leader's well was laced with the whisky, honey and oatmeal drink, and the inebriated enemy was captured. Atholl brose is also an alternative name for the dessert cranachan.

Which soft Highland cheese is recommended before a ceilidh because it supposedly softens the effects of whisky?

Crowdie, a crofters' cheese of soured skimmed milk with roots in Viking or even Pictish times, is eaten with oatcakes before the dancing. Mixed with cream and toasted oats it became the dessert cranachan.

An apocryphal tale says 'Sweetie Sandy' Ferguson discovered Edinburgh rock, the soft crumbly sweet, how?

Tasting a long-forgotten tray of desiccated sweets, by the story, revealed the crumbly texture that made his fortune. Alexander Ferguson learned the trade in Glasgow and retired rich to his native Doune.

Reestit mutton, salted meat served with bannocks, is regarded as the national dish of which island group?

Shetland claims reestit mutton, brined with salt and sometimes saltpetre, as its 'national dish'. It is usually boiled into a soup with tatties and served with bannocks, a fixture of the Up Helly Aa fire festival.

Black bun, the pastry-wrapped fruit cake now eaten at Hogmanay, was originally tied to which festival?

Twelfth Night was its original occasion, a custom brought back by Mary, Queen of Scots from France and ended by the Reformation. It has been called a much bigger Garibaldi biscuit.

A clootie dumpling is simmered for hours wrapped in a 'cloot'; what is a cloot?

A floured cloth holds the suet, dried-fruit and spice dough while it simmers in a big pan of water. 'Clootie dumpling' is also a nickname for the Scottish National Party's logo.

Scotland's black Angus cattle were once nicknamed 'doddies' and 'humlies', Scots words meaning what?

Hornless is what both words mean: the breed is naturally polled, and William McCombie of Tillyfour shaped it from the 1820s. Overseas it split into the American Angus and the Red Angus.

The rowie, a salty, lard-rich roll made so fishermen's bread would last a fortnight at sea, comes from which city?

Aberdeen harbour's fishermen, by legend, needed bread that stayed fresh for two weeks, and the fat gave quick energy. Purists object to commercial bakers swapping the butter-and-lard mix for palm oil.

The Golden Spurtle, top prize at the World Porridge Making Championship in Carrbridge, is modelled on what?

A wooden stirring rod dating from the 15th century, the spurtle stirs porridge without the dragging effect of a spoon, so it stays lump-free. Championship entries may contain only oatmeal, water and salt.

Samuel Johnson's dictionary said oats 'support the people' in Scotland but are generally given to what in England?

Horses ate England's oats, the 1755 entry jibed, while oatcakes have fed Scotland since at least the Roman invasion of AD 43. Oats were the staple long before the potato arrived.

Scottish ales called 60-, 70- and 80-shilling take their names from a 19th-century method of doing what?

Invoicing beer by strength gave Light, Heavy and Export their 60/-, 70/- and 80/- labels, read as 'sixty shilling'. 'Scotch ale' was first a label for strong ales exported from Edinburgh in the 18th century.

Belhaven, Scotland's oldest surviving brewery with a claimed start in 1719, brews in which East Lothian town?

Dunbar levied a tax on its brewers in 1719, and Belhaven's site just outside the burgh limits may explain that founding date. Greene King bought the brewery for £187 million in 2005.

BrewDog, founded in 2007 by James Watt and Martin Dickie, first brewed in which north-east fishing town?

Fraserburgh hosted the first BrewDog brewery until production moved to nearby Ellon in 2012. Co-founder Dickie had earlier helped create Thornbridge's flagship beer, Jaipur.

Glayva, the whisky liqueur first sold in Leith in 1947, takes its name from a Gaelic phrase meaning what?

Very good is 'glè mhath', the verdict merchant Ronald Morrison attached to his blend of whisky, honey, tangerines and spices. Whyte and Mackay makes it today.

Galashiels' boiled sweets and its town motto recall English raiders killed in 1337 while doing what?

Eating unripe plums was what the raiding party was caught doing, so 'Soor Plooms' became the motto and the sweet. A Border pipe tune of 1700 is called 'Soor Plooms of Galashiels'.

A 'munchy box', the Scottish takeaway heap of kebab meat, pakora, chips and more, is served in what?

A pizza box holds the lot, and Glasgow City Council has analysed its nutrition to push shops toward smaller, healthier versions. Chips or fried rice are invariable; a token salad sometimes appears.

Lanark Blue, first made near Carnwath by Humphrey Errington in 1985, is a blue cheese from which animal's milk?

Sheep from Errington's own flock supply the milk for one of Britain's first blue ewe's-milk cheeses since the Middle Ages. Penicillium roqueforti gives it the veining.

Jethart Snails, Jedburgh's snail-shaped boiled sweets, reputedly come from a recipe given to a local baker by whom?

A French prisoner of war held during the Napoleonic Wars supposedly passed the recipe to a Jedburgh baker. The Borders town's other delicacy is the Jethart pear.

The earliest known written haggis recipes, from around 1430, come from a verse cookbook of which English county?

Lancashire's Liber Cure Cocorum gives 'hagese', and the dish was common in English cookery before Burns's 1786 poem made it Scotland's own. The name may come from Old Icelandic 'hoggva', to chop.