Scottish cuisine facts for kids

Scottish cuisine is all about the special cooking styles, traditions, and recipes from Scotland. It has its own unique dishes, but it also shares many things with British and wider European cuisine. This is because of influences from different places and times, both old and new.

Scotland has amazing natural ingredients. These include vegetables, fruits, oats, fish and other seafood, dairy products, and game. These ingredients are the main reason for traditional Scottish cooking. It often focuses on simple dishes with not too many spices, as expensive spices from other countries were rare long ago.

A Look Back at Scottish Food History

Scotland has a mild climate and lots of wild animals. This has given its people plenty of food for thousands of years. The many types of seafood found near the coasts helped the first people survive. Later, farming began, and simple oats quickly became a main food.

In the past, meat was very expensive for most people. Even for those who worked on farms, meat was eaten only sometimes. Instead, people relied on products from their animals, like milk and cheese.

You can still see this in traditional Scottish food today, with its focus on dairy. A typical meal might have been a thick soup (called pottage) made from herbs and roots. If they had it, some meat (often seafood) or broth would be added for flavor. Bread, eggs, cheese, or seaweed were also eaten when possible. In some coastal areas, pigs were thought to bring bad luck. So, people there didn't keep or eat pigs until the early 1900s.

Like many places in Europe long ago, Scotland was a feudal state. This meant there were rules about what people could hunt and eat. In the homes of rich lords, you might find venison (deer meat), boar, different birds, and expensive spices like pepper, cloves, and cinnamon. They also ate meats from farm animals.

Before Sir Walter Raleigh brought the potato to Britain, Scots mainly ate bread made from oats or barley. Wheat was hard to grow because of the damp weather. People were very careful not to waste food. Old rubbish piles show that almost every part of an animal was used.

People in Scotland used to move around a lot. Because of this, they needed food that wouldn't spoil quickly. It was common to carry a small bag of oatmeal. This could be easily turned into a simple porridge or oatcakes using a girdle (a flat cooking pan). Scotland's national dish, haggis, might have started in a similar way. It's made from a small amount of offal (animal organs) or less popular meat. This was carried in a cheap bag, like a sheep's or pig's stomach. Some also think that Norse invaders brought this dish. They needed a way to keep food fresh during their long trips from Scandinavia.

French Cooking Influences

During the Late Middle Ages and early modern era, French cooking became important in Scotland. This happened because of the "Auld Alliance" (a long friendship between Scotland and France). It was especially true when Mary, Queen of Scots ruled. When Mary came back to Scotland, she brought French cooks with her. They are believed to have greatly changed Scottish cooking and even added some unique French words to Scottish food terms.

French Words Used in Scottish Cooking

Ashet – from assiette (French for plate), meaning a large serving platter.
Cannel – from cannelle, meaning cinnamon.
Collop – from escalope, meaning a thin slice of meat.
Gigot – from gigot, meaning a leg of mutton (sheep meat).
Howtowdie – from hétoudeau (Old French), meaning a chicken for boiling.
Syboe – from ciboule, meaning a spring onion.

As large country estates grew and land was fenced off in the 1700s, harvesting Scotland's natural food became a big business. Railways helped food reach more places. For example, Scottish grouse (a type of bird) became very popular in English restaurants soon after the "Glorious Twelfth" (the start of the grouse hunting season).

Food in the 1900s and 2000s

Like other parts of the United Kingdom, Scotland had less variety of food in the 1900s. Food rationing during the two World Wars and large-scale farming limited what people could buy. However, foods from the British Empire and other countries did bring new tastes to Scotland.

In the 1800s and 1900s, many people moved to Scotland from Italy. Later, more people came from the Middle East, India, and Pakistan. These cultures have had a huge impact on Scottish cooking. Italians brought back the idea of fresh ingredients. People from other countries introduced new spices. Since the European Union grew in the early 2000s, more people from Eastern Europe, especially Poland, have moved to Scotland. Many special restaurants and food shops for these new immigrants have opened in bigger towns and cities.

Traditional Scottish Dishes and Foods

These are some of the traditional dishes and foods from Scotland.

Cereal Dishes

Brose – a simple, uncooked porridge.
Porridge – a classic breakfast made from oats.
Sowans – a sour porridge made from oats.
Skirlie – oatmeal fried with fat, onions, and seasonings.

Soups

Cullen skink – a thick, creamy soup made with smoked haddock, potato, and onion.
Baud bree – a broth made from hare meat.
Cock-a-leekie soup – a soup with leeks, chicken stock, and often rice or barley.
Game soup – soup made with meat from wild animals.
Hairst bree (or hotch potch) – a one-pot meal, usually with lamb or mutton and seasonal vegetables.
Partan bree – a seafood soup with crab and rice.
Powsowdie – a Scottish sheep's head broth or soup.
Scotch broth – a hearty soup with barley, lamb or mutton, and root vegetables.

Fish and Seafood

Arbroath smokies – a type of smoked haddock, famous from the town of Arbroath in Angus.
Cabbie claw (cabelew) – young cod in a white sauce with chopped egg white.
Crappit heid – a fish head stuffed with oats, suet (fat), and liver.
Eyemouth pale – cold-smoked haddock with a light golden color and a mild smoky taste.
Finnan haddie – another type of cold-smoked haddock.
Kippers – a whole herring, split open, salted, and cold-smoked.
Kedgeree – a dish with rice, smoked haddock, eggs, parsley, and butter or cream.
Rollmops – pickled herring, rolled up with onion, gherkin, or green olive.
Smoked salmon – salmon that has been cured and smoked.
Tatties and herring – potatoes served with herring fish.
Fish and chips – a popular meal of battered fish and fried potatoes.

Meat, Poultry, and Game

Ayrshire bacon – a special type of cured bacon.
Black pudding, red pudding, and white pudding – savory puddings made with different meats, fats, and cereals.
Boiled gigot – a boiled leg of mutton or lamb.
Forfar bridie – a pastry filled with meat and onion.
Chicken tikka masala – roasted marinated chicken in a curry sauce (popular in Scotland due to immigration).
Collops – thick slices of meat cut across the grain.
Haggis – a savory pudding with sheep's pluck (heart, liver, and lungs) and other ingredients.
Howtowdie with Drappit eggs – a young hen served with poached eggs.
Kilmeny Kail – a dish with rabbit, bacon, and greens.
Mince and tatties – minced beef with potatoes, onions, and often carrots.
Mutton ham – ham made from lamb meat.
Pottit heid (brawn) – a type of head cheese.
Potted hough – another type of head cheese.
Reestit mutton – salted and dried mutton.
Roast Aberdeen Angus beef – famous Scottish beef.
Roast haunch of venison – roasted deer meat.
Roast grouse – roasted grouse bird.
Roast woodcock/snipe – roasted woodcock or snipe birds.
Solan goose or guga (gannet) – a bird eaten in the Western Isles.
Scotch pie – a double-crust meat pie, usually with mutton.
Lorne sausage – a square-shaped sausage, often served for breakfast.
Stovies – slow-stewed potatoes, often with onions and meat.

Vegetables

Clapshot – a mix of mashed potatoes, swede turnips, chives, and butter.
Curly kail – a type of kale.
Neeps and tatties – mashed swede turnip and potatoes.
Rumbledethumps – a traditional dish from the Scottish Borders with potato, cabbage, and onion.

Fruits

Blaeberries – similar to blueberries, but not exactly the same.
Raspberries
Slaes – small, dark berries.
Strawberries
Tayberries – a cross between a raspberry and a blackberry.

Arbroath smokies

Cullen skink (right), served with bread

Dundee cake

Dunlop cheese

Haggis on a platter at a Burns supper

A dish from the Scottish Borders, Rumbledethumps

Scottish Kippers, for sale in Harrods

Dairy Products

Bishop Kennedy – a soft, round, brie-like cheese.
Bonchester – a soft cheese with a white rind.
Caboc – a type of cream cheese.
Crowdie – a soft, fresh cheese made from cow's milk.
Dunlop cheese – a cheese from Dunlop in East Ayrshire.
Gigha – a Dunlop-style cheese made on the isle of Gigha.
Lanark Blue – a rich, blue-veined cheese made from sheep's milk.
Teviotdale cheese – a full-fat, hard cheese made from cow's milk.

Puddings and Desserts

Apple frushie – a type of apple tart.
Burnt cream – a creamy dessert with a hard caramel topping.
Blaeberry pie – a pie made with blaeberries.
Carrageen moss – a milk pudding thickened with seaweed.
Clootie dumpling – a pudding made with flour, breadcrumbs, and dried fruit.
Cranachan – a dessert with cream, raspberries, oats, and whisky.
Hatted kit – a milk pudding.
Marmalade pudding – made with stale bread, dried fruit, marmalade, milk, and eggs.
Stapag, Fuarag – oats mixed with cold water and cold milk, respectively.
Tipsy laird – a trifle dessert made with whisky or Drambuie, custard, and raspberries.

Cakes, Breads, and Sweets

Bannock – a flat, quick bread.
Berwick cockles – white sweets with red stripes.
Black bun – a fruit cake completely covered with pastry.
Butteries/Rowies – savory bread rolls.
Caramel shortbread – shortbread with caramel and milk chocolate.
Deep-fried Mars bar – a Mars bar candy bar, battered and deep-fried.
Drop scones – a type of pancake.
Dundee cake – a rich fruit cake with a distinct flavor.
Edinburgh rock – a soft and crumbly sweet.
Empire biscuit – two shortbread biscuits with jam in between, topped with white icing and a cherry.
Fatty cutties – a griddle cake.
Festy cock – an oatmeal pancake.
Fruit slice or Flies' graveyard – sweet pastries with currants or raisins.
Granny sookers – sour, hard, boiled sweets, also known as pan drops.
Hawick balls – peppermint-flavored boiled sweets.
Jethart Snails – snail-shaped boiled sweets.
Lucky tatties – white fondant sweets with cinnamon.
Moffat toffee – a tangy but sweet toffee.
Morning rolls – airy, chewy bread rolls.
Oatcakes – flatbread similar to a cracker or biscuit.
Pan drops – white, round, boiled sweets with a hard shell and soft middle.
Pan loaf – a loaf of bread baked in a pan or tin.
Petticoat tails – a type of shortbread.
Strippit baws – aniseed-flavored hard boiled sweets.
Plain loaf – traditionally the most common type of bread.
Puff candy – a sugary toffee with a light, sponge-like texture.
Scones – small, baked goods, often eaten with jam and cream.
Scots crumpets – similar to pikelets.
Scottish macaroon – made with a paste of potato and sugar, often with chocolate.
Selkirk bannock, variations include Yetholm bannock – types of flat quick bread.
Shortbread – a classic buttery biscuit.
Soor plooms – sharp-flavored, round, green boiled sweets.
Tablet – a medium-hard, sugary sweet.
Tattie scone (potato scone) – a savory scone made with potato.
Well-fired rolls – a more strongly flavored morning roll.

Preserves and Spreads

Dundee Marmalade – a famous orange marmalade.
Rowan jelly – a jelly made from rowan berries.
Heather honey – honey made from heather flowers.

Scottish Drinks

Alcoholic Drinks (for adults)

Atholl brose

90 shilling ale, 80 shilling ale, 70 shilling ale – types of Scottish beer.
India pale ale – a type of strong, hoppy beer.
Atholl Brose – a drink made with oatmeal brose, honey, whisky, and sometimes cream.
Drambuie – a sweet, golden Scottish liqueur.
Ginger wine – a wine flavored with ginger.
Het pint – hot spiced ale that can have sugar, eggs, and spirits added.
Heather ale – ale flavored with young heather tops.
Scotch ale and beer – types of Scottish beer.
Scotch mist – a cocktail mainly containing whisky.
Whisky – Scotland's famous spirit.

Non-Alcoholic Drinks

Breakfast tea – a common type of tea.
Irn-Bru – a bright orange carbonated soft drink, very popular in Scotland.
Red Kola – a bright red carbonated soft drink.
Sugarelly – a type of licorice candy that can be dissolved in water to make a drink.

Restaurants and Fast Food in Scotland

Recently, Haggis pakoras (haggis in a crispy batter) have become popular in Indian restaurants.

Fast Food Choices

Scotland has seen a rise in fast food since the late 1900s. Fish and chip shops are still very popular. A battered and fried haggis supper is a favorite meal. In the area around Edinburgh, people often put "salt and sauce" on their chip shop meals. This sauce is brown sauce mixed with water and vinegar. However, in Glasgow and other places, this "chippy sauce" is not known. People there prefer ketchup or just salt and vinegar. This often leads to friendly debates between people from different cities!

Places selling pizzas, kebabs, pakoras, and other quick foods have also become very popular. An extreme example of this is the Munchy box, which is a large box filled with different fast foods.

Besides local fast-food places, American-style burger bars like Wimpy came to Scotland in the 1960s. In the 1980s, McDonald's, Burger King, Pizza Hut, and Kentucky Fried Chicken opened. Later, many Subway sandwich shops appeared in the early 2000s. You can also find many Greggs bakeries on Scottish high streets, selling cakes, pastries, and sandwiches, often alongside smaller local bakeries.

Famous Scottish Chefs

Andrew Fairlie
Tom Kitchin
Tom Lewis
Angela Malik
Alan Murchison
Nick Nairn
Gordon Ramsay
Mark Greenaway
Tony Singh
William Curley
James Morton